Sadly Over-hyped

Amateur movie with Big budget

The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

"Hearts Bead Loud" (2018 release; 91 min.) brings the story of Frank Fisher and his daughter Sam. As the movie opens, we see Frank in his Red Hook Records store in Brooklyn, but there is hardly any foot traffic. Meanwhile Sam is in summer school to prep for her upcoming pre-med college studies at UCLA. (No word on Sam's mom.) During an impromptu jamming session< Frank and Sam write a song called "Hearts Beat Loud" that actually sounds pretty good. When Franks sarcastically asks Sam what their band should be named, Sam shrieks "We're not a 'band', dad!", and shortly thereafter Frank puts "Hearts Beat Loud" by We're Not a Band on Spotify... At this point we're 10 min. into the movie, but to tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from director (and co-writer) Brett Haley, who before this brought us the excellent Sam Elliott vehicle "The Hero". Here, Haley brings us a wonderful "little" film that turns out to cover a lot more ground than what you might expect from the movie's opening premise. Of course, there is the father-daughter relationship, but there is, among others, also the pending start of Sam's college career at UCLA (yes, all the way on the other side of the country), which looms larger by the minute. The beauty of this film is that the characters are fleshed out, and we are dealing with real people, not some condensed "dumbed-down" characters. The movie sports a veritable all-star cast, none more so than Nick Offermann, who shines as the doubting ex-musician/record store owner/proud father. Sam is play by up-and-coming Kiersey Clemons in a breakout performance. Ted Danson has a small but pivotal supporting role as the bar owner/Frank's best friend. I can't recall having seen Dawson in such a wonderful performance in many years. Other supporting roles include Blythe Danner (as Frank's mom), Toni Collette (as Frank's landlord and possible romantic interest), and last, but certainly not least, Sasha Lane (as Sam's possible romantic interest), who came out of nowhere in 2016 and astonished us all in "American Honey". The original music and songs are courtesy of American movie composer Keegan DeWitt."Hearts Beat Loud" premiered at this year's Sundance film festival to positive buzz and critical acclaim. The movie opened this weekend at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The (discount) Tuesday evening screening where I saw this at was attended poorly (5 people, including myself). That's a darn shame. It is no coincidence that this movie is currently rated 90% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Hopefully the movie will find a wider audience when it premieres on other platforms. If you are in the mood for a sweet lil' film that you will easily identify with emotionally, I'd readily recommend you seek this out in the theater (if you still can), on VOD, or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray. For me there is no doubt: "Hearts Beat Loud" is a WINNER.

I enjoyed this movie top to bottom. The characters, the story and especially the music are wonderful and enjoyable! This movie is for anyone and it will leave you with a smile on your face!!!!

'HEARTS BEAT LOUD': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)A comedy-drama music film about a record store owner and his daughter who experience the fame of having a song they wrote and recorded together go viral. It was directed by Brett Haley, and it was written by Haley and Marc Basch (the same duo performed the same duties on 2017's 'THE HERO'). The movie stars Nick Offerman, Kiersey Clemons, Toni Collette, Sasha Lane, Ted Danson and Blythe Danner. It's received mostly positive reviews from critics, and it's playing in indie theaters now (like Portland). I really enjoyed it. Frank Fisher (Offerman) has been running a record store for 17-years now, but since his landlady, Leslie (Collette), recently raised the rent, he can no longer afford to keep his dying business open. Frank's wife died in a bicycling accident several years earlier, and it's been really hard on their daughter Sam (Clemons). Sam is falling in love with Rose (Lane), as she also prepares to leave for college (to become a doctor). Frank and Sam record a song together they wrote one night, and Frank posts it to Spotify. The song becomes a huge hit, and this changes the father and daughter's lives for the good. The best part of the film is it's music. The songs the father and daughter write and perform together are really catchy and enjoyable. The comedy and drama of the film is also really well written, and Offerman is good in the lead. The movie is also another great film about record stores, and music lovers, it's even a little reminiscent (to me) of 'HIGH FIDELITY' at times. I really enjoyed it, mostly because of the music.

A man manages to survive for 17 years by owning a vinyl record store in a small town in the NYC area. Previous to this, he had a band, and was a rock star wannabe. As his daughter is about to move across the country to UCLA, he coaxes her into their weekly jam session, records one of her songs, surreptitiously uploads it to a social media platform, and finds it becomes an internet hit.So now his rock star dream revives, as he tries to talk his daughter into deferring UCLA to become a band with him. A factor in his favor is that his daughter would also be leaving her girlfriend in going to UCLA.This was the closing gala at the Inside Out LGBT film festival. The father-daughter relationship dominated, while the lesbian relationship was incidental. So it makes a good gala film, as it is straight-friendly. But I am not convinced - maybe if the father was selling CDs, not vinyl records, he could have lasted until today.