Hearts Beat Loud

2018 movie

Rating: 14/20

Plot: A father and a daughter who will soon travel across the country to start college connect through music.

Hearts beat loudly.

As predictable as a pop song, this one hits exactly all the beats that you'd expect, but it does it well enough to not have that predictability get in its way. It's the Ringo Starr of movies, serviceable and maybe even likable if it starts writing gems referencing 8-armed horticulturists. The narrative takes you to expected places, but knowing that they're coming didn't hurt the impact of scene where the band--We Are Not a Band--play a gig, for example. I may have even teared up a little bit, and that's despite knowing the exact shots that would be used or the exact characters who would enter the scene and react in that exact way.

A movie about a cool middle-aged record-store owning dad who forms a band with his daughter better get the music right. The songs that We Are Not a Band aren't horrible, and Kiersey Clemons, who plays the daughter, has some chops. Nick Offerman, assuming he's actually playing the instruments here and I was fooled by movie magic, looks legit enough to make me buy the whole thing, too. But I'm more concerned with the writers knowing their stuff when creating a character who's owned a record store for 17 years. I was happy with references to Brian Eno and Animal Collective, and I had a giant grin on my face in a scene where Offerman is playing Ween's "Ocean Man." The part that made me tear up a little was when the daughter held up a copy of Tom Waits' Raindogs and said, "You can't sell this for three dollars, Dad." It broke my heart.

There's also a Raindogs visual reference in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, but this isn't the time or place to talk about that.

Nick Offerman brings his usual likability, and I definitely bought him as a cool dad here. I'm not sure he nails the drama exactly. It's also nice to see Ted Danson behind a bar again, and it's nice to see Toni Collette in a 2018 movie where she's not being harassed by demons.