Tuesday, July 3, 2018

SHE'S LEAVING HOME: a review of "Hearts Beat Loud"

"HEARTS BEAT LOUD"
Screenplay Written by Brett Haley & Marc Basch
Directed by Brett Haley
**** (four stars)
RATED PG 13

What an exquisite film this is. And furthermore, what a marvel it was that it was even made at all.

In our era of sequels, prequels, remakes, reboots an re-imaginings, it has increasingly become a minor miracle when a film about the lives and times of real people existing within a very real world finds itself made at all. Films like those, the so-called "small films," are simply just not the ones that break box office records or make seismic shifts within the pop cultural landscape. That being said, and as I have often proclaimed to you upon this blogsite, it is precisely those types of films that truly need our attention and embrace and right now, I am gently urging you to look past the superheroes and dinosaurs to take a gaze at a film that is truly special.

Director Brett Haley's "Hearts Beat Loud" is a jewel of a film. A film of rare tenderness and palpable bittersweetness yet fiercely honest in its overall presentation that there is not even one false moment or emotion within the entirety of this multi-layered film, which is driven and anchored by one richly developed three dimensional performance after another, and featuring the beautifully understated and often heartbreaking work of Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons at the core. "Hearts Beat Loud" is not the film that will set the box office on fire, butit is indeed one that is exceedingly worthy of your attention and I really think that if you do take the chance, you may find yourself as deeply moved as I was.

"Hearts Beat Loud" stars Nick Offerman as Frank Fisher, owner and proprietor of the Brooklyn based vinyl themed store, Red Hook Records, open for business for 17 years yet at the start of the film Frank has decided that the now dwindling store should close its doors for good. Even with the steadfast advice, support and friendship of his landlady Leslie (Toni Colette), Frank is determined that it is time for this particular chapter within his life needs to be closed.

Meanwhile at home, more seismic life changes are underfoot as Frank's teenage daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons), is preparing herself to leave for college to study and ultimately become a doctor, her life's passion. One evening, as she is studying for her summer school classes, Frank encourages her to take a break and participate in one of their "jam sessions," a time when the two can play their respective instruments and possibly write songs together. Sam  composes some lyrics that inspire Frank and as if rolling a ball back and forth, the two compose, self-produce and perform all of the instruments for a new song, which Frank soon (unbeknownst to Sam) uploads to Spotify, where it eventually becomes an internet hit single.

Where Frank is thrilled and begins to conceptualize a potential series of songs and local shows that he and Sam can write and perform together, Sam remains adamant that her life's dream is to become a doctor, and besides, as she expresses curtly, "We're not a band."

Thus, a band's name, at least in Frank's mind, is born: We're Not A Band.

As for Sam, her Summer is no less fraught with all manner of conflicting emotions and not all of them regarding her relationship with her Dad or the possibility of writing and performing songs together. There is the matter of her still blooming yet bound to conclude relationship with her girlfriend Rose (Sasha Lane), a local artist with her New York roots firmly tied down whereas Sam is more than ready to leave home and head to  California to pursue her medical dreams.

In addition to bailing his increasingly mentally ill Mother, Marianne (Blythe Danner) out of petty crimes and drowning his sorrows at the local bar, owned and operated by his pothead best friend Dave (Ted Danson), Frank arrives at a critical stage of his life as he confronts his own sense of arrested development as he juggles the responsibilities of being a son, an independent business owner, a friend, a potential lover and most importantly of all, a Father.

Brett Haley's "Hearts Beat Loud" is a slice of life film at its warmest, smartest and quite often at its most perceptive regarding interpersonal relationships, especially within families. It is a rightfully melancholic film as its autumnal tone spoke to that specific space where forced life changes  unearth a world of emotions, including feelings of regret for lost chances, past failures, possibilities not taken or achieved and the fear of the unknown future. Haley and his cast remarkably never over play any single moment within the film and absolutely nothing felt to be inauthentic, including the store as Red Hook Records felt to be precisely the type of record store that I would still love to spend time inside of.

Even more than delivering us a great setting or location, "Hearts Beat Loud" lovingly illustrates the creative process at work and play. I loved how Haley allowed all of the songwriting sequences and sections of creativity to play out at deliberate paces, showcasing Frank and Sam, whether alone or together, actually thinking about what they were writing and playing. I loved how they spoke of how the music and lyrics they were creating not only made them feel but how they extended the power of their shared inspiration.

It was as if these two characters were rolling a ball back and forth, building up the songs (which Offerman and Clemons actually perform) piece by piece. Tremendous credit goes to Composer/Songwriter Keegan DeWitt, who crafted material like the film itself, never goes for the hard sell or the easy sentiment. The music never informs the audience of how to feel but so richly captures a feeling, that inexplicable fragile feeling of hearts so powerfully strong that are actually on the verge of breaking and the effect beautifully enhances an already wealthy story and characters, informing everything we are viewing.

For me, in many ways, "Hearts Beat Loud" exists in the same cinematic universe of film like Stephen Frears' "High Fidelity" (2000), most certainly (in fact, just imagine that film's leading character played by John Cusack about 15 years later). Yet, I would also include this film along the ranks of  John Carney's underseen and undervalued "Begin Again" (2013), which also explored the joys of connectivity through the creation of handmade music. And furthermore, I would also link this film with nothing less than Cameron Crowe's "Say Anything..." (1989) and Nicole Holofcener's "Enough Said" (2013) as each of those two films dealt specifically with the relationships between parents and their children who are ready to leave the nest for the larger world,, leaving each side forced to find a newfound independence. 

With "Hearts Beat Loud," the character of Frank Fisher is a figure that could have drowned in sad cliches but was instead given a wealth of predicaments, foibles, virtues, failings and a history that allowed us to gather a full picture of this specific point in this man's life and the exquisite pain he is trying to cope with. Yes, he is losing his store. Yes, he is unsure as to how to successfully care for his Mother to her wishes. Yes, he drinks too much and is more than confused by his relationship with Leslie. And of course, there is the matter of his musical past and the relationship between himself and Sam's other, which I will not even begin to reveal here. With all of those story elements, Haley never loses sight of the film's core, Frank's relationship with his daughter and his fear of possibly losing even one more thing, essentially the most important thing in his life.

It is of no randomness that the film opens with Frank, nearly alone in his store, watching a You Tube music video of the band Tweedy instead of Wilco, as Tweedy is the musical duo made up of Wilco bandleader Jeff Tweedy and his own son, Spencer.  Frank's weekly jam sessions with Sam serve the same purpose creatively, but of Frank's love definitely and his desires to remain connected to his daughter who is growing up and houses a maturity, that must certainly be an echo of her Mother's. Of course, he doesn't wish to tread on Sam's medical dreams but couldn't she just possibly, maybe, hopefully postpone college for a year and just see where their joint songwriting takes them? But then, would he be attempting to live out his as yet unfulfilled musical dreams through his daughter, who carries no true interest in those dreams? 

It is turbulent quandary that makes for an appropriately tension filled dynamic on both ends. Frank makes some crucial errors in judgement, knowingly so, and is therefore, and rightfully, admonished by Sam, who herself is straddling that precarious line between the independence of being a young adult with the fact that she will forever be Frank's little girl. Kiersey Clemons is wonderful finding that delicate balance as she does indeed command a certain authority and maturity while also presenting that insecure, uncertainty and unwillingness to deliberately hurt her Father's feelings. And it is through her terrific performances, as an actress and singer, that she makes "Hearts Beat Loud" work blissfully as a duet between Father and daughter.

In my recent review of Brad Bird's "Incredibles 2," I remarked about how I was underwhelmed and even a little saddened by the barrage of ding-dong Dad cliches regarding the patriarch of the superhero family now forced to stay home and care for the kids while his wife goes off on her heroic adventure. Fathers in the movies have sadly received such terribly short shrift if not downright disrespect, which is, in the 21st century, so pitifully old hat that such notions do need to be fully retired. With "Hearts Beat Loud," Brett Haley and Nick Offerman have given us a Father figure that is correctly not perfect by any means, but one that feels so very real. I deeply appreciated the effort given to not make Frank Fisher a would-be comical Dad cliche but a living, breathing person with dreams and hurts and made whole by the love he possesses for his child. It was more than just refreshing in its matter-of-fact quality, it a gain felt like a minor miracle that it was presented at all.

To that end, it is also a minor miracle that we even have the character of Sam Fisher, again presented without any self-congratulatory fanfare and entirely with a deliberate matter-of-fact quality as she is a girl who just happens to be biracial, as well as one who loves Science and is an out lesbian with a serious girlfriend. Essentially, we would  more likely see a  unicorn on screen than a character like this, who does indeed represent real people living in our very real world but are never fully represented in more mainstream movies. Wisely, Haley never utilizes Sam or Rose to serve as poster children for a cause. For Haley, these are simply two young women who love each other powerfully but are rapidly arriving at a crucial point where their lives will irrevocably change, again making less notice over anything resembling labels and entirely about who they are as people, how they behave and how they feel, ultimately creating one of the most affecting love stories I have seen in quite some time.

And when it is all said and done, Brett Haley's "Hearts Beat Loud" init entirety, is a love story r better yet...a love song. A love song to music, most certainly plus a love song to the communal spaces of record stores, local independent businesses and the neighborhoods in which they live and survive. It is a love song to teenagers in love. It is a love song to education. It is a love song to young women of color with fresh, excited, involved, interesting, and deeply intelligent and empathetic minds and hearts. It is a love song to a world where LGBTQ children are accepted and embraced by their families as well as each other and are allowed to live full and enriched lives just like their heterosexual counterparts. It is a love song to creativity, to inspiration and to all of those bedroom artists, writers and musicians who have their own spaces to dream and the avenues to self-release their gifts to the larger world. Most of all, "Hearts Beat Loud" is a love letter to Fatherhood itself.


And like the best love songs, it pulsates, it aches, it warms, it fills and falls apart only to be filled again the second it is re-played. But remember, no love song can be re-played if it was never heard for the first time. With Brett Haley's "Hearts Beat Loud," I wish for you to take that chance and allow yourself to experience this love song for that first time.

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