Film Review: Hearts Beat Loud Shows Young Or Old You Must Grow
Synopsis: In Red Hook, Brooklyn, a father and daughter become an unlikely songwriting duo in the last summer before she leaves for college.
Sometimes, I have to remind myself that my parents are human beings, and had a life of dreams before I entered it. I say this because Hearts Beat Loud is a sweet dramedy that simply captures your heart because…. we all want a good dad. Yet, no great father comes without their flaws and their own set of clashing dreams for their child.
Nick Offerman’s Frank Fisher moves the film in two ways: as a person getting older and a dad. Nick Offerman gives a terrifyingly raw and humorously noble representation of how we all, especially as we get older, become scared at how many dreams we do not achieve. It is the most unspoken pain that people ignore because it would crush our already stressed hearts and make us question how to motivate ourselves. After all, nearly every Oscar speech ends with a “Dreams Come TRUE!” type of phrase. Yet, the truth is that not every dream comes true, which is why it is a good thing they can change.
Owner of a middling, but cool record shop, widowed but shyly interested in his wealthier landlord (Toni Collete’s Leslie), and struggling to put/feeling like he is abandoning his shoplifting mom (Blythe Danner’s Marianne) in a nursing home, Frank has a lot of adult issues. Something you would expect from a guy that is, technically, half-way through his life. Yet, there comes a point, as we all grow up, when we realize we are WAY more adult than we are young. It is in this realization that Frank mourns “getting old” while trying to feel alive and revived by his superbly talented, college bound daughter: Sam (played by Kiersey Clemmons).
Hearts Beat Loud succeeds because it is, ultimately, a father daughter film that celebrates how much our parents push us; even when we do not want to be pushed. People think that the youth are bold and oblivious to how much they can suffer or lose, but, it is quite contrary. Clemmons’ Sam shows that being young is a ripe blend between angst/self doubt and dreaminess. There is SO MUCH you can do in and for this world when you are young, but, frankly, I have never felt more insecure and aware of what could go wrong than when I was young. While Frank may feel dour that he, his mother, and his passed wife never made it “big” in the music business, he sees hope for Sam; who is presented as a prodigiously talented but, again, aware through her family that not all dreams come true. For however many artists are out there, how many do you know? How many are making a stable living?
Clemmons’ Sam becomes a magnet of anxiety and hopefulness, especially in her budding romance with Sasha Lane’s Rose, that makes you want to hug, shake, and completely understand her, which also makes her exactly like her dad. While Sam is the “mature” one of the father-daughter duo, director and writer Brett Haley, along with fellow screenwriter Marc Baasch, want to display that you never stop figuring out what you want and need in life, which is why you never stop dreaming. In some ways, this film about two people trying not to be bitter or irrational in how they embrace what is best/happiest for them proves joy does not lie in a dream, but in ,your capacity to create one. Hearts Beat Loud Comes Out In Theaters On June 8.
