Hearts Beat Loud (2018)

I saw this independent music-based movie the other night as part of Sound Unseen's presentation at the newly expanded/renovated Trylon Cinema in South Minneapolis.

Good, feel-good movie.

Synopsis (attempt):
Nick Offerman is Frank, a widowed Record Store Owner and musician and his (gay) daughter Sam, played by Kiersey Clemons is to be a Premed student halfway across the country at UCLA in the Fall (they live in NYC).

But naturally Sam has interest or talent with music, keys/synths/samples, lyrics and Vocals, kind of reluctantly.

Frank realizes he has to close his record store and find another line of work in order to find a way to pay for Sam's financially aided tuition at UCLA.

Sam and Frank write some songs together that are really good actually, but it seems like a short-lived for the short-term musical collaboration as Sam feels it's absurd she would be in a band, or even if she was, with her dad, even though they actually do know how to write good music together.

But it's not practical long term like UCLA, etc.

Misery loves company, or rather Misery creates great/beautiful art/music.

Sasha Lane's character Rose plays a good support for Sam both as a friend and romantically.  She even teaches her to ride a bike, which we find out in a subtle way, how her mom dies is related to riding a bike. Why Sam never learned to ride a bike, etc.

Ted Danson plays the owner of a little tavern/bar (I know, ironically of course per Cheers), and he helps Frank as barkeeps can, etc. His character is a lot different than Sam Malone though; instead of Women, his vice is doing dope in Woodstock, lol.

Toni Collette and Blythe Danner add more element to Frank's and to a lesser extent, Sam's situation.

I enjoyed this movie quite a bit. Especially in a compelling-story-about-family-and-music sort of way.

And while Animal Collective, Spoon and Tom Waits get mentioned/included in some ways, I am happy that in Frank's record store The Red Chord, we get a lot of visible coverage to The Beach Boys (Pet Sounds among maybe 1 or 2 others), and of all albums Grace Under Pressure from Rush, hehe. It's shown among a few others in 3 or 4 scenes.

Also I think "We're Not a Band" is a hilariously fun name for a band, although I'm sure there will be more than 1 band with that name that will pop-up now if they haven't already from seeing this movie.

That and the 4 songs written by Keegan Dewitt are rather good. Which reminds me of other music-based feel-good dramedy movies over the last decade: Once (2007), Begin Again (2014) and Sing Street. (2016) Which the director/writer Brett Haley mentioned at least Once as inspiration (along with movies like High Fidelity and That Thing You Do among others).

It kind of makes me wonder if these Music-Based Independent Films are a new genre of movie in the 21st Century. Sort of the heartfelt little-engines-that-could. And everyone of them has been good with good (original) songs.

Someone should make a compilation of songs from all 4 of those movies:

Once: Falling Slowly, When Your Mind's Made Up, If You Want Me, Lies

Begin Again: Lost Stars, Coming Up Roses, Tell Me if You Wanna Go Home, No One Else Like You, Like a Fool

Sing Street: Drive It Like You Stole it, The Riddle of the Model, Up, A Beautiful Sea

Hearts Beat Loud: Hearts Beat Loud, Everything Must Go, Blink (One Million Miles)

Markéta Irglová - Muna (2014)

I am a fan of The Swell Season and the music from Once (and the film of course)mand probably enjoyed her debut record from 2011 Anar, more than I expected. It is a very dynamic, gentle, melodic (at least in subtle ways) record, that I probably enjoyed it nearly as much as the stuff she's done with Glen Hansard.

I honestly didn't know about this record until seeing her announce a concert at The Cedar Cultural Center the other day.

A new song "This Right Here" is below, which is odd noticing how it is the last track on this record, which is kind of unusual to share initially, but so be it, nice piece.

This record drops on September 22nd/23rd.




1 Point of Creation
2 Time Immemorial
3 The Leading Bird
4 Fortune Teller
5 Without a Map
6 Remember Who You Are
7 Mary
8 Phoenix
9 Seasons Change
10 Gabriel
11 This Right Here



http://2014.marketairglova.com/

No One Knows About Persian Cats (2010)

This is a limited distribution unfortunately, music-based film about 2 Iranian musicians trying to put together a band and soon after, go to London, England to play. That is a reasonable enough plan we are led to believe, at 1st. But of course those kinds of things, or logistics are far easier talked about, than actually realized. Especially in country such as Iran.

Okay, well what this movie really is about is the struggles and hurdles of these musicians and the underground music scene in Iran. The guy, whose character/real name is Ashkan, seems optimistic for most of the film, but the girl (whose character and real name is Negar) pretty much in every scene is paranoid. And rightfully so, as trying to get passports made, gigs, a place to rehearse, and even the right people to play with is more or less one headache after another for them.

I'm kind of on the fence on what this movie is trying to show/do and what it actually pulls off. It was compared to among others, the 2007 Oscar/IFP award winning music-based movie (which looks like, but actually is not a Documentary) Once. And in a lot of ways, that comparison is valid. Once was a movie about struggling musicians, in less than perfect circumstances. However, the clarity of what happens, the events, even just moving the story forward works much better in Once. At times in this movie you are not clear on where the two of them are at with anything in terms of progress with their band. Part of it could be the language and following subtitles, at least for me, can be a little bit of work. I kept thinking during this movie, how I'd like to see it a 2nd time just to follow the dialogue more clearly.

I will say, the characters were sold quite well. You do care about them and want to see them succeed. So in that respect, I really enjoyed this.

And there was some humor, within some dark moments, including the somewhat ambiguous last 10 minutes involving their promoter and a gig they were supposed to be at. But the guy making the passports was funny (the scene with him). There was one part where they get pulled over by a cop (in their car) and have to hand over their dog. That was a bit of a head-scratcher. Although they get their dog back I guess.

I also found some of the music references nice. One of the musicians mentioning wanting to go to Iceland because Sigur Rós is from there. The drummer they play with even mentions wanting to play with Bill Bruford and Danny Carey.

And the music itself I thought was at times, pretty good. "Indie Rock" which in some ways sounds more layered than that. They showed one band rehearsing outside, in a barn at times, which was kind of silly, right next to cows. They said the cows weren't giving milk or something as a result of the music, lol.

One of the guitarists they looked at was playing for children, he was quite good and charming in some ways.

Their promoter named Nader, talks a good, big game, but ends up showing his true colors in the end, whether that be clearly him or circumstance.

So overall, I got enough from this movie to recommend it and regard it as one of the better movies of 2010. But I would also suggest not expecting it to quite compare to Once or some others. It's a bit more political in exposure, and less about personal relationships.

75/100