Review: Sweet, Wistful Hearts Beat Loud Is a Lovely Entrée into Summer

If you recently saw the new vise-grip horror film Hereditary and thought to yourself afterward, “sure, that was great, but its almost summer! How about something lighter?” you are in luck. Grab Hereditary star Toni Collettes hand and let her guide you over to Red Hook, Brooklyn, where the summery, wistful new dramedy Hearts Beat Loud (opening in wide release June 15) lays its scene. Collette will soon let go of your hand and recede into the background—shes only a supporting player here—but dont worry, you will be well taken care of. Thats how I felt, anyway, when I saw Hearts Beat Loud as something of a post-Hereditary cleanse at the Sundance Film Festival back in January. How fortuitous that you can now repeat that ritual here in June.

Hearts Beat Loud comes to us from director Brett Haley, whose most recent films are the elder dramas The Hero (with Sam Elliott) and Ill See You in My Dreams (with Elliott and Blythe Danner, who also has a small role in Hearts). Much respect to a young filmmaker who has an uncommon care for and interest in seniors, not something you see all that often outside of, well, horror. But watching Haleys sensitive earlier films, Id grown curious about what he might do were he to turn to something a bit greener, more steeped in the patois of today. Hearts Beat Loud satisfies that curiosity in graceful and gentle fashion; its a father-daughter drama with a light touch, its breezes and sighs flecked with music.

Maybe “flecked” isnt strong enough a word. The musician Keegan DeWitt composed the score and several original songs for the film, which is partly about a dad, Frank (Nick Offerman), and his daughter, Sam (Kiersey Clemons)—both still grieving the wife and mother they lost years ago—writing some music together before Sam leaves for college. The songs are lovely, particularly the title track, a melancholy little thumper thats played several times yet doesnt wear out its welcome. We hear the soft seams of the songs imperfections, its inexact adolescent yearning, and are carried away by the earnestness of it all, reveling in the warm sting of change, so riotous and frequent a feeling in adolescence.

In that way, the larger movie is much like the song. Sure, its just the tiniest bit mawkish here and there, but that clumsy sentiment only makes it all the more endearing. Otherwise, Hearts Beat Loud is subtle in its emotional language. Haley, who wrote the script with frequent collaborator Marc Basch, keeps his story intimate enough to be manageable, while gesturing toward big things: death, love, leaving home. As Sam prepares to head off to California for school (shes an eager pre-med student beginning classes early), Frank faces the closing of his record store, which hes been the proprietor of since Sam was a baby. Theres a neat allegory there, about ceding authority and stewardship. But really, a child flying the nest is probably a big enough life change that saddling Frank with this additional milestone just seems like piling on.

Ah well. Offerman sells us on Franks weary solidity, despite that extra dramatic burden. Ive never been quite sure what to make of Offerman; before Id gotten the chance to really suss him out as an actor on Parks and Recreation, his character had been consumed by the meme makers, and it became difficult to separate the Ron Swanson cult of personality from what Offerman was actually doing on the show. Here, though, his appeal is clear. Hes shaggy and winning as a stubborn, loving dad slowly turning to face an uncertain future.

But the real star of this thing is Clemons, so natural and expressive, whether speaking or singing. In addition to settling up the parental tab with her dad, Sam is embarking on a brief, blushing romance with an artist named Rose (Sasha Lane). The girls know it cant last—Sam is longing to escape her native New York, while Rose came to the city to escape somewhere else—but they fall into each other nonetheless. Hearts Beat Loud isnt an aching story of doomed love, but it does nibble at something real and acute. “Were not gonna get to have this, are we?” Rose asks in one bleary scene. Which is such a nice, poignant distillation of the balmy heartbreak of things at that age, lives leading us excitingly elsewhere, at the cost of a few good things where we already are. Sigh.

I could continue waxing nostalgically about growing up and moving out, because this film puts me in that kind of mood. But instead, Ill just say that Hearts Beat Loud is an effervescent little pleasure, a quick 97-minute trip to a calm and pensive fantasy Brooklyn. (I mean, maybe Red Hook really is like that. Ive only been there twice. Its so hard to get to!) The film has great music—particularly the one earworm that somehow does not turn sour the longer it lingers in your head—and its got Toni Collette! How could I forget our dear friend Toni, who brought us here. What a relief, to see her in flowy skirts, flirting with Nick Offerman instead of screaming and screaming in a house of horrors. There she is: happy enough in Brooklyn, where hearts are blessedly still beating—eager, and bright, and just the right volume.

Get Vanity Fairs HWD NewsletterSign up for essential industry and award news from Hollywood.Richard LawsonRichard Lawson is a columnist for Vanity Fair's Hollywood, reviewing film and television and covering entertainment news and gossip. He lives in New York City.

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