The widowed proprietor of a Brooklyn record shop (Nick Offerman) pressures his college-bound daughter (Kiersey Clemons) to abandon her life plans and instead collaborate with him on an indie-rock band; in the sort of puerile fantasy common to such stories, their pedestrian song demo becomes an instant sensation on Spotify, hailed as proof positive that the daughter has “got it.” Writer-director Brett Haley, blowing whatever critical acclaim he might have earned for his Sam Elliott vehicle The Hero (2017), coaxes a few weak laughs from the daddy-daughter role reversal, and stale, mushy drama from the cycling death of the girl’s mother more than a decade earlier. Haley likes working with faded TV stars, so there are roles here for Ted Danson as a philosophical bartender and Blythe Danner as the girl’s comically demented grandmother.
Hearts Beat Loud
PG-13 • 1 hour 37 min • 2018
