Hearts Beat Loud is a 2018 American dramedy film directed by Brett Haley (who co-wrote the screenplay with Marc Basch) and starring Nick Offerman and Kiersey Clemons.
Widower Frank Fisher (Offerman) is a former musician and the owner of the failing Brooklyn music shop Red Hook Records, which is nearing its final days of staying open. Not only that, his daughter Sam (Clemons) has graduated from high school and is planning to move to the West Coast to start school for pre-med. Frank, who's reluctant to let Sam go, talks her into recording a song she wrote called "Hearts Beat Loud" during a jam session. Unbeknownst to Sam, he takes the song and uploads it to Spotify, where it soon becomes a viral hit. Frank wants to start a band with Sam, but her goals are elsewhere, and he's forced to come to terms with embracing change and letting go.
The film also stars Ted Danson, Sasha Lane, Blythe Danner and Toni Collette. The music score was composed by Keegan DeWitt.
This film contains the following tropes
- Actor Allusion: Ted Danson playing a bartender with some substance issues could just be a coincidence, but having two characters toast with the word Cheers while he's standing in the background would seem to say it's not.
- And Starring: Toni Collette gets this billing.
- Big Applesauce: The film takes place in Brooklyn, New York.
- Both Sides Have a Point: Frank and Sam are at odds throughout the film, but they each start to understand each other's motivations. Sam even decides to keep up with music despite not being into her jam sessions with her dad.
- Coming of Age Story: More like a delayed coming-of-age: Frank learns to adjust to the changes happening in his life and his daughter growing up.
- Foil: Frank and Sam; Frank is stuck in the past whereas Sam is looking forward to the future and open to new experiences. In time, both characters come to understand each others' perspectives as Frank starts to realize how to move on and Sam understands that moving on is hard, as she falls in love with Rose but has to leave for school.
- Grief Song: "Shut Your Eyes", a song Frank wrote about Danielle, his deceased wife and Sam's mother.
- Instant Web Hit: Frank and Sam's song "Hearts Beat Loud" was this after Frank uploaded to Spotify. A music representative actually offers them representation, but Sam has her heart set out on pre-med school.
- The Lost Lenore: Sam's mom and Frank's wife Danielle is long dead when the film takes place, but her presence looms over them both. Because of her death in a bike accident, Sam has not learned to ride a bicycle despite being in her 20s. She only does with the help of her girlfriend Rose. Frank's life meanwhile is implied to have heavily been mired in the past, brooding over his loss for years. He wrote a song in tribute to her as well, and is shown reflecting nostalgically over them singing together years ago.
- Manchild: Frank, to an extent. Sam is shown to be the more responsible one several times, despite being younger. Frank is stuck in the past and trying to live out his band dreams, and is resistant to the upcoming changes about to come in his life. It's justified as this stems from his wife suddenly dying in a bicycle accident. Frank tells Leslie he copes partly by strongly bonding with his daughter Sam since this happened when she was little, and they played like kids together. Then eventually she outgrew him, and Frank was left behind to a degree.
- Missing Mom: Frank's wife and Sam's mother Danielle died after she was hit by a car while bicycling while Sam was young.
- No Antagonist: There is no villain or antagonistic character, the conflict is with the characters understanding each other and coming to terms with letting go while still not forgetting the past.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Sam's full name, Samantha, isn't used much.
- Open-Minded Parent: Frank has no problems with Sam being queer and having a girlfriend.
- Scatterbrained Senior: Marianne, Frank's mother. Towards the beginning of the film, Frank has to stop her from being arrested for wandering from her apartment and stealing from a convenience store.
- Title Drop: The song Frank and Sam created and later gets uploaded online is titled "Hearts Beat Loud".
- Token Minority Couple: Sam is Black and a lesbian, like the woman she dates, Rose. They are the only people of color in the film.
- Tomboyish Name: Sam is a lesbian with a slight tomboy style who goes by this rather than Samantha.
- Unresolved Sexual Tension: At first Leslie, Frank's landlady, seems like a Nice Gal by not raising rent on Frank's music shop and maintaining a friendly relationship with him. As the movie goes on, it becomes clearer that she's attracted to Frank and even gives him a drunken kiss (which she apologizes for), but she also has a boyfriend. Frank is not pleased with having his feelings played with.
- Villainous Gentrification: The backdrop of the film, namely the area Frank and Sam live in, has been seeing changes pushing some of the older stores out.
- Wacky Parent, Serious Child: Once "Hearts Beat Loud" gets popular, Frank goes all in about starting an actual band with Sam but Sam repeatedly declines due to her future plans and even chastises Frank for not thinking clearly about their chances of making it. It's indicated throughout the film that Sam is the responsible one and acts far more like the adult while he's relatively a Manchild in comparison with her.
