In a site-specific screening, Nick Offerman (Parks & Recreation) and Toni Collette (Little Miss Sunshine) join an eager audience for a fun and personal Q&A panel thanks to Rooftop Films.
Taking place in Brooklyn’s isolated Red Hook, Hearts Beat Loud charms audiences with tender performances that will make your heart skip a beat as this light drama hits theaters this Friday. Beyond being a feel-good family movie, Hearts Beat Loud fits perfectly into its category, since, as director Brett Haley puts it, they wrote it for the music:
“Our goal was to have the songs do heavy narrative lifting, like a proper musical, but rooted in reality. We looked for songs that could tell narrative moments like what the character was feeling”.
Watching Nick Offerman play an average musician with high hopes and a failing record shop, opposite the melodious and talented Kiersey Clemons (Dope), who together are “not a band,” were the true highlights of the movie. Their musical harmony is almost inappropriate for a seated theater, instead, it’s ready for a concert hall where the audience can fulfill their wish to just dance.
Being asked about his musical history Nick responds:
“I have always played music in some way, or some mediocre way that have, perhaps, reached competent. So I was ready to take a swing at this. But the stuff that I’m doing in the film was three months of painful handwork just to be able to play those riffs. It was a nice surprise to be awarded the superhero power of you and your daughter can make songs as good as Keegan DeWitt (the composer)…”
The film is Nick Offerman’s first leading role since he is more known for the strange, odd, comedic relief characters that are normally appendages to the story. The way he puts it, was a pleasant but shocking surprise to watch him star in the movie:
It was pretty weird, really, when they cut away from you and that scene just to find that you’re in the next one too…and the next… it’s like: they’re still interested in my character!
Toni Collette plays a sweet and delicate supporting role that uplifts not only the mood swings in the movie but also the audience as her Australian smile makes her seem quite comfortable as a Brooklyn Landlady. Her gratitude of being on this project is evident:
Q&A Panel at Pioneer Works outdoor venue in Red Hook, Brooklyn
“Perhaps it was because another actress dropped out, but I feel extremely lucky to have worked on this. (Pointing to Nick) This guy made me laugh every single day… Quite the shift after working on Hereditary. Audiences should see the two films in that order…”
This film is easy to watch and leaves a glowing air of optimism and happy vibes as final frame comes around. This sensation, says Brett Haley, was their top goal yet without making it superficially gleeful:
This is the feeling that I personally wanted to give because it’s pretty gnarly out there right now. Yet all the movies that Mark and I have written come from a place of realism: to make everything we do as honest, as truthful, as genuine as humanly possible; that everything happens in a movie that you believe. We could have taken it in the fame and fortune direction, but we really wanted to keep it about family and creating something just to create something.
As movie-goers prepare to be rocked away in theaters this weekend by the film, audiophiles as well have something to look forward since Friday the music comes out on all platforms… yes, including vinyl.
Poster for: Hearts Beat Loud
