Movie Review: Hearts Beat Loud (2019). On Kanopy.

I stumbled on this intriguing little film recently while browsing Kanopy, one of the streaming services associated with many public libraries. It wasn’t until I got a little way into watching it that I realized not only that I had seen it before, but that in fact it had played a small but important contributory role in my decision to start trying to record music at home.

This is the simple, quiet tale of Frank, a working-class music fan, record-shop owner and former rock musician in Brooklyn. The role of Frank is played by the wonderful Nick Offerman (best known for his TV role as the lovable libertarian department manager in Parks and Recreation). 

 

Frank is also a widower, who had lost his wife years ago to a bike accident, leaving him the single parent to a talented young multiracial daughter (Sam), a high school senior who is now preparing to graduate, and leave for college to study pre-med.

 

As the story develops, it becomes obvious that Frank is under a lot of stress. In addition to trying to raise his daughter alone, his music store is failing financially, and he has no other prospects for work. His landlady, though a longtime friend, is pressuring him to close the store, and he dreads having Sam move away to California for college.

 

But despite all those pressures, the father and daughter still share a favorite ritual of getting together to write and play music together. We get to watch one such session, as the two of them haltingly try things out, putting together bits of music, words and melodies, as Frank plays the guitar, while Sam sings, plays a keyboard and creates loops with a modern sampling device. It’s a perfect little portrayal of the creative process of songwriting between two people.

 

At this particular session, though, Frank has acquired some new technology that allows him to record their music. He records the song they’ve written, and then (without telling Sam), he uploads it to a streaming service, where against all odds, it quickly goes viral. For the aging musician father, it’s a dream come true – they could form a band!  Get a record contract! Play live! Make music! And in the process, maybe he can rekindle his old band dreams, while keeping Sam with him in Brooklyn too. But is that what she wants?

 

I won’t spoil it by saying what happens next. It’s definitely a comedy-drama; it’s both fun and funny, while still dealing in serious topics of love, loss, growing up and letting go. If you like quirky, interesting character-based family stories, this is a great one to check out and enjoy.

 

But what I most remembered when I saw it again was the fact that when I had watched it the first time (early in the pandemic), it had been a total revelation for a completely different reason, beyond the emotional impact of the relationships and the story line. 

 

For me, the revelation was: really, you can fool around with some instruments and singing in the spare bedroom, record it and mix it, and upload it for other people to hear? With no formal recording studio or record company involved? And then you can just upload it for everyone to listen to it?   

 

Of course, I'm pretty sure I already knew all that abstractly, but it was so beautifully depicted – enough for me to suddenly believe the wild idea, “Maybe I could do that!”.

 

You just never know what people will take away from any given piece of art, or what unintended consequences may flow from it, do you?  This is why art is so dangerous! 

Highly recommended.

Theater Review: Passengers (2023). At Seattle Repertory Theater.

Hello, dear readers, and to myself and you, I say: “Welcome back!”.   

As promised back in August, this blog is now declared “live” again, and today for my first review back, I’m doing something new as well: my first theatrical review.

Last week I went to see the first play in the 2023-24 season of the Seattle Rep. Those of you who don’t live in Seattle might not know that the Seattle Rep is one of Seattle’s longest-lasting and best theaters, which is why my wife and I have been season ticket holders for many years.

I didn’t know anything about the play (not unusual – I generally just show up), but it was called “Passengers”. It has played in other cities, so you might have heard of it, but it was beyond surprising – it was absolutely fantastic and electrifying. 

The play is really a collage of scenes and vignettes loosely based on the idea of a train ride, as a dual metaphor for travel, and also our passage through life. But what makes it astonishing is that the nine cast members are all circus-style acrobats and aerialists, performing a series of scenes in which each of them can display extraordinary feats of acrobatic skill and daring.

They use the full range of circus-style acrobatic acts and aids, including rings, ribbons, trapeze, hula hoops, juggling, a pole and other props in endless combinations of individual performances, along with couples (men with men, women with men, women with women), and sometimes even a single performer doing tricks that combine their unique specialty in perfectly timed and synchronized interactions with all the other performers.  

Many of the routines looked incredibly sensual, as they wrapped their bodies around each other in intricate dances, but that always led quickly to bodies leaping, flying and falling through the air, to be caught and continue on, despite what often looked like a very high probability of physical calamity if anyone missed a step or lost focus for even a split second.

In the background, there was also music and video to reinforce the sense of motion, and the train trip metaphor, so it was a multimedia experience as well as a dazzling display of difficult physical skills, fast-paced land-based and aerial choreography, and perfect coordination.

Of course, the theme of “we need to depend on each other”, which fit well into the “passengers” theme of the play, and as a comment on our lives and society, was reinforced constantly every time one of the performers willingly fell in the expectation that they would be caught. And they always were. It was so beautiful, and totally thrilling. I can’t remember ever going to a play where the audience was so dazzled, excited and happy at the end of the performance.

The director, writer and choreographer for this play is Shana Carroll. The performers are members of a contemporary circus collective known as The 7 Fingers, based in Montreal. They describe themselves as writers, directors and choreographers, who merge acrobatics and theater, dance and multimedia, music and storytelling. That perfectly describes the range of remarkable skills, talents and activities on display in preparing and carrying out this marvelous performance.

This play only runs at the Seattle Rep through next Sunday, October 15^th, and I don’t know if there are many tickets left. But locals, if you can see it before it leaves, try to go! And for everyone else who doesn’t live here, perhaps it will come to your city soon. Remember the name "Passengers" and look for it in a theater near you.

For more information about The 7 Fingers collective and their many other projects, check them out at 7Fingers.com. Very highly recommended.