Hearts Beat Loud (2018)

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1. 

   12Damon3

   Nick was fantastic (as always), the music was great, and the pacing was good. I just didn't like the story; the ending in particular.
   
   It's incredibly hard to find a film that has a parent and child getting along well. Too many films depict a child who resents their parent/s, many times without a good enough reason. They constantly butt heads, and it nearly always ends up with the child yelling "YOUR DREAMS AREN'T MY DREAMS!". The parent is treated like a fool and/or a failure, and nothing seems to go their way. Sometimes the parent and the child may bond, but it's usually near or at the end of the film.
   Unfortunately, this was one of those films.
   
   Although the film is about both of them, the film focuses more on the father than the daughter. Which is strange, because everything works out of the daughter rather than the father.
   This is pretty much all a spoiler, so:

   She wants to get away from him and the city and wants nothing to do with him, but she's perfectly fine with taking his money for college. She talks about how everybody has their own dream and how hers isn't his, yet she expects him to put his life on hold to support hers. I get that her dream was to become a doctor and just because she's talented doesn't necessarily mean that she should pursue that career. It makes sense. What doesn't make sense, though, is how he's expected to bend over backwards for her.
   
   It comes across as having a happy ending, but I don't see how. How is it a happy ending when he's sold his record shop and is now working (at the very bar that he criticised his friend for owning for 30 YEARS), putting aside any extra cash for her college expenses? How is it a happy ending when he was so close to tasting success and will never experience it again? Any chance of their band happening was gone once she walked out the door.
   It was all about her and her happiness, not his. He went from having his own record shop (for 17 years) and regular jam sessions with his daughter (and then being in a band with her), to having nothing. No record shop, no daughter (as she's away for 4 years), no band. He didn't even get his romantic interest.
   It's happy for her, I guess. But not for him.
   
   If you sympathise more with the daughter and feel empathy towards her and her situation, then I think you'll enjoy the story/ending more than I did. Unfortunately, I felt more for the father and so the ending left a rather bad taste in my mouth.

   4 months 3 weeks ago

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