Hitting all the right notes

Reckon August is a washout at the cinema? Think again, says our critic

CERTAIN prime cinema-going seasons are obvious. There is the pre-Oscars period, when the studios bring out the stuff in the locked cabinets for the Academy’s approval, and Christmas, when the blockbusters come out to play. Then there is Lucky Dip August.

This sees the release of smaller pictures that might otherwise be overlooked in the rush. More often than not, they turn out to be keepers, the kind of film you will remember fondly long after the sugar rush from the latest superhero movie has gone. Three such titles are out this week.

The first is the endlessly sweet drama Hearts Beat Loud. Nick Offerman (TV’s Parks and Recreation) plays Frank Fisher, owner of a vinyl record shop in Brooklyn. The single father is doing his best to face up to two losses: his business is going under and his daughter Sam (Kiersey Clemons) is heading off to medical school. Sam’s real passion, one she shares with dad, is music. But she is the sensible one in the family, the one who knows you cannot pay the rent with dreams of making it big in the music biz.

It sounds like the sort of hippy dippy, sub-Fame/Glee mush. But, courtesy of Offerman and Clemons, Hearts Beat Loud is a beautifully played study of the lengths to which any decent parent will go to make sure the kids are all right. If you need any more recommendation, the supporting cast includes Ted Danson as a bar owner. That’s right, Sam from Cheers is back behind a bar.

Sicilian Ghost Story (15) **** hails from Italian writer-directors Fabio Grassadonia and Antonio Piazza, makers of the strange and wonderful crime drama Salvo (2013), a Cannes winner about a Mafia hitman. They are in the same territory here with this tale, based on a true story, about the disappearance of a teenager. Guiseppe’s classmate Luna thinks she knows what has happened to him, and why, so why are the villagers doing nothing about it?

Grassadonia and Piazza mix reality and dreams, romance and hard-hitting drama to deeply moving effect, and the two youngsters, Julia Jedlikowska and