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Nick Offerman, Toni Collette and Ted Danson star in this tale of a washed-up muso and record-store grump who starts a band with his pre-med student daughter. It’s the sweetest Gen-X mid-life crisis.
Frank has raised his daughter Sam alone in Brooklyn since his wife’s death. As serious-minded Sam prepares to head to UCLA med school, Frank proposes they turn their weekly "jam sesh" into an actual single. But… are they even a band?
Frank and Sam’s songs express their emotions about their diverging lives. For Frank, things are ending: Sam’s moving out, his record store is about to close and gentrification has claimed the dive bar owned by his best friend Dave. But hearts are beating anew: Frank’s for his landlady, and Sam’s for a gorgeous artist.
Director and co-writer Brett Haley sharply but sweetly observes the tragedy of the grunge generation – not just that they’re no longer young and cool, but that millennials don’t even care what cool was. Offerman’s trademark surliness feels vulnerable, while the luminous Kiersey Clemons as Sam shows why she’s a rising star.
"A truly sweet, funny and downright likable comedy … a film that defines likable." – RogerEbert.com
