Parallel Chords

I was truly affected by this film. Both musicians, the daughter and the father, were so believable. It's the kind of story that feels lived in, very real. It's a complex and artful film, but quite accessible. Anyone who has ever felt the pressure of a parent or their own ambitions can relate. It's an intelligent, well crafted and beautifully acted film. Musical, both in that it's set in the world of music and also has musical rhythm's in it's structure. I found the movie involving and an emotional tour de force. Bravo!

The push to succeed from family will be a familiar theme to many. The fratured timelines come together wonderfully to tell this to tell this story of a woman being led into a career she's not entirely sure she wants. The family dynamic is authentic and at times very touching. The performances are understated and nuanced. The look of the film is striking and music is lovely.

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Parallel Chords drew me in when I saw a number of film festival laurels and that it won several awards as well. It always helps a bit to see that kind of recognition first when taking a chance on a new indie film. The film is definitely deserving of its honors as it presents an intriguing story of a violinist and her overbearing musician father. I'm a big fan of films like Whiplash, but Parallel Chords still manages to offer something new and fresh to the genre. The performances are quite good in the film and I've always been a fan of Bjorn Johnson (who I'm currently watching in Counterpart). Parallel Chords is definitely worth a watch.

At the core of this gut-wrenching drama is a father-daughter relationship desperately in need of repair, if not an actual intervention. But here it addresses a world that is often misunderstood and seldom revealed - that of classical music training and the uniquely skilled sensitivity required in the instruction of children, some beginning their instruments as young as five years old. In this case a violinist and her famous pianist father. But make no mistake, this could just as easily have been about a young gymnast and her trainer or a young dancer and her back stage mother. Beneath all the great music and the tumultuous emotion it's important to remember that the music being interpreted by children in training was in most cases composed by mature artists from another age and often times old enough to be the young instrumentalist's grandfather. I like here that the young violinist, played wonderfully by Rachel Ann in her feature film debut, kept her love of music alive by experimenting with other forms of music, seen here as an act of sympathetic rebellion to her father's overly disciplined concert world. Give this indie film a watch. All the festival awards well-deserved.

A touching story about the relationship between a young woman and her father, her relationship with herself, and her relationship with the world around her, as she decides to buck patriarchal expectation and chart her own path.

The acting and cinematography were great. But, I felt some of the performances were hindered in parts by some of the writing, which left some of the dialogue feeling a bit at odds with the emotion of what was happening. However, the facial and physical blocking, reactions, and presence all felt right.

Without giving much away, there were glimpses of the protagonist's internality in key moments of the film, and I was left a little dissatisfied with how these flashes were never more capitalized on or given too much of a focus. The father is clearly struggling with mental health issues throughout the film, so I wasn't sure if we were going to see the residual ripples of that manifest in our lead. If the intention was to leave this aspect more obscure and up to the viewer, it still felt like there was room to push this further.

Overall, a good film with a positive message, good score, and some solid performances. Give it a watch sometime on Amazon Prime or Tubi, if this is the sort of story you're hungry for.