| A sweet, thoughtful and tender portrait of a young woman struggling to make it as a musician in the shadow of her famous father. Charlotte Lakes (Jessica Belkin) is the daughter of Jack Lakes, a successful rock star with one album who would have just faded away into obscurity but instead he died at the height of his fame, so now eight years later he’s a cult icon and Charlotte cannot escape his presence. | | 2025
Directed by: Nick Wilson
Screenplay by: Nick Wilson
Starring: Jessica Belkin, Jacob Brand, Malin Akerman and Gavin Leatherwood
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Charlotte keeps thinking that if she just earns enough money then she can go to school at a music conservatory and get away from her mother (Malin Akerman), her hometown, her father’s hometown and the lake where he died. Charlotte is a great character because even though she isn’t handling the non-stop comparisons to her shitty and absentee father all that well, at least she’s trying, kind of, at least way more so than her mother is, who hates Jack even more than Charlotte does.
Malin Akerman has a weird presence in this film. The only famous actor in the indie and she’s playing this alcoholic, surly, incompetent mother who is way more immature than her teenage daughter. But when you start thinking about how she got here, it starts to make sense. This is some girl who slept with the local singer-songwriter who was sure to make it big and then got pregnant and had a kid as a teenager while the 20-something father was off touring living it up as a rock star, who then left her and married another woman. She never made a single good decision in her life, so it’s not surprising that we got here.
But back to Charlotte. I absolutely adore this character. She’s an extremely good singer and songwriter, she’s getting desperate and lonely with her best friend off at college, and she also strikes me as the introvert who has to turn the charm on when she teaches guitar lessons or tries to make money off her music streams.
After introducing Charlotte and her music, and Jack’s music, the film slows down a bit as Barry (Jacob Bond), Charlotte’s best friend and boy who obviously has a massive crush on her, comes back to town with two of his new college friends in tow. Charlotte tries being cool and just hanging out, but she also has all the comparisons to her idealized father bringing her down.
As a simple drama, this is a lovely movie. The music is fantastic – especially with Jack, a perfectly created fictional rock star whose music was good enough to make him an over-night success. The relationship drama between Charlotte and Barry is very good, with the tension, but also unconditional respect.
Things get tidied too easily when Charlotte finally has to resolve her feelings for her father and his fanbase, and with its relatively short run time, this could have been expanded into something a bit more real. But ultimately this is a really enjoyable film, that hits on a lot of emotions with lovingly realized characters. Some viewers might find it a bit slow, but these characters are so easy to connect with that you should be able to lose yourself in their journey. Singing in My Sleep is a winner.
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