The Beat beneath My Feet

Quite how Luke Perry's reclusive American muso has ended up living on disability benefits in British suburbia isn't altogether believable but, then again, there's much wishful thinking in the air as likeable protagonist Nicholas Galitzine makes a dizzyingly swift transformation from tongue-tied dweeb to confident singer-songwriter as the local Battle of the Bands competition approaches. That element of the story proves more successful than Perry's unconvincing renaissance after years of embittered grieving for the infant son he lost, though the highlights of the entire movie are the imaginative pop-video-style sequences, which make clever use of stop-frame animation to bring the duo's songs to life. If only there was the same vim and vigour elsewhere in this otherwise plodding tale.