The Five Heartbeats

Duck (Robert Townsend) and his friends are young men in the early 1960s who want to sing, and they form an amateur vocal group called The Five Heartbeats. Townsend, who directed and co-wrote with Keenen Ivory Wayans, follows them from rocky beginnings to a pro career across three decades. Under the harmonies and the matching suits, the film is about how hard it is to keep a group of friends together once the music business gets involved.