NASHVILLE − "You don't deserve country music."
It's a pointed line from Netflix's new thriller "Heartland" (streaming now) that writer and director Shana Feste singled out while introducing the film to a theater full of musicians and industry professionals at Soho House in Wedgewood-Houston on Nov. 9.
"That is exactly how I feel," Feste told the audience. "I am so grateful to be back in Nashville, and to be showing this movie to all of you."
The 112-minute mystery thriller explores the honky-tonk underbelly of Music City, where aspiring singers, powerful executives and personal ambition collide. Nashville provides the backdrop, but the film's indictment of unchecked power reaches far beyond country music.
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Sixteen years after directing "Country Strong," starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Tim McGraw, Feste has returned to the music industry with a considerably darker story.
Jessica Chastain stars as Misty Jones, a disgraced country music legend who has retreated from Nashville into an alcohol-soaked existence. When her niece Charlie (played by Carter Faith), an aspiring country singer, disappears, Misty returns to the city to investigate.
The film also stars Jennifer Nettles, Garrett Hedlund, Ross Lynch and John Hawkes.
"I can't quit country music," Feste told The Tennessean, part of USA TODAY Co., ahead of the screening. "I'm always drawn to country music because I think it's so unapologetic about visiting real big emotions, right? It wears its heart on its sleeve."
The director, 51, said her interest in true crime, mystery novels and film noir informed the screenplay.
"Of course, it's not a documentary. It's a very heightened version," she said. "But Nashville is such a cinematic city to me. It feels ripe for noir with the fluorescent lights and the music spilling out of different venues."
During the post-screening discussion, Feste explained that the film's exploration of exploitation and powerful men was informed by allegations of abuse across the entertainment industry.
"I feel really sad about that because I also have experience in my own career with that very subject," Feste said. "As writers, a lot of times we like to rewrite our own endings. And so, for me, it was really important that we see justice in this film and experience that as a woman because we don't often get to see that justice unfold."
Chastain's flinty Misty is hardly a conventional heroine.
In the opening sequence, she buries her dog after a neighbor kills it. When the neighbor threatens to do it again, Misty shoots out two windows of the woman's house.
"Jessica embodies Misty, who is a character that does not organize her life around being liked at all," Feste said. "She is ballsy, she's angry, she tells the truth, she's deeply vulnerable, and she's incredibly brave."
For Chastain, country music's appeal begins with the stories.
"Country music is the greatest form of storytelling," she said. "Someone comes in and they talk to you about their life and their troubles and it's a monologue. I think country music is the best storytelling you could have."
Rising star Carter Faith takes center stage
Country singer Carter Faith had performed in high school theater productions, but she had never acted in a feature film before "Heartland."
Despite that inexperience, Faith is magnetic in her debut, bringing an electric presence to a character whose ambitions expose her to the predatory side of the industry.
During a post-screening discussion, Feste recalled her first conversation with Faith, when she asked what the singer had in common with Charlie.
"She said, 'Well, we both have boy names,' " Feste recalled. "I honestly think my heart exploded at that moment."
Feste said Faith had such an elusive quality that "I just have to lean in."
"I cannot take my eyes off of Carter," Feste said. "I think she has National Geographic eyes, these eyes that are so wise beyond their years."
The feeling of admiration is mutual. Faith said that she was grateful Feste spent so much time guiding the young singer through the transition to on-screen storytelling.
"I'm a country music singer playing a country music singer. It should be that easy, but it just wasn't. And she helped me with everything," Faith added.
Faith co-wrote one of the film's most haunting songs, "Still the Sparrow Sings," with Tofer Brown and Hillary Lindsey, approaching the song from Charlie's perspective.
"It had to have nostalgia for everything that she had been through and still maybe some regret and maybe some guilt, also giving herself forgiveness," Faith said. "There were so many emotions I wanted to tie into that song."
Nashville's music shaped the 'Heartland' soundtrack
Although "Heartland" is rooted in Nashville, much of the production was filmed in Atlanta. The fictional Dove Theater, a prominent location in the film, was portrayed by Atlanta's Fox Theatre.
The movie's soundtrack, however, draws heavily from Nashville's songwriting community.
Music supervisor Randall Poster assembled a 15-song collection featuring performances from Chastain, Nettles, Faith, Ross Lynch, Carly Pearce, Margo Price, John Hawkes and Channing Wilson.
Nettles delivers one of the film's vocal highlights with "You're Gonna Burn for That." She also joins Chastain on the title track, originally written and recorded by Hailey Whitters.
Chastain, who previously portrayed Tammy Wynette in Showtime's "George & Tammy," proves herself a capable country vocalist. She performs three songs on the soundtrack, including "Family Ties" and "Shouldn't Have Called," a duet with Hawkes.
The Oscar-winning actress is scheduled to return to Nashville for the CMA Awards on Nov. 18. Despite her growing country music résumé, she has no plans to record an album.
"Nope," she said. "I'm going to leave that for the talented people like Jennifer Nettles."
This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Jessica Chastain returns to country music for dark 'Heartland'
