If nothing else, writer and director Nicole Riegel’s film Dandelion serves as another reminder that musicals don’t have to be lavish, extravagant productions in order to hook an audience. Really, all you need is some catchy songs, some well-written characters, and an engaging situation to put them in. Riegel has most of those components, even if none are the most special in the genre, but the film still manages to be a worthwhile experience because of Riegel’s attention to detail.

Dandelion often feels like Riegel channeling John Carney (Sing Street, Flora and Son), whose indie musicals are consistently full of life and revolve around the dreams of scrappy musicians. Riegel’s scrappy musician is Dandelion (KiKi Layne), a wannabe singer-songwriter whose nights are spent playing the guitar at the kind of upscale hotel in Cincinnati where patrons come more to hear polite conversation than to hear original music. Like all musicians, she dreams of stardom, but her reality is bleaker than she initially realizes. Her ailing mother Jean (Melanie Nicholls-King) frequently puts her in check, telling her that if she wants to be discovered, it won’t happen in Cincinnati (Skyline Chili notwithstanding).

Riegel’s vastly underrated previous film Holler was also about a woman in Ohio who wanted out of her depressing lower-class situation, and Dandelion finds a way out through a music-festival-slash-biker-meetup in Sturgis, South Dakota. She quickly Meet Cutes Casey (Thomas Doherty), another musician in town with his estranged band. The structure of the Sturgis excursion feels vague and the “Battle of the Bands” which initially lures Dandelion there feels a bit like an afterthought (are the musicians there for a competition or just to pal around with one another?) but that’s almost beside the point. Dandelion is not a film about a musician seeking her big break, a la A Star is Born. Rather, it’s about a woman’s search for her own confidence and identity as a performer. It’s too bad, then, that the dialogue can sometimes feel stale and inauthentic, as if Riegel is pushing the characters to get to a pre-determined destination.

Layne’s performance is the highlight of the film, as she’s unafraid to show Dandelion’s vulnerabilities, while still selling her belief that she has the talent to make it. Her chemistry with Casey, as they fall in love with each other’s talent and personalities, is essential to the film’s latter two thirds. Casey is less developed as a character than Dandelion, but Doherty makes him feel vital to the story. Crucially, Dandelion is less about its protagonist finding validation from a romantic partner, and more about finding validation from within. The film’s musical sequences, which almost exclusively come from stage and studio performances, rather than big song-and-dance numbers, are folksy and genuine, but perhaps a little less ear-wormy than what the film needs.

At the end of the day, it’s hard to not be charmed by Dandelion. Yes, it’s a rather familiar story of a dreamer, but Riegel’s necessary specifics keep the film from feeling like an indie retread of bigger and better things. By the time Dandelion performs the film’s final number, it feels like a tangible change has occurred for her, for the better. Much like an album, Dandelion doesn’t nail every single track, but there’s enough stand-out hits to warrant keeping it in rotation.

Dandelion will be available in theaters on July 12.

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