I’ve written a handful of screenplays I’ve done nothing with. One of them I wrote about 30 years ago, was based on a horrible book I read where a guy (I believe a stereo repairman), could go back in time listening to certain ‘60s bands. While I thought it was cool he could see The Beatles in concert, he ended up going back and trying to save Jimi Hendrix.
I thought of all that when I heard about this movie. It uses that rather unique take on time travel, with grief and love thrown in (in a much more interesting way than my lame screenplay did).
Harriet (Lucy Boynton, the girlfriend in Bohemian Rhapsody, and in a better music movie than that – “Sing Street” but I digress) goes to a support group for people grieving. She lost her boyfriend Max (David Corenswete) two years ago in a car accident. For unknown reasons (that never are explained), if she hears a song that was playing when she was with Max, it takes her back to that exact time. What I loved about that is, I still remember most places I was when I heard songs for the first time. I remember in 5th grade going to the eye doctor in my mom’s Pinto, and hearing “Baby Come Back” (Player). I remember being in my stepdad’s Pinto (my family liked Pintos) when the DJ announced a new song from Bruce Springsteen, and being disappointed listening to “Dancing in the Dark” on the I-8. I was getting ready to go to school when I heard a morning DJ play the brand new Who song, after their drummer had died. It was “You Better, You Bet.”
There was a time in high school that, when at a girlfriend’s house who was mad at me, I tried to make her laugh by grabbing her curling iron to use as a microphone to sing “God Only Knows” as it played on the stereo while she was getting ready (I burned the crap out of my hands, not realizing you couldn’t hold a certain part of it). But yeah, she did laugh, as I screamed in pain.
I could go on and on, with at least 500 songs and where I was the first time I heard them. So to have a woman grieving her boyfriend this way, was just beautiful to me.
Most of the time Harriet goes back, instead of us just seeing some romantic moment, we see her pleading with him to change what he does because he’s going to die, and it lands on deaf ears. Sometimes he’ll even jokingly say “Okay woman from the future” or some such thing.
Harriet’s best friend Morris (Austin Crute) is sympathetic to her grieving, but also gives her some tough love. I liked their chemistry (in fact, the chemistry from all the characters works). I was a bit bothered that Morris, who is Black, and either trans or gay, and a hip club DJ, would reference Harriet being a producer “like Alan Parsons” or talk about what a genius Donald Fagen of Steely Dan was. I just don’t buy THAT character knowing those references (although I agree with both statements, but then, I’m an old white dude who loved those artists in the ‘70s; I suspect writer/director Ned Benson is the same). Oh, this club DJ also spouts Lord Byron.
One day at her support group, David walks in (Justin H. Min, reminding me of Steven Yeon). Luckily for her, she still looks cute with huge headphones on. She wears them because hearing a random song from a car stereo or store, might knock her to the ground and send her back in time. You could argue that’s a bit goofy, and maybe it is, but I had no problem with it. And it provided one of the best laughs my wife and I had in a movie all year – it’s her hearing a popular car commercial and that having the same effect.
I was pleasantly surprised that the director didn’t just rely on “hits” – as the title of this might suggest. Instead, we hear the band “The The” (“This is the Day”), and some female singers I like – Nelly Furtado (“I’m Like a Bird”) and Lana Del Rey (“Say Yes to Heaven”). We also hear some Roxy Music, and the band (as well as Furtado), do cameos that work well.
There’s one scene pulled right out of “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo” (involving Harriet fitting in because everyone is wearing headphones), and it was cute. I also thought of “Garden State” on one early date when someone is handed headphones to listen, similar to how Natalie Portman had her boyfriend listen to The Shins.
I didn’t think they needed to have Rolling Stones and Weezer posters on the wall, just to show how much the couple loved music. Those touches worked better when they’re in the record shop, and we see a Byrds album, while we hear songs by Peggy Lee and Curtis Mayfield.
Yes, this music movie fits right in my wheelhouse, and while it’s not the next “Casablanca” it’s a good romance. It reminds me of that song when you bought the album for the few hits you liked, and you discovered another song on the record that was good and didn't get radio play. Any time the tune pops up when the CD is in your car, you don’t skip it. And this is a movie you shouldn’t skip, as it’s in select theaters as well as on Hulu.
3 stars out of 5.