‘The Greatest Hits’ Tells the Most Original Time Travel Story in Years

At this level, time journey films are about as commonplace as actuality relationship reveals. They’re in every single place, and that ubiquity has nearly totally diluted their preliminary novelty. How are you able to make one thing really totally different than what one other individual made earlier than when the idea has been milked dry? The reply: You can’t. The solely remaining choice is to assemble it with extra integrity than most do. Only then are you able to make one thing that doesn’t really feel like a carbon copy, yanked from an meeting line.

Writer-director Ned Benson’s newest movie, The Greatest Hits—which premiered at SXSW March 14 and shall be launched in a restricted theatrical window April 5 earlier than touchdown on Hulu April 12—is the uncommon time journey film that doesn’t really feel prefer it’s arrived contemporary from the manufacturing facility. It barely looks like a part of that style in any respect, which is basically why Benson’s first movie since 2014 avoids many of the snares which have debilitated different, superficially related works. Looping by way of spacetime is merely a supplementary plot level to a narrative that’s actually about how simply grief may be triggered, and why it might probably generally really feel so good to sit down in that cloud of painful sorrow for just a bit longer. Benson’s movie is a artful but delicate inversion of a stale style. It strikes the viewer and will get out whereas it’s forward, aiming for optimum emotional affect over any flashy, absurd striving.

While The Greatest Hits is actually not on the degree of one thing like, say, Arrival on the subject of the ingeniousness of its plotting, it has a stirring scope that feels much like Denis Villeneuve’s 2016 masterpiece. Think of this movie as Arrival for the caffeine-dependent Coachella crowd; if that doesn’t pique your curiosity, I’m unsure what is going to. The film finds Harriet (Lucy Boynton), a younger music producer-turned-librarian, fiddling by way of her rows of vinyl records, on the lookout for the subsequent one to throw onto her turntable. Some are marked with slips that say “TESTED,” whereas a timeline of dates sits drawn on her wall, with sticky notes of scrawled-out messages taped up beneath annually.

Harriet is on the lookout for Max (David Corenswet), or, extra particularly, she’s on the lookout for the tune that was taking part in simply earlier than Max died. It’s been a a lot trickier endeavor than she imagined, however since Harriet has already discovered the observe that was on the radio when she and Max had been hit by a automobile nearly two years prior, it’s price a shot. If she might uncover the proper one, perhaps she might change their destiny, and Max would nonetheless be alive and subsequent to her, thumbing by way of their in depth wax assortment on a Sunday afternoon.

Yes, listening to the proper music can transport Harriet again in time, to a second in her life with Max when a tune was taking part in. Her journeys solely final all through the observe, making her mission much more troublesome. What’s extra, Harriet suffers debilitating neurological episodes each time she hears considered one of these songs whereas not within the security of her own residence. She falls to the bottom and passes out, till her previous self both shuts the music off or rides out the tune to its conclusion. It’s an excellent factor that sporting noise-canceling, over-ear headphones is a typical observe for commuters in 2024—however simply in case, Harriet has taken additional precautions to make sure that she received’t be triggered in an inconvenient house. If solely triggers had been topic to our whim, and never we to theirs.

Benson is totally conscious that The Greatest Hits can’t dance round its preposterous idea, so he correctly leans into it, suggesting that Harriet’s experiences may be the results of the temporary coma she fell into after the crash with Max. Strangely, melding neurological anomalies with the power to journey by way of time makes his movie really feel extra real looking, which is additional aided by Benson’s delicate, empathetic character writing. Harriet is a girl who desires to avoid wasting her boyfriend, sure, however generally she simply desires to see him once more. Even a minute or two reunited with the love of your life may be sufficient to go on, and Benson understands that, as people, we’re all a bit masochistic. We willingly take heed to songs that remind us of somebody, or watch films that can make us cry. We select to devour artwork in a method that hurts us, as a result of that ache is what makes the artwork so lovely. Nothing can evoke a broad tapestry of feelings just like the opening notes of a tune meaning one thing to you.

Boynton is as recreation for this irrational premise as Benson is, creating Harriet and the way in which she handles loss into a personality that feels completely acquainted. Her feelings aren’t outsized, however they’re pervasive. The grief is all the time there, and a few days are higher than others. It’s why she frequently attends a neighborhood help group led by a licensed psychiatrist (Retta, in a stunning, small efficiency), even when she doesn’t take part. It’s there the place Harriet meets David (Justin H. Min), a candy and equally grief-stricken man who additionally has a penchant for vinyl. Their fast connection is natural, even when it must occur quick in a 96-minute film. It’s nearly as in the event that they’ve met earlier than.

As expert as Benson’s compassionate script is his selection of needle drops to accompany the movie, and the work of its music supervisor to make these audio cues occur. The Greatest Hits earns its title, unassumingly throwing out cuts from Beach House, Peggy Lee, Jamie XX, and extra. Even utilizing a leaked Lana Del Rey tune that went so viral on TikTok that she correctly launched it on streaming someway doesn’t really feel cringey. Speaking of streaming, it’s finest not to consider that side too onerous. Why doesn’t Harriet simply stream songs to hurry up her journey to avoid wasting Max, you ask? Uh, ever heard of being a romantic? She’s a music producer with a reasonably regular degree of vanity; after all the heat of vinyl would be the solely factor that may push her into the previous. As onerous as the great people at Dolby attempt, even Apple Music Spatial Audio hasn’t been in a position to bend the space-time continuum.

The concept of utilizing musical triggers to recall grief and ship somebody again to a second in time is a intelligent one, luminously executed in Benson’s movie. Watching the movie and feeling a real connection to this style for the primary time in a very long time makes it all of the extra stunning that another person hasn’t already carried out this story first. But different filmmakers are attempting too onerous to seek out new methods into this rote idea, and infrequently make a multitude of themselves within the try. The Greatest Hits weaves us by way of Harriet’s experiences step by step, guaranteeing that its viewers received’t want a deeper scientific rationalization if the emotional affect of the movie’s story is compelling sufficient.

Benson’s assured script and enchanting, modest course be certain that The Greatest Hits doesn’t chew off any greater than it might probably chew. It’s a film with scope and ambition, however not ego. That humble nature retains Benson’s characters from feeling pretentious of their love for deep-cut music and uncommon vinyl. The movie celebrates a lot of these adoration with out exalting them, and the diffident kinds of audiophiles that transfer about Harriet’s universe attraction their method right into a viewer’s coronary heart. That resonance is so supremely important to a time journey movie. This style hinges on forging an emotional connection to its viewers. That relationship is what makes trekking by way of house and time a needed experimentation with destiny, and never an exhausting report that’s caught on repeat.