Searchlight Pictures The Greatest Hits was originally conceived in 2008, but it took the pandemic, a career boost, and coastal life change for writer/director Ned Benson’s film to finally come together. By the time the cameras rolled on the contemporary LA “romantic musical,” Benson had a hit writing Marvel Studios’ Black Widow and acclaim for The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby trilogy starring Jessica Chastain. The new film, which opens in select theaters this weekend and will stream exclusively on Hulu starting next week, stars Lucy Boynton, Justin H. Lin, and David Corenswet. Like a song played on repeat, this indie feature will be played a ton once it hits the streaming app.
What if a single song, an unmistakable melody, even an annoying commercial jingle, could take you back in time, literally? Harriet (Boynton) finds music imitating life when she discovers beloved tracks shared with her former boyfriend Max (David Corenswet) can take her back to the scene of certain moments, giving her multiple chances to twist a tragic fate. While she relives the past through these memories, her time-traveling collides with her burgeoning new love interest, David (Lin), in the present. As she journeys through the hypnotic connection between music and memory, she wonders – even if she could change the past, should she? Regardless of being able to time travel, most, if not all, past relationships inform future ones.
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In Rian Johnson’s terrific Star Wars: The Last Jedi, Sith wannabe Kylo Ren declared, “Let the past die. Kill it if you have to.” Harriet is attempting the opposite. Two years after Max (Corenswet) died in a car crash, she’s been trying to save him. Yet no matter how many songs zap her back to certain moments, including the auto accident, she can’t seem to change much. No matter how many times she pleads with Max to stop the car and turn the other way, he will not. And he dies. Over and over.
Benson’s film explores how much music, like certain smells, can bring immediate emotions to the surface. Does hearing a song from prom night bring back the evening’s memories even decades later? It’s a clever observation strongly expressed over the film’s 93-minute run time. Moreover, the characters are all dynamically engaging with an idea so high in concept. Sure, Harriet might get eye rolls from her BFF Morris (the always reliable Austin Crute), but the tone is not as broad as a formulaic rom-com. Perhaps Harriet’s “episodes” are PTSD induced. Or maybe she just can’t let the past die.
Boynton and Lin (and, to a lesser extent, Corenswet) give more grounded performances than expected, given the “love triangle through time” vibe. British-born Boynton, no stranger to musicals, and having been terrific in director John Carney’s Sing Street, she conveys all sorts of feels, even when wearing bulky noise-canceling headphones to drown out any possibly triggering sounds. The big win, though, is the chemistry and warmth Boynton and Lin deliver as Harriet and David—two actors who excel at playing characters who can’t get out of their own way. We are rooting for them, for Harriet to move forward, and for David to understand her, even when we 100% understand how difficult that can be for both two people in love.
Another big plus is the use of Los Angeles as a modern setting. Like Marc Webb’s 2009 indie classic, 500 Days of Summer, LA locales are unusually nuanced and expansive. Working with location manager Justin Hill (FX’s Better Things), the film was shot in 36 locations across the sprawling city. From the narrow hipster streets of Silver Lake to the wide-open surf life of Venice Beach, there’s an authenticity to the look and feel that’s appreciated. The costumes by Olga Mill (Love Lies Bleeding) are accurate even when the characters themselves aren’t trying to be. A scene at a bar where Harriet and David are described as “clearly from Sliver Lake” but are not is a fun joke on today’s twentysomething culture, which perhaps tries too hard not to look like anyone else.
The music used is the second collaboration between Benson and composer Ryan Lott (Everything Everywhere All At Once). Thankfully, perhaps this is why there are not many annoying music drops. Most, if not all, of the songs are special but not huge top-ten hits. These are specific characters who deserve specificity in their varied music taste. It’s fun piecing the tracks together, like a puzzle that transpires over the course of the soundtrack. Finding the connection between 80s tracks The The’s “This is the Day” and Roxy Music’s “To Turn You On” becomes a more than satisfying endeavor. Plus, as a fan of Phoebe Bridgers, I was delighted to hear her cover of the 90s hit The Cure’s “Friday, I’m In Love.”
The Greatest Hits is probably a much better film now than it would have been in 2009. In the past decade, Benson moved from New York City to Los Angeles and thus gained a true love for the city of angels. Further, there’s something undeniable about post-lockdown tales focused on a character that yearns for the past before everything changed. But the world did change. What we do with it is up to us if, of course, the song is a banger.
The Greatest Hits opens in select theaters on April 5 and is available to stream on Hulu starting April 11, 2024.
