Neo
Registered User
- Posts
- 130
- Posts Power
- 130.0%
- Liked
- 47
- Joined
- Jan 28, 2024
More than any other type of entertainment, music can take a person back in time. A specific note or lyric can toss a person to a memory or feeling—even one that had been otherwise forgotten—in such a visceral and powerful way. That type of obvious platitude that anyone who has ever listened to music already knows is the sort of thing that The Greatest Hits loves to tell its audience. From writer-director Ned Benson, the film is an earnest, yet extremely flawed time-travel romance that insists on explaining its themes and lessons to the viewer, as the characters continue to ignore these truths, all within a story that also avoids giving its audience key elements that are needed for it to actually work.
What Is 'The Greatest Hits' About?
Lucy Boynton stars as Harriet, who discovered after the death of her boyfriend, Max (David Corenswet, aka the new Superman) that certain songs can take her back in time. If Harriet hears a song that is attached to a memory she had of Max, she will literally be transported back to that moment for as long as the song plays. Two years after Max’s death, Harriet spends most of her nights digging through crates of vinyl attempting to find the right memory that will bring Max back. Whenever she leaves her house, however, Harriet wears headphones blaring “safe” songs that she has no emotional connection to, in order to avoid any random encounters with songs that could send her back in time (which happens almost every single time she takes off those headphones in public).
This seems to be a process that works for her, much to the frustration of her closest friend and DJ Morris (Austin Crute). But when Harriet meets David (Shortcoming’s Justin H. Min), the possibility of an unexpected future makes her reconsider spending so much time in the past, and how she could potentially move forward. Harriet has to figure out if it’s time for her to quit digging through the music for memories long past, or create new ones with someone else.
'The Greatest Hits' Never Gives a Good Reason Why This Old Romance Needs to be Resurrected
Benson is no stranger to ambitious romance stories, as a decade ago, he released The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, which showed a love story from multiple perspectives, split into separate films labeled Him, Her, and then mixed together with Them. The Greatest Hits similarly has a great conceit, but the poor execution of this idea tears apart what could’ve been an effective romance story. The flaws in the film boil down to the fact that the romance part of things doesn’t give us any reason to care about this previous relationship, while the time-travel aspect is so shoddily explored that it’s hard to not spend the majority of the film questioning aspects that the film has no interest in explaining.
With the romance, Harriet and Max had a shared love for music, as she helped her aspiring musician boyfriend with his album. Beyond this musical bond (and it’s implied that Max wasn’t even that great of a musician to begin with), we’re not shown any reason why Harriet would spend the next two years trying to get Max back. At this point, it’s become habit more than anything, but to an audience, we need to understand why this is something someone would dedicate their life to. Especially when the other characters are quite literally telling Harriet she needs to live in the present, and her copy of “The Power of Now” that she’s reading isn’t apparently connecting the dots either, we’re essentially being shown what our main character needs to learn in the first act, then waiting for her to catch up. Not helping matters is that the “meet cute” between Harriet and Max is aggressively annoying, as they meet at a concert that is meant to be a transformative experience, but only highlights how irritating the dialogue here can be.
'The Greatest Hits' Also Struggles as a Time-Travel Film
Similarly, if you’re going to tell a time-travel story, some ground rules need to be set up, but Benson mostly just ignores those aspects with a shrug. For example, The Greatest Hits doesn’t give us any indication that Harriet can actually change the future through her time-traveling until late in the third act. Which, considering this is the entire goal of the main character, that’s a key detail that is largely absent from the story. Harriet has also created a “Charlie explaining Pepe Silvia in It’s Always Sunny”-level map in her apartment that shows the timeline of these songs and where they take her within her relationship with Max. Yet there doesn’t seem to be any attempt to return to the same memory more than once, rather, it’s more like Harriet is attempting to map out the entire relationship via music. Harriet goes back to key moments in the relationship—including the moments leading up to Max’s death—and it’s never clear why she doesn’t try more than one attempt at changing things, before moving on to the next record. Even though there are plenty of moments in the first act for Harriet to explain what the hell is going on, Benson never dives deeper into this concept than the initial elevator pitch.
Benson’s film heads into an ending that starts to play with this idea in a more satisfying way, but comes to a close that feels truly absurd. Without giving away where the story concludes, we are given an ending that doesn’t feel like character growth, but rather, our lead running even further away from the issue to begin with. It’s an extremely odd conclusion that doubles down on Harriet digging her head in the sand and ignoring a significant part of her life—which would be fine, if Benson’s screenplay didn’t seem to find her actions noble and “the right choice” for the story the film has been telling.
Lucy Boynton and Justin H. Min Are Charming and Deserve a Better Film '
This is all disappointing, especially considering that both Boynton and Min deserve a better romance to be stuck in. The Greatest Hits is at its most charming as this pair tries to find a way forward together, as Harriet and David both have traumas in their past that they’re trying to work past. Not surprisingly, it’s on these dates where Benson’s screenplay is at its most straightforward and effective, as we’re simply watching two people start to realize they like each other. Again, we’re not given much of a reason for Harriet to keep going after Max, so it’s hard to not latch onto this new bond that is forming.
Naturally, The Greatest Hits does have a fairly strong soundtrack—at least one place where the film does justice to its concept. With songs from artists like Roxy Music, Beach House, Jamie xx, and Tune-Yards, the film is fittingly packed with music that a couple in their late 20s-early 30s probably would be into. This is also a film that looks surprisingly good, as the transitions from the present to the past are always compelling, thanks to Benson’s direction and cinematography by Chung Chung-hoon, a frequent collaborator of Park Chan-wook. Visually and soundtrack-wise, The Greatest Hits is pretty solid. It’s just a shame about that shoddy screenplay.
The Greatest Hits has a lovely conceit, but Benson’s film mostly stops there, not giving enough of the romance or the time travel within to make this anything substantial. If anything, through the budding relationship of Harriet and David, Benson’s screenplay proves that a more direct, simplistic romance might’ve been even more impactful. Instead, with The Greatest Hits, Benson gives us the film equivalent of an album with a cool cover that masks the inadequate record within.
What Is 'The Greatest Hits' About?
Lucy Boynton stars as Harriet, who discovered after the death of her boyfriend, Max (David Corenswet, aka the new Superman) that certain songs can take her back in time. If Harriet hears a song that is attached to a memory she had of Max, she will literally be transported back to that moment for as long as the song plays. Two years after Max’s death, Harriet spends most of her nights digging through crates of vinyl attempting to find the right memory that will bring Max back. Whenever she leaves her house, however, Harriet wears headphones blaring “safe” songs that she has no emotional connection to, in order to avoid any random encounters with songs that could send her back in time (which happens almost every single time she takes off those headphones in public).
This seems to be a process that works for her, much to the frustration of her closest friend and DJ Morris (Austin Crute). But when Harriet meets David (Shortcoming’s Justin H. Min), the possibility of an unexpected future makes her reconsider spending so much time in the past, and how she could potentially move forward. Harriet has to figure out if it’s time for her to quit digging through the music for memories long past, or create new ones with someone else.
'The Greatest Hits' Never Gives a Good Reason Why This Old Romance Needs to be Resurrected
Benson is no stranger to ambitious romance stories, as a decade ago, he released The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, which showed a love story from multiple perspectives, split into separate films labeled Him, Her, and then mixed together with Them. The Greatest Hits similarly has a great conceit, but the poor execution of this idea tears apart what could’ve been an effective romance story. The flaws in the film boil down to the fact that the romance part of things doesn’t give us any reason to care about this previous relationship, while the time-travel aspect is so shoddily explored that it’s hard to not spend the majority of the film questioning aspects that the film has no interest in explaining.
With the romance, Harriet and Max had a shared love for music, as she helped her aspiring musician boyfriend with his album. Beyond this musical bond (and it’s implied that Max wasn’t even that great of a musician to begin with), we’re not shown any reason why Harriet would spend the next two years trying to get Max back. At this point, it’s become habit more than anything, but to an audience, we need to understand why this is something someone would dedicate their life to. Especially when the other characters are quite literally telling Harriet she needs to live in the present, and her copy of “The Power of Now” that she’s reading isn’t apparently connecting the dots either, we’re essentially being shown what our main character needs to learn in the first act, then waiting for her to catch up. Not helping matters is that the “meet cute” between Harriet and Max is aggressively annoying, as they meet at a concert that is meant to be a transformative experience, but only highlights how irritating the dialogue here can be.
'The Greatest Hits' Also Struggles as a Time-Travel Film
Similarly, if you’re going to tell a time-travel story, some ground rules need to be set up, but Benson mostly just ignores those aspects with a shrug. For example, The Greatest Hits doesn’t give us any indication that Harriet can actually change the future through her time-traveling until late in the third act. Which, considering this is the entire goal of the main character, that’s a key detail that is largely absent from the story. Harriet has also created a “Charlie explaining Pepe Silvia in It’s Always Sunny”-level map in her apartment that shows the timeline of these songs and where they take her within her relationship with Max. Yet there doesn’t seem to be any attempt to return to the same memory more than once, rather, it’s more like Harriet is attempting to map out the entire relationship via music. Harriet goes back to key moments in the relationship—including the moments leading up to Max’s death—and it’s never clear why she doesn’t try more than one attempt at changing things, before moving on to the next record. Even though there are plenty of moments in the first act for Harriet to explain what the hell is going on, Benson never dives deeper into this concept than the initial elevator pitch.
Benson’s film heads into an ending that starts to play with this idea in a more satisfying way, but comes to a close that feels truly absurd. Without giving away where the story concludes, we are given an ending that doesn’t feel like character growth, but rather, our lead running even further away from the issue to begin with. It’s an extremely odd conclusion that doubles down on Harriet digging her head in the sand and ignoring a significant part of her life—which would be fine, if Benson’s screenplay didn’t seem to find her actions noble and “the right choice” for the story the film has been telling.
Lucy Boynton and Justin H. Min Are Charming and Deserve a Better Film '
This is all disappointing, especially considering that both Boynton and Min deserve a better romance to be stuck in. The Greatest Hits is at its most charming as this pair tries to find a way forward together, as Harriet and David both have traumas in their past that they’re trying to work past. Not surprisingly, it’s on these dates where Benson’s screenplay is at its most straightforward and effective, as we’re simply watching two people start to realize they like each other. Again, we’re not given much of a reason for Harriet to keep going after Max, so it’s hard to not latch onto this new bond that is forming.
Naturally, The Greatest Hits does have a fairly strong soundtrack—at least one place where the film does justice to its concept. With songs from artists like Roxy Music, Beach House, Jamie xx, and Tune-Yards, the film is fittingly packed with music that a couple in their late 20s-early 30s probably would be into. This is also a film that looks surprisingly good, as the transitions from the present to the past are always compelling, thanks to Benson’s direction and cinematography by Chung Chung-hoon, a frequent collaborator of Park Chan-wook. Visually and soundtrack-wise, The Greatest Hits is pretty solid. It’s just a shame about that shoddy screenplay.
The Greatest Hits has a lovely conceit, but Benson’s film mostly stops there, not giving enough of the romance or the time travel within to make this anything substantial. If anything, through the budding relationship of Harriet and David, Benson’s screenplay proves that a more direct, simplistic romance might’ve been even more impactful. Instead, with The Greatest Hits, Benson gives us the film equivalent of an album with a cool cover that masks the inadequate record within.