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The Greatest Hits (film)

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The Greatest Hits
Release poster
Directed byNed Benson
Written byNed Benson
Produced by
  • Michael London
  • Shannon Gaulding
  • Stephanie Davis
  • Cassandra Kulukundis
  • Ned Benson
Starring
CinematographyChung-hoon Chung
Edited bySaira Haider
Music byRyan Lott
Production
companies
Distributed bySearchlight Pictures
Release dates
  • March 14, 2024 (2024-03-14) (SXSW)
  • April 5, 2024 (2024-04-05) (United States)
  • April 12, 2024 (2024-04-12) (Hulu)
Running time
95 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

The Greatest Hits is a 2024 American romantic fantasy film written, produced and directed by Ned Benson, and starring Lucy Boynton, Justin H. Min, David Corenswet, and Austin Crute. It follows Harriet (Boynton) who, mourning her deceased boyfriend, travels back in time when she listens to a particular song associated with the latter.

Searchlight Pictures announced the film in August 2022, with principal photography commencing at the end of the month and continued till October. Much of the film was shot predominantly in Los Angeles by cinematographer Chung-hoon Chung. During post-production, the musical score was composed by Ryan Lott and editing was completed by Saira Haider.

The Greatest Hits had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 14, 2024 and had a limited theatrical release on April 5, 2024, followed by a worldwide premiere as a Hulu original film on April 12, 2024. The film received mixed reviews from critics.

Plot

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Harriet is mourning her boyfriend, Max, who died two years ago in a car crash. Her emotional recovery is complicated by an unusual ability: whenever she hears songs associated with him she travels back in time to that moment.

In the present, these episodes manifest as a seizure, and to keep herself from inadvertently traveling, Harriet wears noise canceling headphones when out in public. She tries multiple times to save Max's life. During one of her trips, Harriet asks Max if he would save her life if it meant they would never meet.

In her grief support group, Harriet meets David Park. He is grieving his recently deceased parents and trying to keep their antiques business afloat. Harriet invites him to a DJ session by her friend Morris, the only other one who knows about her time travel. When she and David hit it off, Morris suggests she try to move beyond Max.

Harriet travels back to the moment she and Max first met: a concert where she impulsively followed him into the crowd after striking up a conversation. In the present she rebuffs David's questions about the headphones. They attend several functions together and grow closer, but when they try to make out, Harriet hears one of her triggering songs and breaks it off. She later comes clean to David about what is happening to her, but he doesn't believe in her theory, calling her trips hallucinations.

David finally takes Harriet to his parents' antique shop. She realizes that she's been there before, with Max. She uses one of the songs to travel back in time and leave a message there for David. He finds the message and realizes that Harriet can travel in time. He asks if she can save his parents but she states she can only affect her own decisions and not those of others.

Harriet finally has confidence that she can change the past, but she also realizes she loves David and that if Max didn't die then they would never meet. The two of them discuss what to do, with David telling her that he would save his parents if he had the chance. Harriet travels back in time and asks Max if he would choose never meeting her if it would prevent her death. As he says yes, she returns to current time and shares a moment with David before going back to the concert the day she met Max. Max invites her to follow him and unlike on the day they met she declines, sparing him an early, tragic death.

In the new present, Harriet is happy and no longer needs the headphones. At a coffee shop, Max walks past her, arm in arm with another woman, he and Harriet don't notice each other. She and Morris attend a concert where David and his sister are also attending. Harriet and David catch each other's eye.

Cast

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Production

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Development

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"I’m obsessed with music and what it does to me and how it sort of forms nostalgia. So many songs and so much music just transports me back to the past and sort of helps remind me to live my life too, so I wanted to write a movie about that."

— Ned Benson[1]

The Greatest Hits was written, produced and directed by Ned Benson. It was also produced by Groundswell Productions' Michael London and Shannon Gaulding, along with Stephanie Davis, Cassandra Kulukundis. The film marked Benson's return to directing after a decade, since The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby (2013).[2]

In 2008, Benson read the non-fiction novel Musicophilia (2007) by author Oliver Sacks which results on how music interacts with the brain and The Rest Is Noise by the music critic Alex Ross. The two novels led him to develop the genesis and story idea for the film, which he attributed to his emotional susceptibility to music that served as the time travel mechanism for his life.[3][4] During the COVID-19 pandemic, Benson revisited the script through the musical lens.[1]

Benson further described the film as a "love letter to Los Angeles" where the film was set and shot; the filmography of Cameron Crowe, John Hughes, Richard Linklater and the films Reality Bites (1994) and Like Crazy (2011) served as inspirations for the film.[5] While the initial draft had specific needle drops tied to his musical selections, he wanted the story to come to life with the cast. This resulted him to rewrite the script multiple times, including the dialogues owing to the casting process.[1]

Casting

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In August 2022, Lucy Boynton was cast as Harriet Gibbons, the film's protagonist. She eventually zeroed on the role after opting out to star on a proposed biopic on British singer Marianne Faithfull.[6] Benson described Boynton as an "extraordinary actor in everything that she does, and she’s also just a lovely human being" which felt it suited for Gibbons' role.[1] Later, the same month, Justin H. Min was cast as David Park.[7] David Corenswet participated in the film's production on October.[8] In October 2022, Austin Crute was added to the cast.[8]

Filming

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The film was shot predominantly in Los Angeles, California.[9]

Principal photography took place on location in Los Angeles, California from late August to October 2022, particularly in the locations of: Downtown, Echo Park, Silver Lake, Chinatown, Boyle Heights, Highland Park, Venice Beach and Agua Dulce.[2][10] The film was shot in 36 locations in the city.[9]

Music

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Release

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In August 2022, Searchlight Pictures acquired the rights to The Greatest Hits.[6] The film had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 14, 2024, and released in select theatres on April 5, 2024, followed by a streaming release on Hulu in the United States on April 12, 2024.[11][12]

Reception

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Audience viewership

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According to the streaming aggregator JustWatch, The Greatest Hits was most streamed film across all platforms in the United States from April 15 to April 21, 2024,[13] and overall the fourth most streamed from April 1 to April 30, 2024[14]

Critical response

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 49% of 80 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.8/10. The website's consensus reads: "The Greatest Hits is built around a genuinely interesting idea, but it's lost in a shallow treatment that's too often content to rely on sentimentality."[15] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 50 out of 100, based on 15 critics, indicating "mixed or average" reviews.[16]

Valerie Complex of Deadline Hollywood wrote "The film’s exploration of music’s role in our emotional lives and history is a moving portrayal that offers audiences a reflective journey through the intricacies of love, loss and, ultimately, hope."[17] Coleman Spilde of The Daily Beast wrote "The film celebrates these types of adoration without exalting them, and the diffident types of audiophiles who move about Harriet’s universe charm their way into a viewer’s heart. That resonance is so supremely critical to a time travel film. This genre hinges on forging an emotional connection to its audience. That relationship is what makes trekking through space and time a necessary experimentation with fate, and not an exhausting record that’s stuck on repeat."[18] Kate Erbland of IndieWire called it as "a wistful charmer about the price of nostalgia".[19]

Peter DeBruge of Variety wrote "This is a love story; it’s not meant to be logical. Still, such a premise lives or dies by its execution, and apart from the pretty pixie flares that swarm the screen each time Harriet is about to sonic-zoom, The Greatest Hits feels like the remainder-bin version of better love stories."[20] Alissa Wilkinson of The New York Times praised the performances and music choices but felt that the film lacks the "imagination of [The Disappearance of] Eleanor Rigby" and the "lightness and humor of a rom-com, which might balance out all the dreary moments and make it feel more watchable."[21] Caryn James of The Hollywood Reporter wrote "The Greatest Hits is the kind of film that should sweep you away with its charm and emotion. Instead, it’s too transparently button-pushing to go beyond the stale tropes of the weepy drama."[22] Alex Maidy of JoBlo.com wrote "The Greatest Hits was almost a good movie if it could have plumbed the depths of these characters a bit more. Instead, it is a forgettable romance with one of the best soundtracks in recent memory."[23]

Benjamin Lee gave the film two out of five stars in The Guardian, calling the film "[an] often insufferably cutesy romance."[24] Ty Burr of The Washington Post assigned one-and-a-half out of five stars saying "A time-travel romance falls victim to generic characters and clunky dialogue".[25] In a two-star review, Ferdosa of Screen Rant wrote "The Greatest Hits could've become an instant hit with romance fans, but the story choices just feel wrong".[26] Ross Bonaime of Collider rated two stars out of five and wrote "with The Greatest Hits, Benson gives us the film equivalent of an album with a cool cover that masks the inadequate record within".[27] Chase Hutchinson of TheWrap wrote "The Greatest Hits is a fitting title as there are plenty of familiar beats that may ensure it achieves broad popularity, but it never finds anything remotely close to genuine emotional potency [...] Like a superficial pop radio hit that gets played over and over, the only grace it finds is the potential that it will fade from your memory as soon as you finish watching it."[28] Marjorie Baumgarteon of The Austin Chronicle wrote "with a narrative premise that requires the suspension of disbelief, The Greatest Hits stands on less sturdy ground, even though it is irrepressibly romantic."[29]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Bergeson, Samantha (April 13, 2024). "10 Years After 'The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby,' Ned Benson Wanted to Show the 'Healthiest Version' of Love Instead". IndieWire. Archived from the original on April 15, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  2. ^ a b Gonzales, Erica (February 29, 2024). "See Lucy Boynton and Justin H. Min in The Greatest Hits, a Time-Traveling, Music-Filled Romance". Elle. Archived from the original on March 6, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  3. ^ Jones, Rob (April 12, 2024). "Ned Benson talks The Greatest Hits". Filmhounds Magazine. Archived from the original on April 12, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  4. ^ Dean, Sadie (April 19, 2024). "Let the Behavior Tell the Story: An Interview with 'The Greatest Hits' Writer-Director Ned Benson". Script Magazine. Archived from the original on May 4, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  5. ^ "THE GREATEST HITS Interview: Ned Benson, Lucy Boynton, Justin H. Min on Los Angeles and Everchanging Relationships with Music". ScreenAnarchy. April 18, 2024. Archived from the original on April 22, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  6. ^ a b Fleming, Mike Jr. (August 10, 2022). "Searchlight Takes Ned Benson-Directed 'The Greatest Hits'; Lucy Boynton To Star After Dropping From Marianne Faithfull Film". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 21, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  7. ^ Lambert, Harper (August 31, 2022). "The Umbrella Academy' Actor Justin H. Min to Star Opposite Lucy Boynton in Searchlight's 'The Greatest Hits'". TheWrap. Archived from the original on September 21, 2022. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  8. ^ a b Grobar, Matt (October 25, 2022). "The Greatest Hits': Austin Crute Joins Lucy Boynton, Justin H. Min In Ned Benson-Directed Searchlight Romance". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on September 7, 2023. Retrieved March 8, 2023.
  9. ^ a b Weintraub, Steven; Jones, Tamera (April 13, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits' Director Confirms David Corenswet Is Superman On and Off-Screen". Collider. Archived from the original on May 4, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  10. ^ "The Greatest Hits Production Notes Final" (PDF). Searchlight Pictures Press. Archived (PDF) from the original on March 16, 2024. Retrieved March 16, 2024.
  11. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 7, 2024). "SXSW 2024 Second Wave Includes Pics With Sydney Sweeney, Nicolas Cage, Camila Mendes & 'Monkey Man'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 3, 2024. Retrieved February 7, 2024.
  12. ^ D'Alessandro, Anthony (February 29, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits': Searchlight SXSW Film Sets Spring Theatrical & Hulu Dates". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 14, 2024. Retrieved February 29, 2024.
  13. ^ Gruenwedel, Erik (April 22, 2024). "JustWatch: 'The Greatest Hits,' 'Fallout' Top Weekly Streaming Through April 21". Media Play News. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  14. ^ Gruenwedel, Erik (May 2, 2024). "JustWatch: 'Late Night With the Devil,' 'Fallout' April's Most-Streamed Movie, TV Show". Media Play News. Retrieved May 7, 2024.
  15. ^ "The Greatest Hits". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved April 12, 2024. Edit this at Wikidata
  16. ^ "The Greatest Hits". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved April 12, 2024.
  17. ^ Complex, Valerie (March 14, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits' Review: Ned Benson Explores The Transformative Power Of Music – SXSW". Deadline. Archived from the original on March 21, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  18. ^ Spilde, Coleman (March 14, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits' Is the Most Original Time Travel Movie in Years". The Daily Beast. Archived from the original on March 23, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  19. ^ Erbland, Kate (March 15, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits' Review: Lucy Boynton Travels Through Time, Care of a Stack of Memory-Laced LPs". IndieWire. Archived from the original on April 14, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  20. ^ Debruge, Peter (March 16, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits' Review: Music Makes the Heart Go Round in Clunky Remix of Better Rom-Coms". Variety. Archived from the original on April 4, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  21. ^ Wilkinson, Alissa (April 11, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits' Review: Yes, She Could Turn Back Time". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on April 14, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  22. ^ James, Caryn (March 17, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits' Review: Lucy Boynton Time-Travels Back to Her Dead Boyfriend in Predictably Weepy Musical Drama". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on March 17, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  23. ^ Maidy, Alex (April 11, 2024). "The Greatest Hits Review". JoBlo. Archived from the original on April 22, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  24. ^ Lee, Benjamin (April 10, 2024). "The Greatest Hits review – cutesy music romance plays a forgettable tune". The Guardian. Archived from the original on April 15, 2024. Retrieved April 11, 2024.
  25. ^ Burr, Ty (April 10, 2024). "Review | 'The Greatest Hits': Save your time". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Archived from the original on April 21, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  26. ^ Ferdosa (March 24, 2024). "The Greatest Hits Review: Solid Acting Chemistry Can't Keep This Messy Time Traveling Romance Afloat". ScreenRant. Archived from the original on April 7, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  27. ^ Bonaime, Ross (April 8, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits' Review: This Musical Time-Travel Romance Could've Used a Remix". Collider. Archived from the original on May 4, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  28. ^ Hutchinson, Chase (March 15, 2024). "'The Greatest Hits' Review: Lucy Boynton's Time-Traveling Music Movie Never Finds the Right Tune". TheWrap. Archived from the original on April 8, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
  29. ^ Baumgarten, Marjorie (March 16, 2024). "SXSW Film Review: The Greatest Hits". The Austin Chronicle. Archived from the original on March 30, 2024. Retrieved May 4, 2024.
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