Press Play
Romantic fantasy-drama gave critic Alec Toombs the feels.
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Mixtapes can be incredibly important. “High Fidelity” certainly showed us that. Hell, I once got a girlfriend back (for a time and ill-advisedly) in college after she broke up with me by making and gifting her a mixtape (it was a mix CD, but same diff). A mixtape is the driving narrative and thematic force behind the romantic fantasy-drama “Press Play” (available in select theaters and on VOD beginning Friday, June 24).
Laura (Clara Rugaard of the Netflix movie “I Am Mother”) is a shy artist living on Hawaii’s North Shore who’s seemingly incapable of seeing beyond the borders of her canvases. She’s goaded by her more outgoing gal pal Chloe (Lyrica Okano, Hulu’s “Runaways”) into visiting Lost and Found, a record store where Chloe’s good-natured stepbrother Harrison (Lewis Pullman, currently flying high as Bob in “Top Gun: Maverick”) works for shop owner Cooper (Danny Glover).
Chloe thinks there could be a love connection between Laura and Harrison … and she’s right. The two take in a Japanese Breakfast show (the band appears as themselves) and quickly fall for one another. The couple’s firsts (kiss, fight, etc.) are often marked by songs, which Harrison compiles on a mixtape for posterity’s sake.
Tragedy strikes separating the young lovers. Laura is still reeling four years later until she’s gifted the mixtape by Cooper at Chloe’s wedding. Turns out the tape can transport Laura back to these formative moments where she hopes to alter both her and Harrison’s fates.
“Press Play” is the feature directorial debut of Greg Björkman (my favorite new superhero and Icelandic songstress superfan) and scripted by Björkman and James Bachelor working from a story by Josh Boone (director of “The Fault in Our Stars” and “The New Mutants,” who also produced). (Björkman served as visual effects editor and first assistant editor on “The Fault in Our Stars.”)
“Press Play” ain’t perfect, but there’s plenty here that’s appealing – Rugaard and Pullman make for an attractive and likable onscreen couple, there’s scads of striking scenery, the soundtrack sports some bangers (Japanese Breakfast’s “Boyish” and Father John Misty’s nifty cover of the Flaming Lips’ “Do You Realize??” especially resonate) and Glover’s Cooper sparks a doober (apparently, he ain’t too old for that shit!). Strangely but not unwelcomely, Upright Citizens Brigade member Matt Walsh turns up in a straight role as Harrison’s Dad.
“Press Play” is schmaltzy, sentimental, manipulative and left me and my emotions feeling like we’d just been struck by a Mack Truck. I don’t know if it was the hour at which I watched it (late, for those of you playing at home) or the coupla beers consumed while watching, but “Press Play” got my waterworks a-workin’. Do with this intel what you will, but I found the experience therapeutic.