Delivered
Danish actor Clara Rugaard makes more than a trip down memory lane as Laura in Press Play.
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Press Play (M, 85min) Directed by Greg Björkman ***
Between the rows of vinyl and the occasional compact disc, there is a wall devoted to mixtapes at the Hawaiian record store Lost & Found.
Owner Cooper (Danny Glover) started it when people who delivered their cassette collections absent-mindedly forgot to delete those curated playlists, so as a sentimental dude he decided that instead of throwing them away, he’d put them where they might one day reunite. be with their owner.
DELIVERED
Press Play is now showing in select cinemas across the country.
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It’s a story that employee Harrison (Lewis Pullman) likes to spoil customers and a story that immediately captivates Laura (Clara Rugaard).
Her best friend Chloe (Lyrica Okano) has been trying to hook her up with him, her stepbrother, but now she sees the allure of his laid-back charm.
There is, however, a bottleneck. He is evasive in his enthusiasm for her favorite band – Japanese Breakfast. So she makes a deal with him. She only gives him her number if he agrees to take her to their concert the following week. Soon he’s wearing the alternative pop-ers T-shirt.
Delivered
At its core, Press Play is a story about the transformative and emotional power of music.
With the pair becoming inseparable, Laura’s only concern is that she’s stopping him from reaching his full potential. Only through his parents does she find out that he has a place at medical school on the other side of the country, and even his assurances that he won’t go – and that he’s happy with the decision – don’t ease her worries.
But at that moment, the morning after his birthday, fate intervenes, sending her into a downward spiral from which she will have to recover for years.
Increasingly disconnected from those around her, it’s only when Cooper gives her the long-forgotten mixtape Harrison had made for her that the memories come back and, somewhat unnervingly, three to four minutes at a time, does she literally feel like she’s being taken back. to happier times.
Delivered
Press Play is the story of when Laura (Clara Rugaard) met Harrison (Lewis Pullman).
Yes, director and co-writer Greg Bjorkman (developed from a story idea by his The Fault in Our Stars director Josh Boone) undemanding, charming little romantic drama is very much about the emotional and transcendent power of music.
Sure, the characters are thinly sketched, the story doesn’t flow naturally, and everything feels a little too episodic as the story unfolds, but there’s something endearing and captivating about this hybrid of The Butterfly Effect, Final Destination, Back to the Future, and Somewhere on time.
Much of its charm comes from its leads. Pullman (most recently featured in Top Gun: Maverick) definitely has his father Bill’s on-screen looks and charisma, while Danish actor Rugaard (currently on the Neon series The Rising) is a revelation as the seemingly constantly charged Laura. . It’s she who sells the sometimes hokey, somewhat predictable narrative twists and turns and adds gravitas to a story that at times all feels a little too slick about the high stakes.
Such a hip-it-hurts soundtrack also delivers the necessary “feels”, while the occasional well-chosen one-liner ensures that it never gets too crazy.
“Wait, are you from the hoverboard future? Or buried Statue of Liberty future?” asks Harrison rather mockingly — and delightfully — when Laura first tries to explain her apparent “Cassandra complex” to him.
Press Play is now showing in select cinemas across the country.