The Ultimate Playlist of Noise

The beginning of this has some fun High-Fidelity-lite vibes before sinking into teen melodrama for far too long during the road trip section, co-starring a manic pixie dream girl that's more annoying than appealing. While it ended up being more John Green than Nick Hornsby, the last 20 minutes turned it around, making some brave narrative decisions that give it more credibility than it earned through the middle section.

"Sound is my escape and it is something bigger than myself."

Welcome to January Movies! Today we have...a cheesy teen movie about someone who has a few days before a surgery concerning an illness!

Marcus, an audio-obsessed high school senior, learns he must undergo brain surgery that will render him deaf, and decides to seize control of his fate by recording the Ultimate Playlist of Noise. The Ultimate Playlist of Noise is something I was told to watch because it was above average. I wouldn't say this is bad, but it's nothing we've seen before. The movie is predictable in setup. The characters' personalities aren't anything new from normal. Marcus made me feel conflicted at times. He plays everything cool but also nerdy at the same time. I felt like it needed to be one or the other dependent on the current situation. As he and Wendy go on this trip, there are some entertaining scenes. It's not overly funny and knows that it's not trying to be hilarious. Towards the end, I will say there's an emotional scene and an effective approach concerning his state of health. There's not much to say about this because it's pretty average. I will say I do have some beef with the factual information of it. Since he has a brain tumor, he's supposed to lose all of his hearing after the surgery. Where it's located wouldn't have caused this to happen, if I'm correct. Also, before the surgery they shave that area of his head but in the next shot it's obvious that they didn't. Then after the surgery they show the bandages on the opposite side. I feel like those last two things should've been easily acknowledged while making it. That just bugged me. Anyway, it's not bad, but I'll probably forget about it by the end of the year.

I honestly loved every minute of this movie. The lead actor pulls you in with a sincerity and innocence to his character. You feel everything he feels. If I could purchase this movie I would.

6/10 - this Hulu Original teen romance attempts to follow in the footsteps of several of the past decade's teen movie hits (particularly the John Green film adaptations: The Fault in Our Stars and Paper Towns), but has some problematic messaging and simply fails to elicit the emotional response it clearly desires

I am sure that I am going to like this film far more than the average viewer as it touches home. I am a musician, and music has played a huge role in my life. I inherently connected to this character before the story began. As the story went on, I found myself laughing at the titular playlist because some of my favorite sounds were on it, and I have literally thought about the emptiness their absence might bring. Had the film left it at that, and really explored the character's fears and reservations about his new life, I think that it would have been more impactful than the conflict that is introduced. I think that there is something in this film that everyone can enjoy!