My review for Press Play on Film Festival Today! I enjoyed this one immensely and highly recommend it, especially if you enjoy stories of the Groundhog Day style time-travel variety.
The oft-revisited time-rewinding narrative can be difficult to pull off. Press Play manages to do so by leaning into expectations and relishing the experience. Laura [meets] Harrison, a would-be medical student working at a local record store. [They] fall almost instantly for one another, bonding through music, and they create a mixtape over the course of their courtship… Tragedy strikes abruptly, however, when Harrison is killed. Four years later, upon pressing play [on their mixtape], she is thrown back in time by some otherworldly force and reunited with a still-alive Harrison; each song transports her back to the moment they first experienced it together. Laura tries to “fix” the future, repeatedly altering time in big and small ways … Limitations remain intact, which is especially impressive when it comes to time travel. Much of the film relies on the chemistry between its two leads; and seems to have been deliberately written that way … What might have been a grim exploration of grief, instead delves into a more positive take on the theme of letting go, becoming a broader, less harrowing examination of push-and-pull control vs. acceptance.
The oft-revisited time-rewinding narrative can be difficult to pull off. Press Play manages to do so by leaning into expectations and relishing the experience. Laura [meets] Harrison, a would-be medical student working at a local record store. [They] fall almost instantly for one another, bonding through music, and they create a mixtape over the course of their courtship… Tragedy strikes abruptly, however, when Harrison is killed. Four years later, upon pressing play [on their mixtape], she is thrown back in time by some otherworldly force and reunited with a still-alive Harrison; each song transports her back to the moment they first experienced it together. Laura tries to “fix” the future, repeatedly altering time in big and small ways … Limitations remain intact, which is especially impressive when it comes to time travel. Much of the film relies on the chemistry between its two leads; and seems to have been deliberately written that way … What might have been a grim exploration of grief, instead delves into a more positive take on the theme of letting go, becoming a broader, less harrowing examination of push-and-pull control vs. acceptance.
Robin C. Farrell 