The Ultimate Playlist of Noise

If there's anything that's easy to find in teen comedy-dramas, it's that one road trip where they travel from point a to b for either a material purpose or something meaningful. That's not to say such a familiar premise is a bad thing as long characters bring anything captivating to the story, then it's just something to kickback with. With how numerous this does occur within the genre, however, it presents a challenge with needing a unique attribute to standout with. This brings us to The Ultimate Playlist of Noise, which was directed by Bennett Lasseter and debuted as a Hulu streaming movie. Admittedly I only learned of this features existence while researching 2021 entries on streaming platforms that I had access to. There wasn't any social media comments about it and the release date of January wasn't doing it any favors as that month traditionally are where mediocre throwaway flicks are tossed into streamers and theaters. I watched it to see if it was a hidden gem and ended up being let down by the forgettable experience, despite its best intentions. 

What's it about? The story follows a music obsessed high school senior embarking on a road trip to record a playlist to share before having brain surgery that will render him deaf. This isn't short on the cliches audiences know about such as shy person traveling with an eccentric individual, having a light-hearted tone, life-altering event to reach, etc. The bond that forms between the traveling duo is definitely watchable and helps elevate the middle chunk of the story. The aching sense of wanting to listen to special noises before going deaf as well as wanting to share it is an admirable goal here given how enthusiastic the protagonist is about music. The supportive friends and conflicted family help contribute in doses to this little feature.

However, there are a variety of reasons that sink down the quality here into being unmemorable in one main area: the screenplay is a problem. The third act presents interesting issues that aren't resolved in a cohesive manner. For example, the senior student learns a tragic detail, which piles onto his previous depressing mood from before leaving onto his trip, and the conversation he has later along with everything that follows feels like half effort. That resolution rings hollow, despite its intentions, and ends up being some teen TV happy ending that thinks it accomplished its emotional payoff. The other side of that coin is the traveling companion who reveals her motive and there's even less effort put into satisfying resolution with her end. Even the humor feels like its recycled mainstream TV jokes trying to be cute.

 

How are the actors? In regards to story importance, the actors to focus on are Keean Johnson and Madeline Brewer. Keean gives a decent performance in being as adorkable as possible, even though he's not great enough to elevate his material with the direction he's given. Madeline is the MVP among the cast where her charm and acting fares better, despite her script problems in the third act. Honorable mention goes to Rya Kihlstedt for looking like she did the most with her limited screen time. 

 

Overall Consensus: The Ultimate Playlist of Noise fails to reach an emotionally satisfying experience due to an unambitious script that doesn't explore its third act more thoroughly but has competent acting and good intentions. ⭑⭑⭑* Runtime: 1 hour 38 minutes R

*This feature just barely gotten this score for the merits of being a streaming movie. If it was in theaters, score would have been lower. 

Reasons to watch it: You are a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Bennett Lasseter. You want to have a small flick going on as background noise. You don't mind cliched road trip adventures. 

 

Reasons to avoid it: You aren't a fan of the aforementioned actors and/or director Bennett Lasseter. You dislike narratives that don't explore its ideas. You are bored with cliched road trip adventures