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.

4 out of 5 stars.

It is a strong emotional journey about a coming of age story when a young teen has a seizure. To only find out he has a tumor. It can be removed in his brain but it will have complications that will take away his hearing. He decides to plan a road trip and make a playlist of sounds along the way. Which he runs into Wendy (Madeline Brewer) which she is also on the run to new york. They both go together. Making memories and recording sounds.

The plot is good. Cute and emotional. Keean Johnson and Madeline Brewer did a fantastic job with there characters. The idea of losing hearing is tough. The noises of music. Nature. Voices and so much more taken away can be scary. The movie does not into that teen romance cliche. Which is a good thing. But the chemistry of the two characters is sweet and perfecr when they are on screen.

Great cast. Fun direction and music score. The plot is good with an emotional characterization. It is definitely worth checking out.