A new reality reveals something classic
SOON TO BE TRENDING, AGAIN: THE TEMPTATIONS’ 1971 hit “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me),” one of the most wistful love songs of its era. It’s a reverie about falling in love at first sight and fast-forwarding through the amazing life the two of you could have together—if only it could be real. The singers run through an intoxicating set of romantic possibilities, eventually settling on a sobering verdict: “It was just my imagination, running away with me.”
The human longing the Temptations sang about predates 1971—not to mention 2018—by thousands of years. But the song finds new life in Steven Spielberg’s ambitious, sweet-spirited Ready Player One. It’s a futuristic adventure-romance about Wade Watts (Tye Sheridan), a teenager stuck in depressed and depressing 2045 Columbus, Ohio, who lives the life of his dreams in a virtual-reality playground known as the OASIS. There, he’s
