HIGH FIDELITY (2000)
Tagline: A comedy about fear of commitment, hating your job, falling in love, and other pop favorites.
(Comedy, Drama, Well Mostly Drama) [R]
What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery, and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?
In this one, a record store owner named Rob is going through a breakup and contemplating his future. He does this mostly by coming up with TOP 5 lists for everything.
First off, if there is a movie where I can’t find much common ground with any of the characters or really find myself not liking them at all. I am probably not going to like the movie. What I love about this thing are the actual lists that Rob (who is played extremely well by John Cusack best known for SAY ANYTHING) comes up with. I also liked the music overall and some of the movie's funnier moments.
Where this thing kind of goes off the rails is that even Rob isn’t that likable, no one (who gets much screen time) is. I really didn’t find myself caring about any of these characters with the exception of Dick (played by Todd Louiso best known for JERRY MAGUIRE), but he gets very little screen time. Jack Black is a great actor in my opinion, but his role in this as Barry, made me want to punch him in the nuts.
Acting-wise Iben Hjejle who plays Laura, the girl Rob is breaking up with, does a very commendable job. Joan Cusack has a small role in this but she is good also. This was actually the 8th movie that Joan and John Cusack appeared in together when it was made. There is a bit of a reunion here for John Cusack and Lili Taylor who were both also in SAY ANYTHING together. Overall the cast is really pretty good given that most of them are still very active as of 2022 (22 years after this movie came out). Unfortunately, the script comes across as largely pretentious and musically snobby. It’s not the end of the world, but this could have been more fun given its decent premise. We do get some really good acting so that definitely wasn’t an issue. The writing is at times also extremely clever.
This movie does a good job of putting a bit of a nice bow on top of an otherwise kind of a downer of a movie, but as much as I love music, I found myself checking out from time to time even while watching this for the review. That doesn’t mean that some of the concepts and ideas aren’t cool. I for one am a huge fan of TOP 10 lists and even lists bigger than that. So coming up with a TOP 5 anything is always a fun exercise.
In that spirit, here are my TOP 5 John Cusack movies.
1- SAY ANYTHING
3- CON AIR
5 – BETTER OFF DEAD
For me, this is a 3 out of 7. I do like to watch it from time to time (which means Jenn and I own it) and for the record, it’s a bit of a classic even if you are just watching it for a reference for what some consider great music.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF TOUCHSTONE PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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