by Zach Smith-Michaels
Top Five Things That I Need When I’m Writing About What I Watched This Week:
A beverage. A hot drink if preferable, but tonight finds me with a cold lemon-lime seltzer. Vintage brand.
Music. Tonight’s muse is the Gone Girl soundtrack on vinyl. Gotta love Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross.
A roaring fireplace. Thank you, youtube for the provision.
Slippers or cozy socks. There can be no possibility of me leaving the house.
A great or interesting movie. Tonight’s source being High Fidelity.
Does anyone else miss John Cusack? I feel like he was almost wasted on a generation. High Fidelity almost seems like a textbook for hipsters. This movie was definitely ahead of it’s time, and Cusack carries the entire film. Seriously, most of his lines involve breaking the fourth wall to address his current situation. His character, Rob Gordon, is no saint. Nor is he portrayed as one. High Fidelity is quite possibly Cusack’s greatest role. I dare you to take your eyes off of him when you watch this movie. He’s oddly manic and calm all at the same time, which doesn’t sound like it will work, but it really does.
Remember when we didn’t find Jack Black annoying. I’ve gotta tell you, the man was my hero in middle school. He kind of had it all in an odd way; he was funny, and great, do you know what I mean? There are funny people out there, but their usual playing second fiddle to someone else. Black definitely does that supporting role in this movie, but…don’t worry I’ll talk about School of Rock soon enough. Black has great chemistry with Cusack, but he also steals the show in quite a few scenes. Also, Todd Louiso is terrific as Dick. Louiso gives such a great performance, and creates a very lovable character. Often times, you feel like you’re in the record store with these guys. I would love to watch a tv show with these three characters, and I don’t even think they would need to leave the store.
This film has a lot to say about dating, romance, and how those two things are different. We tend to overthink relationships without stopping to smell the roses. Some people can’t stop and enjoy what they have, they always need to think about what could be next, and that’s what High Fidelity is. I’m hoping that this film has some kind of resurgence, because I think that this stories message is extremely important for today’s culture.
What is this movies message? I guess you’ll have to watch it and find out for yourself.