Rating: 
Summary: The Man Show
Review: A distilled and transplanted version of Nick Hornby's outstanding 1996 novel, "High Fidelity" serves as a sort of male counterpoint to the endless flood of "chick flicks" typified by "Beaches" and "Steel Magnolias." It's a film filled with honest emotion, spot-on performances and a goodly amount of humor.The adaptation is not without its flaws. Hornby's novel seemed irretrievably steeped in the culture of England, particularly London, but star/writer/producer John Cusack has managed to clip away the connective tissue and relocate the story of record-store owner Rob Gordon to the United States with the bare minimum of system shock. Occasionally the surgery scars show. It's thanks to the strength of the material and Cusack's note-perfect performance that the film overcomes any negative effects from the process. As a rumination on relationships from the oft-neglected male point-of-view, "High Fidelity" is invaluable. Cusack, as has been seen in films from "Say Anything" to "Grosse Pointe Blank," excels as the likeable man of heart and has surrounded himself with a more-than-capable cast, each one perfectly suited to their part (though I could argue for Charlize Theron over Catherine Zeta-Jones as Charlie). The screenplay, and the book upon which it was based, is jam-packed with insight, all of it delivered with quick wit and just the right touches of genuine sorrow and regret. Oh, and let's not overlook the best part: it has a killer soundtrack.
Rating: 
Summary: duh...
Review: Alright, first thing's first: Am I the only woman in America who understood most men BEFORE seeing this movie? Everyone female I talked to was extolling its virtues as THE insite into their boyfriend's minds, but I assumed most people would have known this sort of thing already. Oh well, when you assume.... This movie was very funny, and I really liked the actors in it. I thought there was something lacking with the actresses, but that could have been because their characters weren't very well developed or humorous. There was something missing from the movie as a whole, I thought. The ending was pretty bad. I just can't see Rob as going from totally self-involved to actually caring about someone else (gasp) overnight.
Rating:
Summary: Fan or Fanatic?
Review: Someone (John Cusack?) had a personal story (or two) to tell and vented it with this movie by over-adapting it from Nick Hornby's 1995 novel, set in London (illustrated, above). It has the feel of a composite effort and a personal outpouring as Cusack, both narrator, main character, co-writer and co-producer, is pretty much in our face non-stop in this adventure in overhip angst. The setting is not without its uniqueness, however over-wrung. Rob (Cusack) is a DJ become underground record store owner. And the geeks he's got as employees are beyond firing because they're working just for the contact with their beloved vinyl recordings and the opportunities this affords them for expressing their encyclopedic knowledge of an obscure and elitist subcultural sector of the music universe. They are clearly experts with deep memory for the bizarre, the afflicted, the stray, the experimental and the sonic extreme. The other part of the story is the glue to keep the more chaotic threads in place. This is Rob's relationship to Laura, his girlfriend who, as the story opens, is leaving him -- leaving him to realize more and more as the screenplay unfolds, how flawed is his teenage rationale about women and commitments. This way-above-average intelligent, underachieving semi-philanderer telling us about it while reaching such realizations is the fun. He is facing the joy and the fears of can't-fool-yourself-anymore maturity. But, I keep wanting to address the actor and say, "Enough John! You've proven what an intelligent and good actor you are. You've amply demonstrated how incisive you are about selecting movies to be in. But this one, and "Pushing Tin" you could have done without, even if you did manage to get your sister and various friends into it. Please don't overexpose yourself so much. Wait for another 'Grifters'. Talk to Stephen Frears about this." Wearing the co-producer helmet, Cusack marshalled a good cast, not the least of which is Iben Hjejle as Laura, his ambivalent-to-distraction ex girlfriend Anyway, I think we'll be seeing more of this bright and lovely heretofore unknown actress. He also got his buddy, Tim Robbins into it, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor, Jack Black and other rowdy participants in the haplessness. Cusack's co-writers are D.V. DeVincentis and Steve Pink with whom he also collaborated on "Grosse Pointe Blank". What I couldn't get, though, is why a co-writer\co-producer\actor would write so many night rain scenes in which he gets drenched. A sensitive audience might become more concerned for his personal well-being than for the outcome of his plot-driven relationships. One hopes there was a nurse on the set -- or a steady infusion of brandy. Rated E, for Enough. The Filmiliar Cineaste
Rating:
Summary: Humorous and insightful
Review: The main character in 'High Fidelity' is named Rob Gordon, played by John Cusack. We've seen Cusack play similar characters before: down on his luck, trying to figure out relationships and not dealing very well with anything. It doesn't seem to get old, however. In fact with this role, he brings a new depth of believability and honesty to his role. Rob goes on a quest to figure out what is wrong with him, after being dumped by his girlfriend. He attempts to contact the top five girlfriends in his 'list' of most memorable breakups. From this spawns a serious of scenes with zanny and insightful dialogue repetative in its general content, but different with wit. The characters are believable, all of them. The exploration into the world of relationships and breakups is satisifying in every way possible. Cusack offers his point of view on every little detail, over-analyzing every aspect of his past. He spends more time talking to the camera than to the characters in the movie. This works well as he gives of some of the most memorable quotes in recent years. As I said, the characters are believable, and colorful, well defined and you can relate to just about any of them. Cusacks constant exloration is careful, because it doesn't abandon the female side of the situation, offering several scenes in which we get a good idea how his recent ex-girlfriend is taking all of it. The story is nicely crafted, the dialogue is well written and executed, and the characters are as real as you can get in todays theater. A great film which will hopefully reach a broad audience someday.
Rating:
Summary: Hitting Close to Home
Review: Let me be the first to claim this movie as the blueprint for my life. I'm married to a record dealer whom I met while working at a record store such as the one portrayed in the movie. Heck, my store was even mentioned in Rolling Stone for having the most rude clerks in America. Naturally we had to share such a grand distinction; we posted the clipping on the door. So watching Jack Black's portrayal of Barry brought back some fine memories of my own arrested developement and a lot of satisfaction that I have grown beyond that geek who defined herself by what the records on her shelves. I have to emphasize, not enough fuss has been made of Jack Black. He captured that greasy, elitist record store clerk oh so well. While folks who don't immerse themselves in vinyl will dig the universal qualities in these characters, record hounds will esspecially squirm over how right on some of the collector jokes are. At last, our neurotic sub-culture has been respectably captured on film.
Rating:
Summary: highly enjoyable
Review: I really enjoyed this movie. John Cusack seems to be popping up all over the place which in my mind is a good thing. His intelligence comes through in all his characters. The music subculture was hilariously portrayed, and of course the main love story was good and very real. Great lines. As someone who is trying to figure it all out, I love seeing others do it on screen. I could identify -which is pathetically or not all it takes for me to like a movie. Now I guess I need to go read the book...
Rating: 
Summary: Too Close To Home
Review: this movie nailed it on the head, well for me anyway..from being obsessed with making mix tapes..to not knowing where your life is heading..to troubled realtionships and the struggles that come from it..i think i might be Rob Gordon..which i dont know is a good or bad thing..but i do know i love this movie..
if your a music fan or have spent any time scouring used record shops while your wife or girlfriend is at home pissed because there is no room for anymore records. then you will love and relate to this move...its a true to life love story.. a story of trying to figure out where you screwed up in life..and a very funny comedy.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good But Not Great
Review: I'm a big John Cusack and Stephen Frears fan. They did a really good job on this movie but I can't say a great job. This isn't on the same level as Cusack's "The Grifters" or Frears' "Dangerous Liasions." Perhaps this would have been more of a personal hit with me if Cusack's character had been obsessed with music itself as a musician than obsessed with it as someone who listens to and sell records (yes, records not CDs). Some of the very best scenes in the movie are in his record store itself with his 2 employees and him. I've known people like this, who are absolutely obsessed about knowing everything that ever played in the music world, and they can be very funny. However, the real thrust of the movie is Cusack's character's failed love life. Going through his latest breakup, this time with his current live-in girlfriend, he reviews the 5 greatest romantic breakups in his life and revisits those girlfriends. Seeing how he is and was with these women, I was not surprised that his love life never worked out long range with anyone. I also had mixed reactions to Cusack's contantly breaking into first person narration before the camera, facing us and talking directly to us as the audience. Scorsese used this technique very well in "Goodfellas" with Ray Liotta but it didn't work as seamlessly with "High Fidelity" as it did in "Goodfellas." Nick Hornby, the author of the book, more successfully explored romance and the otherwise obsessed male with the film adaptation of "Fever Pitch," about a football mad Colin Firth who lets his sports watching addiction seriously interfere with his love life.
Rating:
Summary: Possessions and obsessions
Review: This is a movie about men, their possessions and how they order them. For Rob, it's all about pop music and women. Nothing else, besides the odd film, matters to him. And it's pretty much the same for his two male colleagues at the record shop, who exist at opposite ends of the forcefulness spectrum. They form a self-selected elite who look down on the musical taste of nearly everyone they meet. But actually their hyper-critical views are pretty close to the mark. It's great to hear someone else noticing and lamenting the 1980s decline of Stevie Wonder, for example. One might criticise author Hornby for selecting Rob's dream job as record producer in the punk era (1976-79) when he could have chosen, say, late 1960s Beach Boys / Beatles psychedelia. But you can never find someone with the identical taste as your own. Strangely, the music is not particularly central to this movie, in the sense that it probably generated fewer album sales for featured artists like Marvin Gaye than say 'The Big Chill'. The structure of the movie takes a little getting used to. The first time you see it can be a disappointment -- there's no upbeat climactic ending, unless you count the improbable, rather obviously tacked-on, disco/concert by Sonic Death Metal, or whatever they happened to be called at the time. John Cusack's frequent chats to camera seem altogether natural (except when he's sauntering backwards and forwards on some wooden bridge-cum-platform in downtown Chicago). What I like about this film is that, from a male viewpoint, it rings true so often. Men do behave treacherously, and the behaviour often looks worse at first sight. I like the fact that the actress who played Laura wasn't stunningly attractive. Even Lisa Bonet didn't seem particularly beautiful in the movie. (But yes, that really is Catherine Zeta-Jones discreetly stripping off in a role just before she became famous enough to warrant a major Hollywood film credit.) This is not the perfect movie, but it contains a message about the male psyche that I hadn't extracted from any other movie, and that revelation in itself is sufficiently uplifting to distract from the artificial attempt by the film to uplift via the back-together-again concert/disco scenario.
Rating:
Summary: Maudlin Navel Gazing to a Great Soundtrack
Review: Ah yes. Another quirky offbeat romantic comedy from quirky offbeat romantic cynic John Cusack. Life sucks but he wouldn't miss it for the world. Give John Cusack credit. He was 34 when he made this. His character is a guy in his late 20's who has the emotional maturity of a teenager and Cusack pulls it off effortlessly. Cusack's character, Rob, isn't a jerk. He's a manchild. He doesn't mean to be a selfish obsessive boob; he just lacks the normal range of human adult emotions. Imagine the teenager Cusack played in Better Off Dead. Now imagine that teenager ten years later and working as the owner of a independent music store. He's a music snob and puts in long hours at the store but he still has time to ruin promising relationships with childish antics, talk to the screen and stalk former girlfriends while chasing after the next soon to be ex girlfriend. High Fidelty is the unofficial sequel to Better Off Dead. Instead of weird parents and goofy fantasy sequences, we get weird coworkers and morbid sexually and violently charged fantasy sequences involving Tim Robbins. I won't compliment the soundtrack except to say any movie about music had better have a damn good soundtrack and High Fidelity does its job.
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