By Robert Scucci
| Published
If you don’t currently understand the importance of organizing your records autobiographically, then it’s high time you fire up Disney+ and burn through High Fidelity. Starring an in-his-prime John Cusack supported a stellar ensemble cast featuring Jack Black, Iben Hjejle, Todd Louiso, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Tim Robbins, and even the boss himself, Bruce Springsteen, High Fidelity takes a neurotic look at breakups from the perspective of a man who’s totally clueless about women, but knows how to make one hell of a mix tape.
Constantly interrupted in the best kind of way by Cusack’s fourth wall breaking, High Fidelity is a rom-com that will make you take stock in your own relationships, and may also turn you onto bands like Barry Jive and the Uptown Five, formerly known as Kathleen Turner Overdrive, formerly known as Sonic Death Monkey.
Rob’s Top Five
Rob Gordon (John Cusack) takes center stage in High Fidelity as his life quickly falls apart after getting dumped by his most recent girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle). A music elitist managing Championship Vinyl, Rob is often accompanied by his two loyal but never not annoying employees: the timid yet knowledgeable Dick (Todd Louiso), and the bombastic and in-your-face Barry (Jack Black).
Spending most of his days compiling “top five” playlists at the record store, Rob uses his most recent breakup as an opportunity to revisit his top five failed relationships so he can better understand himself, as well as the women who rejected him. Obsessively revisiting his past, Rob has revelations that only a music snob of his caliber could experience, like remembering that if he wants to listen to “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac, he has to remember that he bought it for somebody in Fall of 1983, but didn’t give it to them “for personal reasons.”
Fully exploring the question, “Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?,” Rob finds himself stuck in life because of his inability to get over Laura and his other four past girlfriends, Allison, Penny (Joelle Carter), Charlie (Catherine Zeta-Jones), and Sarah (Lili Taylor), causing him to feel uncomfortably introspective and self-critical in High Fidelity, which is further exacerbated by Barry’s willingness to bluntly tell it like it is while making fun of his “sad bastard music” as he battles with his ever-present sense of hopelessness.
A Music Nerd’s Holy Grail
High Fidelity fires on all cylinders as Rob confronts his past while dealing the buffoons he works with at the record store, demonstrating how sometimes the best advice comes from the people you passionately argue with over whether Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” belongs on the top of a list featuring best album intros, or if side one, track one of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is the more deserving track because it’s such an obvious and generic choice. Jack Black’s Barry, who only speaks in music references, foils Cusack brilliantly because these surface conversations about music reveal a startling insight into Rob’s thought patterns that are more often than not self-limiting, while Barry’s freewheeling approach to life seems to be a much more satisfying way to live.
Telling a story about healing your old wounds and moving on, High Fidelity is heartfelt, hilarious, and will never fail to remind you that the new Belle and Sebastian sucks ass, which is a sentiment that still rings true to this day.
As of this writing, you can stream High Fidelity with a Disney+ subscription.
