‘I’ve come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains...’
When I was around 10 years old, I read Nick Hornby’s seminal football classic Fever Pitch and for the first time in my young life I felt as if someone had made something specifically for me. And then I read High Fidelity, Hornby’s follow-up to Fever Pitch and his love letter to pop music and this time, it felt as if Hornby had climbed into my head and poured my soul out on the page. It was a thrilling, overwhelming, anxiety-inducing experience. Then I saw the movie, and that was it; I was fully in love…
What came first? The music or the misery? Record store owner Rob Gordon (John Cusack) finds himself cut adrift when his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) unexpectedly walks out on him. His employees, Barry (Jack Black) and Dick (Todd Louiso), offer little comfort, so Rob goes on a mission of self-discovery, seeking out all his past loves to try to figure out why they rejected him. Said ex-girlfriends are portrayed by Catherine Zeta-Jones, Lili Taylor and Joelle Carter, with Tim Robbins and Lisa Bonet appearing in supporting roles.
Weezer have a track called ‘Heart Songs’ in which Rivers Cuomo earnestly lists all of his favourite songs in that awkward way that only he can pull off. Well, if there were a film equivalent, High Fidelity would be one of my heart films. Rob Gordon, along with Brodie Bruce from Mallrats, is the closest I’ve ever come to feeling truly represented on screen. As someone who has spent most of my life making top five lists and avoiding speaking to women, it was inevitable that I would fall head over heels with this movie. What’s interesting is that in the decade or so since I last saw it, I no longer see my current self in this guy anymore, or at least not to the same extent. But do I still see my past self here? Oh, you bet, in a way that actually made me feel pretty uncomfortable. That’s the power of John Cusack, ladies and gentlemen, and his everyman charm here somehow makes Rob Gordon sympathetic, heck, likeable even, even though he spends most of the film being utterly cruel and selfish.
High Fidelity is not simply a love letter to music fandom; it’s an exploration of all the ways people use popular culture as a substitute for personality. Or is it as a way to enhance what is already there? That’s the beauty of High Fidelity. It doesn’t answer the big questions, but it asks them in a way that I’d never seen done before. It also features one of Jack Black’s most likeable performances, a killer soundtrack and an absolutely incredible cameo from actual Bruce Springsteen. What else could you possibly want?
