High Fidelity. The movie. Does it work
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Topic: High Fidelity. The movie. Does it work
Posted By: Kayleur
Subject: High Fidelity. The movie. Does it work
Date Posted: February 22 2015 at 14:52
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High Fidelity. The movie. Yea or nay? Does it work for you? “Is it wrong, wanting to be at home with your record collection?" This for me is the main thing that is wrong with this movie - besides the fact that the book places the fixated compulsive ,neurotic collector/dealer, Rob, in LONDON ,not America. (Film would work best in a large-city Euro or UK mileu.) The movie (and, as I seem to recall, the book) isn't as much about him being alone with his little record-collecting world, as it is about him cataloguing his seemingly countless - to me ,at least - relationships with women. The movie is dead serious on this romance facet. On the other hand, the humorously-portrayed , juvenile-stressed behaviour of the pathetic but lovable record store geek nerds, the 5-starring Cusack, and punk high priest-taste nazi ,composes - what? - at most 20% of this film. To a record collector this hyped film fails because of this boy-girl relationship angle made so damn prominent. It brings it into the distinct realm of romantic women's movie. I rarely fast-forward thru a movie but found myself - on revisiting this film recently - ff-ing through every later scene that did not have a record or audio equipment somewhere. And another thing: IF YOU EVEN WANT TO UNDERSTAND THIS as being such an acclaimed jaunt for a nerdy aging record-collecting audience; if that was its main purpose, the very least the film-makers could have done to appease our vinyl desire/ is occasionally change those records on the displays or outward-facing from the bins. Or put something rare on display - afterall the origional London store is supposed to specialize in obscurities, not King Crimson "Discipline". Please note that I am not critical of the acting here . Also, the casting for the most part is spot-on, especially with Robbins and Louiso . And I just love Joan Cusack's unique face - so expressive and perfect for a comedian.(In the film she has more to do with the facial expressions than the actual lines.) High Fidelity,the movie, just doesn't deliver enough of the record-collector angle. The all-too brief scene on the importance of making the proper track flow/choice in the composition of a mix tape - is just that - too brief. And were matrix numbers EVEN BROUGHT UP? What about the deep question of how to record-clean or the plague of cover ringwear? The eternal question of vaccum tubes' warmth/distortion; of vinyl's tacticity. Yes the movie cries for more on the subject of The Great Reorganization and less stress on the chasing of females. My question is: should High Fidelity be on any such concocted top three list of vinyl-collecting/collector movies? (Along movies like Ghost World, Jackie Brown or Human Traffic.) If not, what film would you replace it with? |
Replies:
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: February 22 2015 at 15:12
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The movie spoke to me. Sure it wasn't perfect, but how many movies are? Putting an accessible story together with under two hours to work with, you have to make compromises. It wasn't really about record collecting anyway. It was a love story, and the setting in which it takes place revolves around music and involves characters that are a bit more gung-ho about music than the average Joe. It doesn't really matter if that copy of Safe as Milk was in VG+ or M- condition or whether the sleeve had ringwear. That might be interesting to us but it doesn't really serve the plot. The Cusacks (John and Joan) are wonderful actors that I always love seeing. And this movie was my first intro to Jack Black, who doesn't annoy me nearly as much as he annoys some of my friends. ------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: Kayleur
Date Posted: February 22 2015 at 15:17
| Jack Black can definitely be annoying in the way Robin Williams was - "on" all the time; in your face. |
Posted By: HolyMoly
Date Posted: February 22 2015 at 15:27
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True. And the schtick does have the potential danger of getting old. It already has for many people. I'm still on board though. I actually saw him playing the lead in a romantic comedy (forgot the name), and it wasn't bad. He knows how to dial it down when necessary. ------------- My other avatar is a Porsche It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle if it is lightly greased. -Kehlog Albran |
Posted By: sleeper
Date Posted: February 22 2015 at 18:18
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It's been a long time since I've seen this film, but I remember greatly enjoying. The record collection wasn't the focus of the film though, because that would be stupid, and boring. ------------- Spending more than I should on Prog since 2005  |
Posted By: TeleStrat
Date Posted: February 22 2015 at 21:38
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I've been a fan of John Cusack since Better Off Dead (1985) and particularly like his dark humor movies. As mentioned, this film is not really about the record store but about Cusack's character recalling his string of failed romances. You could say that the record store was a home base, a place for the movie to return to in between girlfriend stories. I enjoyed the record store scenes much more than the old girlfriend scenes probably because of the two employees (I don't think Jack Black was an actual employee). I've watched this movie at least four times over the years and enjoyed it each time. Speaking of Black, my first recollection of him was in the movie The Jackal with Bruce Willis.
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Posted By: stonebeard
Date Posted: February 23 2015 at 18:33
He was in an episode of X-Files, which I believe was in season 3, so around 1996. Also, IMDB. ------------- http://soundcloud.com/drewagler" rel="nofollow - My soundcloud. Please give feedback if you want! |
TeleStrat wrote: