{"id":120,"date":"2025-10-05T20:56:23","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:56:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/?p=120"},"modified":"2025-10-05T20:56:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T20:56:23","slug":"what-really-matters-is-what-you-like-high-fidelity-at-25","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/?p=120","title":{"rendered":"What Really Matters is What You Like: \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d at 25"},"content":{"rendered":"

When we look back at John Cusack<\/a>\u2019s expressive and bruised-heart romantic Rob Gordon in \u201cHigh Fidelity<\/a>\u201d a quarter-century after the film\u2019s release, there\u2019s little doubt Rob was often a petulant and immature narcissist who filtered nearly every life experience only through what it meant to him. At times, it seemed like it would shock Rob to learn his actions and words have consequences\u2014that he\u2019s responsible for the state of his own life.<\/p>\n

There are moments when we\u2019re stunned, even nauseated, by Rob\u2019s self-absorbed reaction to revelations from former girlfriends, e.g., Joelle Carter\u2019s Penny setting him straight about the trauma she experienced after their breakup\u2014and Rob making her pain all about him. What makes \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d an enduring Chicago classic despite\u2014what makes it still poignant, funny, and insightful\u2014is that the Stephen Frears<\/a>-directed adaptation of Nick Hornby\u2019s 1995 novel frequently acknowledges Rob\u2019s flaws. Cusack imbues him with a raw vulnerability, a spark of humanity, and just enough growth to make him move the needle toward Rob being likable. Somewhere just north of the age of 30, surrounding himself in protective layers of vinyl- and cassette-based hipsterism, he\u2019s at least trying to embark on a journey of self-discovery. By the time Rob bids farewell to us as Stevie Wonder\u2019s \u201cI Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)\u201d swells into the closing credits, we hope for the best for Rob.<\/p>\n

Even if we doubt his on-and-off relationship with Iben Hjelje\u2019s Laura will last.<\/p>\n

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Like Hornby\u2019s memoir Fever Pitch<\/em>, \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d was thoroughly British in its sensibilities, but Frears and the screenwriting team (which included Cusack) did a spectacular job of retaining the spirit of the book while shifting the locale to Chicago. (The 2005 Americanized version of \u201cFever Pitch<\/a>,\u201d switching the sport from soccer to baseball and starring current talk show hosts Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore, almost sounds like parody\u2014but it actually kinda works.) Hornby\u2019s novel was adapted into a short-lived Broadway musical in 2006, with not-quite-immortal songs such as \u201cThe Last Real Record Store\u201d and \u201cNumber Five with a Bullet,\u201d and updated for a Brooklyn-set, gender-switching Hulu series<\/a> in 2020\u2014but the 2000 feature film remains the definitive adaptation.<\/p>\n

Rewatching \u201cHigh Fidelity,\u201d one is struck by how well it serves as a time capsule of turn-of-the-millennium Chicago, primarily the Wicker Park neighborhood in all its bohemian, alt-rock, thrift-store, shabby-cool glory. Even when the locations expand to Lakeview, Lincoln Park and River North, every frame of \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d feels true to the time. We believe these characters live in these spaces. We marvel at Chicago touchstones (some still here, some gone), including the Double Door, the Green Mill Lounge, the Music Box Theatre, Hi Ricky Asia Noodle Shop & Satay Bar, and Lounge Ax. The Irish cinematographer Seamus McGarvey would go on to deliver gorgeous and sometimes breathtaking visuals in the Joe Wright films \u201cAtonement\u201d and \u201cAnna Karenina,\u201d not to mention \u201cThe Avengers,\u201d but his work here is equally impressive, in a lower key. The Chicago we see here is gritty, lived-in, real. \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d occupies the same universe as the likes of \u201cFerris Bueller\u2019s Day Off,\u201d but the images are worlds away.<\/p>\n

Walking out of the Biograph Theater,\u00a0 Cusack as Rob tells us, \u201cJohn Dillinger was shot dead behind that theater in a hail of gunfire. Do you know who tipped them off? His f***** girlfriend.\u201d That\u2019s dark. And funny. Cusack is effortlessly natural in breaking the fourth wall;\u00a0 he has nearly as many lines with \u201cus\u201d as he does with any in-movie character. Rob wears his psyche on his sleeve, whether he\u2019s musing about why he is the way he is\u2014\u201cDid I listen to pop music because I was miserable, or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?\u201d\u2014or admitting he was in over his head with the beautiful and worldly Charlie (Catherine Zeta-Jones): \u201cI never got comfortable. Why would a woman like Charlie go out with me<\/em>?\u201d It\u2019s well-calibrated work encased within shambling physicality.<\/p>\n

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In an underrated performance, Iben Hjelje shines as Laura, a corporate attorney who has outgrown her pink-hair days and has seemingly outgrown Rob, but has her own undercurrent of instability. After Laura leaves Rob, Rob launches into his \u201cdesert island, all-time, top five, most memorable breakups, in chronological order,\u201d and sets out to revisit each of those women from his past. Throughout that trip, \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d reminds us of the last generation before smartphones and social media, a time of landlines and answering machines, phone books and indoor smoking, mix tapes, and desperate calls from rain-soaked telephone kiosks. (Rob is forever getting caught in deluges. You\u2019d think Chicago was in Colombia or Papua New Guinea.) <\/p>\n

Rob\u2019s record store employees and friends, the manic Barry (an electric Jack Black) and the painfully shy Dick (Todd Louiso, expertly playing kindest soul in Rob\u2019s world) provide a kind of Geek Greek chorus to Rob\u2019s emotional rollercoaster ride; Championship Vinyl is one of the few places in the world where these two misfits can be pop culture bullies, or at least feel like they belong. Meanwhile, Cusack creates one of his most memorable romantic and intense and often obsessive characters, alongside the boombox-toting Lloyd Dobler in 1989\u2019s \u201cSay Anything.\u201d (Martin in \u201cGrosse Point Blank,\u201d Jonathan in \u201cSerendipity\u201d and Jake in \u201cMust Love Dogs\u201d could round out a \u201cTop Five List of John Cusack Borderline Stalker Roles.\u201d) It\u2019s no small feat for Cusack to draw us into so many characters that might be more abrasive than endearing were it not for his inherent, regular-guy likability.<\/p>\n

\"High<\/figure>\n

Of course, the songs are a huge component of the story; this is about as close as a movie can get to being a musical without actually being one, with needle drops ranging from \u201cYou\u2019re Gonna Miss Me\u201d by 13th Floor Elevators to \u201cRobbin\u2019s Nest\u201d by Illinois Jacquet to Barry White\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Gonna Love You Just a Little More, Babe,\u201d plus Bruce Springsteen\u2019s cameo and Jack Black\u2019s star-making rendition of \u201cLet\u2019s Get It On.\u201d <\/p>\n

On my recent revisit, I also got a kick out of the familial bonds prevalent in the casting\u2014including one that wouldn\u2019t manifest until two decades later. John\u2019s sister, Joan Cusack, is a burst of comedic energy as Rob\u2019s (rightfully) judgmental sister, Liz. Their father, Dick Cusack, is the minister at Laura\u2019s father\u2019s funeral. John and Joan\u2019s sister Susie Cusack appears as a guest at Charlie\u2019s dinner party. (Ugh, that whole bunch is INSUFFERABLE.) Margaret Travolta, sister of John, plays Rob\u2019s mother. Natasha Gregson Wagner (daughter of producer Richard Gregson and Natalie Wood and stepdaughter of Robert Wagner) plays the beguiling music columnist Caroline Forts, who briefly captures Rob\u2019s interests. Lisa Bonet is a casual scene-stealer as the sultry singer Marie De Salle, who has a brief tryst with Rob but sees right through him. (Twenty years later, Bonet\u2019s daughter Zo\u00eb Kravitz would play Crown Heights record store owner Robyn \u201cRob\u201d Brooks in the Hulu series.)<\/p>\n

A 2010 article<\/a> in Chicago<\/em> magazine placed \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d atop its list of the best Chicago movies of all time. I\u2019m not quite there. With contenders such as \u201cMickey One,\u201d \u201cCooley High,\u201d \u201cThief,\u201d \u201cRisky Business,\u201d \u201cThe Untouchables,\u201d \u201cThe Blues Brothers,\u201d \u201cThe Fugitive,\u201d \u201cBarbershop,\u201d and \u201cThe Dark Knight.\u201d I wouldn\u2019t put it in my personal Top 5\u2014but if we expand that list to 10 or 12, \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d definitely charts.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we look back at John Cusack\u2019s expressive and bruised-heart romantic Rob Gordon in \u201cHigh Fidelity\u201d a quarter-century after the film\u2019s release, there\u2019s little doubt Rob was often a petulant and immature narcissist who filtered […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=120"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=120"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=120"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educationenigma.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=120"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}