Hey folks, Harry here with Flesh Gordon's look at HIGH FIDELITY. And trust me, he stays way more on topic than I do. Hehehe. But then, that's just his style, he's a details man. Crosses his t's and dot's his i's. Gotta love that in a dude...
Is your life categorized? Have you arranged your former significant others into a nice and neat listing of who hurt you the worst when they broke up with you? Do you make mix tapes for the different moods that you are in? How are your records and compact discs organized alphabetically, chronologically, or autobiographically? I can confess to being guilty of at least one of the above. Well, if you are John Cusack's character of in HIGH FIDELITY all the above is true.
This is Flesh Gordon and I watched HIGH FIDELITY Friday night during the SWSX Film Festival. John Cusack's character really spoke to me, literally and figuratively. He plays Rob Gordon, the owner of Championship Vinyl, a record store in Chicago, who thinks that he has lost his way in life. We enter the film when the character is raw and emotionally vulnerable. He has just been dumped by his girlfriend of two years. This is a guy who clearly loves women, and getting dumped by them makes him feel like shit. While wallowing in the misery, Cusack's thirty-something character (Hard to believe, isn't it?) slowly begins to take stock of what he has lost, and what he still has. His feelings of loneliness and sexual jealousy poignantly and humorously set the tone and pace for the rest of the film. They force him to try to make sense of the history of his love life. He contacts the ex-girlfriends on the infamous Top Five List of the Most Painful Break-ups. Laughter ensues.
My perception of HIGH FIDELITY is a that it is a film aimed at the same people who grew up on John Hughes movies in the eighties, when they were teenagers (people like me). Movies like the BREAKFAST CLUB spoke truths about the realities of teen angst at that time. HIGH FIDELITY taps into my thoughts of today. The teens of the eighties have grown up now, but into what? Are those professional and romantic expectations of our teen years being met by our adult reality? Are we still making the same mistakes that we did in high School? The angst continues.
HIGH FIDELITY is another cinematic pit stop for my generation's journey through life. Those of us who are not married by now (and some of you who are too) have experienced many of the same things as Cusack does in this film. Obviously there is always the natural fear of a permanent commitment to a relationship. Frequently you string along another person because you are afraid to be alone, but you are also scared to lose you freedom and settle down. John Cusack's character exhibited this ambivalence towards his latest relationship, and she leaves. Typically, he doesn't realize what he had until she's gone, hence an excuse for another Top Five list.
People my age also measure their success by the job that they have. Like Cusack's character, I think that we all have at least a mental list of our Top Five All Time Dream Jobs. It hurts to be thirty and realize you will never be close to number five, let alone number one. Cusack isn't sure that owning a record store is what he wants to do. His two workers drive him nuts, but his interplay with them provides HIGH FIDELITY with its greatest and funniest moments. Jack Black and Todd Louiso are both equally fine as the employees who won't leave. They are indeed Cusack's surrogate family. There is one terrifically hilarious fantasy sequence involving the three and how they enact revenge on Rob's ex-girlfriend's new man, played by Tim Robbins.
I am aware of the fact that many of the above themes seem tired and cliched. HIGH FIDELITY does do them justice, completely due to the fact that John Cusack is one of the best actors working today. He really possesses the ability to make us care about him on screen. He pulls us into his story. His direct narration to the audience draws us into the story more quickly that we otherwise would have been. His character of Rob Gordon seems that much more real because of this too. As always, as the romantic lead he shows the right mix of vulnerability and sinicism. We still root for adult Cusack in HIGH FIDELITY just like we were pulling for teen Cusack in SAY ANYTHING.
Disney has a really good film on its hands here. Recently, I've learned to expect a lot out films with John Cusack, GROSSE POINTE BLANK and BEING JOHN MALKOVICH to name a few. This film didn't let me down. I hope that HIGH FIDELITY is as relevant and funny to you as it was to me. Thanks for reading.
Flesh Gordon leaving, the sex ray has just struck!
