High Fidelity
                                       
Director: Stephen Frears
Year: 2000
Rating: 6.0
There should be an age limit on this film. On the part of the viewer. I recall seeing this when it first came out and having loved the book, I went to see it and totally found myself immersed in the music and ramblings of its main character. That was 25-years ago. I was 45 then - 70 now. What a difference that makes. Back then I was single and looking and this felt so relevant to me. Now at 70, much of this struck me as tedious self-pity and unawareness. Personal obsession with the iota of your life. Navel gazing, I think they call it. I very much understood why women kept leaving this guy. A complete asshole. He hides that behind some well-spoken dialogue and his hang-dog eyes but give it a rest. Stop putting top five lists together. No one cares.



Ok, this seems a convenient time to post my top albums. 15 of them. All Old White Male Albums. Not a female artist among them unless you include Grace Slick. I would be laughed out of that record store. I felt like I should cheat and slide some more edgy contemporary albums in there, but I can't even think of anything. I am a product of my times.

Beatles    Revolver

Bob Dylan    Blonde on Blonde

Elvis Costello    Armed Forces

Beach Boys    Pet Sounds

Bruce Springsteen    Born to Run

Clash    London Calling

Derek and the Dominoes    Layla

Neil Young    Zuma

Marvin Gaye    What's Going On

George Harrison    All Things Must Pass

David Bowie    Ziggy Stardust

Jefferson Airplane    Surrealistic Pillow

Grateful Dead    American Beauty

Kinks    Something Else

Stevie Wonder    Songs in the Key of Life


So, this film wore on my nerves like a drill to my head. John Cusack feels sorry for himself through the entire film, wondering why his latest girlfriend has ditched him. Because you are a self-obsessed asshole. That saved time. There was no reason for you to contact your first five girlfriends. Everyone who knows you could have told you. Cusack - in a very fine performance as a self-obsessed asshole - talks to us, his invisible audience and bemoans his circumstances. Poor poor pitiful me. And how many times is he going to walk in the pouring rain before he gets an umbrella? This isn't Breakfast at Tiffany's.



Everything else though around this film is pretty terrific. One of the best choices of music for the soundtrack ever, a very literate script and a plethora of fine actors in parts big and small. A couple of his past girlfriends were played by Lily Taylor and Catherine Zeta-Jones. Other smallish parts went to Lisa Bonet, Tim Robbins, Joan Cusack, Sara Gilbert and Bruce Springsteen. And his two record store employees are Jack Black and Todd Louiso - Black is a crackerjack and when he sings Marvin's Gaye's What's Going On at the end, it nearly saves the film for me. This film is for people still vulnerable to the whims and winds of romance and break-ups. I knew heartbreak back then. That will pass.  Age will calcify your feelings. And you will be glad of it.