So much better than I expected

Rating: 10/10 (29 December 2000)

Who marketed this film? They oughta be shot! This movie looked like a definite "wait till video"-flick based on the trailer and the marketing campaign. It's amazing how Hollywood can make a terrible movie like "Vertical Limit" seem good and somehow totally miss with an excellent movie like High Fidelity.
I saw the movie when it came out several months ago but I wanted to leave my comments on this website...
What I remember most about this film is John Cusack's effortless performance. And when I say effortless, I really mean ego-less. I love an actor that is willing to honestly portray a guy that doesn't know it all, that doesn't have the great looks, basically able to play a human being (by the way JC is a good looking guy but he doesn't have to look his best). Actors have huge egos and sometimes that's all we get to see on the screen instead of the normal guy the writer intended to be on the screen. John was amazing. And when an actor does this good, you can't imagine anyone else playing his part. Kinda like Forrest Gump, who else could've played that character other than Tom Hanks?
The writing was top notch. It could've easy fallen into cliche. It succeeds dealing with cliches but it never allows the cliche to be the entire punchline. It goes deeper. Frankly, it dares to be honest. I believed all the goings on in this film. Wow, I totally related to the scenes when John's character revisits his past. For example, it was such a great moment when John's character says regarding one of his old girlfriend's: "How did I delete all of this?" If you've seen the movie, you know what scene I'm talking about. Purely amazing and so true!
Finally, the proposal was done so well. Wow, how refreshing. It was honest, well acted, no big score coming in telling the audience what to feel. Such good movie making...
One last nod... the record store was truly authentic. I learned about another facet of life because of this movie. The filmmakers took the time to do it right.
Great work... and maybe it was meant to be insider pick. Just like the record store itself. It's not a pop movie. This is a rare, hard to find-type movie, the kind that the only the clued-in people know about. I'm not cool but I was lucky enough to stumble onto this movie.
High Fidelity is one of a kind.