Anyone who doesn't love this film needs to be analyzed.

Rating: 10/10 (30 January 2002)

I have read some horribly scathing reviews of "High Fidelity" recently. One person even called it the worst film they ever saw and preferred the plague and ritual suicide to viewing it. Either this person is deluded or they're missing the point entirely (or both). This is a film about people. Real people. It's a hilarious, thoughtful masterwork of cinema. "High Fidelity" is on my list of the ten best films ever made.
A lot of people criticized it for having a "standard" John Cusack performance. I personally don't see anything wrong with that, even though I don't quite agree with it. If you see it as routine from Cusack, you should still respect the performance because it's still a good character. Woody Allen has been playing the same character ever since Alan Felix in "Play it again, Sam," but that doesn't make his films any less remarkable. So I say leave Cusack alone. He's one of the best American actors of modern times. Stop whining about his characters and go watch "Top Gun" or something. "High Fidelity" is a brilliant piece of cinema and if you don't get it, then you don't understand real cinema. There IS romance, but these characters are casual about their romantic existence, that's what makes them real. There is comedy, but it's intelligent, so it goes beyond those who understand only toilet humor. There is drama and these actors with a touch of humanity that is equalled by few films. Those who don't appreciate "High Fidelity" for everything it is need their heads examined.