Console
best movie i've ever seen.
Invaderbank
The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Kaelan Mccaffrey
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
garthlotel
This film is worth watching for Jack Black alone. But it's also a refreshingly real, funny and honest look at the modern man and relationships.
Robert J. Maxwell
This has generally positive reviews and in fact it's not bad. More than anything else it brings Woody Allen's work to mind. Not his early flat-out comedies and not his late erratica but his midstream features like "Manhattan." John Cusack runs a Chicago shop full of old vinyl records and more recent CDs. He knows his way around pop music. Unfortunately he can't figure out a relational calculus when girls are involved. What we do is follow him through a series of full and partial affairs, all of which seem to puzzle, frustrate, and anger him.The style is really Woody Allen's. When a former lover tells Cusack that she's slept with her new boyfriend but they haven't "done it" yet, he agonizes over the particular meaning of the word "yet." He pummels his friends with questions about it. Does "yet" mean you haven't done it but you intend to do it in the future? In a Woody Allen movie this would be done in narration but the director here has Cusack breaking the fourth wall, directly addressing the camera and leaping with excitement or slumping with depression as he describes one contretemps after another.I could allow myself to be drawn in by some of his feelings -- that the girl is too classy, too good looking, for a schlub like me, even though I myself closely resemble the youthful Robert Redford. Why, just the other day a toothsome blond in the supermarket looked at me and swooned. At least I think it was a swoon. Can swoons follow an expression of utter horror? My understanding of his obsessions with post-Beatles pop music was a little forced because I think most of it stinks. True that one of Miles Davis' better albums is on display, but then some numbskull makes a sarcastic crack about Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.On the whole, if you've enjoyed mid-stream Woody Allen, you should get a kick out of this character-driven story.
Spikeopath
High Fidelity is directed by Stephen Frears and adapted to screenplay by D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack and Scott Rosenberg from the Nick Hornby novel. It stars Cusack, Jack Black, Iben Hjejle and Todd Louiso. Music is by Howard Shore and Cinematography by Seamus McGarvey.Record store owner and compulsive list-compiler Rob Gordon (Cusack), embark's upon a what does it all mean mission when his latest girlfriend leaves him.Cusack and Pink take Hornby's hugely popular novel and redirect it to Chicago, with joyous results. High Fidelity is a tale of human love and a love of music, a sort of battle of the sexes with a soundtrack of masculine life. Rob's voyage of self discovery is highly amusing, the trials and tribulations of relationships bringing out a number of scenes and scenarios that ring true, not just tickling the funny bones, but also tugging the heart and cradling the brain.Away from the doomed love angles it's the music threads that literally strike the chords. Rob and his two co-workers Barry (Black) & Dick (Louiso) worship music and continually indulge in making top 5 lists whilst bickering with sarcastic glee in the process. All three actors are superb, a trio of odd balls bouncing off of one and other with a zest that's infectious, though it's decidedly Cusack's show. A perpetual miserablist who addresses us the audience at frequent intervals, Rob in Cusack's hands garners sympathy, pity and laughs in equal measure.In the support slots is a ream of talent well in on the joke, beauties like Catherine Zeta-Jones (dropping F-Bombs like they are going out of fashion), Lisa Bonet & Joelle Carter are complimented by the comic skills of Joan Cusack, while Hjejle turns in a wily and womanly performance as the girlfriend who kicks starts Rob's search for meaning. Elsewhere the sight of Tim Robbins as a new age hippy type - with a black belt in martial arts - is so much fun it reminds of what a good comic actor he can be as well. As with Grosse Point Blank, another Cusack/Pink production, sound tracking is everything, and naturally given the setting of the story there is an abundance of classic tunes to delight in. All told it's a special movie, for all sexes and for all music lovers, but especially for anyone who has had relationship problems. Now what did come first, the music or the misery? Priceless. 9/10
Horst in Translation ([email protected])
Here we have a British/American movie from 15 years ago, which runs for roughly 110 minutes. It is directed by Stephen Frears ("The Queen") who also made the wonderful "Philomena" a while ago, but somehow his effort here did not appeal to me very much. One major reason may be John Cusack. He seems a likable fellow, but as an actor I just don't think he is particularly talented. When he was very young, in his early 20s or so, I remember people thought he would be a real superstar one day, but not really. This film was made in 2000, but somehow, maybe also because of Cusack, it comes off as a lot older to me, maybe because all of the references about music, mostly older music. Another thing that did not appeal to me was Jack Black's character. He came off as extremely unlikeable and I totally cannot see why the main character would be a friend of his. He seems arrogant, self-righteous and totally looks down on everybody around him. And the worst we are even supposed to like him with his performance near the end. Louiso's character on the other hand was the exact opposite: shy and not confident at all and it was nice to see him get a girlfriend.Another thing that did not appeal to me at all was Cusack's character constantly breaking the fourth wall here. I am generally not a fan of this technique, but here it became sort-of annoying really. I mean he always gives off this vibe that we totally want to know what was going on with his relationships and the people in his life, but honestly I found all the characters in this movie so dull and unappealing for the most part that I just wasn't interested at all. The performances were pretty forgettable too, especially Black's, but I guess it's not really his fault as he was written that way probably. It just did not fit in my opinion. The central female character is played by Iben Hjejle and her portrayal also wasn't memorable at all. There's a reason why her Hollywood movie times have been a thing of the past for a long time now. I found this a very forgettable effort from everybody involved. Not recommended, unless you really are a huge music geek. Then all those references about records and sings will maybe make it bearable for you. But everybody who isn't should better stay away.
