Official Throwback Discussion - High Fidelity [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

As an ongoing project, in 2025 /r/movies will be posting Throwback Discussion threads weekly for the movies that came out this same weekend 25 years ago. As a reminder, Official Discussion threads are for discussing the movie and not for meta sub discussion.

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Summary:
Rob Gordon, a cynical record store owner and music enthusiast, recounts his top five most memorable breakups while navigating the ups and downs of love, relationships, and self-discovery. As he revisits past heartbreaks, he starts to realize where he has gone wrong and whether he can win back his latest ex, Laura.

Director:
Stephen Frears

Writers:
D.V. DeVincentis, Steve Pink, John Cusack, Scott Rosenberg

Cast:
- John Cusack as Rob Gordon
- Iben Hjejle as Laura
- Jack Black as Barry Judd
- Todd Louiso as Dick
- Lisa Bonet as Marie DeSalle
- Catherine Zeta-Jones as Charlie Nicholson
- Joan Cusack as Liz
- Tim Robbins as Ian "Ray" Raymond

Rotten Tomatoes: 91%

Metacritic: 79

VOD: Available on various streaming platforms

Trailer:
High Fidelity trailer

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[u/LeadingSpell5127]

When Rob is standing in the rain screaming "CHARLIE! YOU FUCKING BITCH! LET'S WORK IT OUT!", trips over a curb, then walks away screaming and crying in his cool leather jacket...that's cinema, baby

[u/CyFrog]

I think what is interesting is Rob is a pretty unlikeable character. Laura had some legitimate reasons to leave him and then we go back through his old relationships you find other reasons not to like him. Especially when you find out that one of them he misremembered as being dumped when he was the one who did the dumping cause she wouldn't have sex with him cause she was saving herself.

[u/LiteraryBoner]

This is such a classic heartbreak film. Really, I struggle to think of movies that are as introspective and all encompassing about breakup feelings. The format of HIgh Fidelity allows for so much reflection and self awareness around these topics. Seemingly heavily inspired by Annie Hall, Cusack really impresses in this as the first hour of it is almost a one man show where he monologues about his complex feelings.

Seeing Cusack go through his middle-school-to-recent relationships in order is just a banger idea to get through all these feelings, but this movie really opens up in the second half when he starts calling all his old flames and asking what happened. It’s so real, how we put these former relationships on a pedestal and always forgetting why they didn’t work out, then you spend five minutes with the person and you immediately remember. I was especially taken by the high school relationship, when they get lunch and she has to remind him that he left her because she wouldn’t get physical. And not just that reminder, but the very real moment where she reveals that she slept with the first person who she was too tired to fight off after crying over Cusack for weeks. There’s some really poignant stuff there about perspective, about how our selfish actions affect other people while we walk away and don’t think about it for ten years. Really amazing scene.

And if this movie wasn’t good enough, what it does at the end is so subversive for the time. After getting back together with the girl that started this whole plot, Iben Hjejle,he meets a seemingly more perfect woman. She’s a music journalist, she loves his obscure work, and she shows an interest in him. And most movies might take this chance to give him a happy ending and show the existential crisis depicted in this as unnecessary when he ultimately decides to leave Iben. But the movie doesn’t do that. The ultimate lesson of this movie is that there will always be seemingly greener grasses, that moving to person to person is just a series of realizing people aren’t the fantasies you build up in your mind.

The ending to this movie is so good because Iben isn’t the perfect person he’s been looking for, but she’s the one who’s still there. Who survived a rocky relationship with him and is still by his side. And maybe the most adult thing you can do is stop chasing and start focusing on what you have. It’s actually incredibly powerful, and bonus points for Jack Black getting his plot wrapped up in such a fantastic way by seeing him completely own that stage and those vocals. This is a movie about how a familiar job with your friends can seem like adult purgatory, and watching all those record snobs find happiness in their way is so satisfying. 9/10.

[u/NeonEvangelion → u/LiteraryBoner]

This movie should be mandatory viewing for anyone about to get married. So many people are not prepared for what happens when they’re in a committed relationship and start to fancy other people.

It feels good to give into our passions but it costs us dearly in the end.

[u/Mst3Kgf]

"I don't know what happened. I hired these guys for three days a week and they just started showing up every day."

[u/illinest]

Love this movie. Feels very "of it's time". It kicked off a period in my life where I sought out Cusack films. Being John Malkovich and Say Anything being the other favorites.

I had no idea I was seeing the beginning of a long career of Jack Black being Jack Black of course.

My favorite part I think is how much of a dick Rob is. You don't entirely notice it at first since he's the POV, but it's clear, and it makes the change feel sweet when it comes. Character growth!

[u/LiteraryBoner → u/illinest]

Runaway Jury is a great pulpy courtroom thriller with Cusack!

[u/illinest → u/LiteraryBoner]

I very much enjoyed that one as well.

Though I must say that the politics of it are more heavy-handed than I like. I personally would continue my list of favorites with Identity and The Sure Thing

[u/psuczyns → u/illinest]

I called John Cusack my favorite actor in high school, when really I just loved this, Say Anything and Better Off Dead.

[u/albinofreak620]

This is one of my favorite movies. The book is good too - it hammers home a bit more how much of a dick Rob is.

It’s really the perfect breakup film. “Charlie! You fucking bitch! Let’s work it out!” is just such a brilliant line. It perfectly captures that “I am mad at you for breaking up with me, but I still love you and want you back” feeling.

Great soundtrack - every track is great.

[u/PithandKin]

I liked the idea of people looking for the fantasy in relationships and that idea no longer holding weight as it progresses. How cool it would be to date the trendy music journalist but would they withstand reality? And the “jumping from rock to rock” - what will it take you to be satisfied?

My favourite comedy bit are the two fantasy scenes where Rob takes out Ray in the shop with what looks like chewing gum chiclets flying on the floor.

[u/InternetDickJuice]

Classic. Great showcase for fantastic actors. Beautiful music (and introduction to Jack Black singing for me). Awesome script and cinematography. And the best argument about Evil Dead II on film.

[u/TopHighway7425 → u/InternetDickJuice]

I haven't seen Evil Dead II .... Yet. 

[u/KneeHighMischief]

Is it too late for a Cusack comeback? I thought it might happen with Love & Mercy that was over a decade ago now. I know he was in theUtopia but it feels like people would be happy to cast him in another. Maybe he just doesn't have any interest.

[u/JokerJangles123 → u/KneeHighMischief]

They could announce a Grosse Point Blank sequel tomorrow and my ticket would already be purchased

[u/CastYourCoat]

I was the king of making mixtapes for girls I was into all through high school and college. The first time I saw the scene where Rob describes the subtle art of using other people's songs to express how he feels... I never felt so seen in my whole life.

[u/troy_caster]

I still don't know what pechuli (?) Smells like

[u/illinest → u/troy_caster]

Patchouli reminds some people of Marijuana, some people think it's more like earthy dirt. I've heard it said that potsmokers sometimes wear patchouli to mask the scent of pot, but I don't know how real that story is.

I think there's something like an incense vibe to it but mixed with sweet dirt and not as acrid as incense can sometimes be.

It's strongly associated with hippy culture and certain sorts of "undesirables". Unwashed people are implied, using patchouli to mask the scent.

[u/TopHighway7425]

Their reconciliation irks me because they do not have any real common ground except their previous bad relationship. It's objectively a bad idea for both of them.  Lovely movie but the ending is all wrong. 

[u/Snailprincess]

My friends and I loved that movie in college. We would rewind the dream sequence where Dick clocks Ian with the phone and then kills him with the air conditioner and watch it like 10 times in a row. There was something about the way they had teeth spray out of Tim Robbins mouth that would have us rolling on the floor.

In serious I LOVE that movie and the soundtrack is amazing. There's also a deleted scene that I love. It's after Rob describes all the horrible things he did while Laura and he were dating. He asks the audience to think of the five worst things they've ever done in a relationship with no sugar coating. It was a very human moment. A that part of the film we're definitely set up to be judging Rob pretty harshly. But I do think that if we're honest with ourselves, we all probably have done some shitty things at one point or another.

[u/True_to_you]

This was definitely a movie I identified with a lot when I was younger. In my mid-late 20s evaluating my love life and what was/is. I realized after revisiting some stuff how I realized past relationships and had to grow and move on. It's a really great movie with an amazing sound track.

[u/JeetKuneLo]

An incredible movie that I'm so thankful they removed all of the sexual dysfunction stuff from the source material because that shit fucked me up in my mid-20s. Still a fantastic book.