My 150 Favorite Movies - #139

High Fidelity (2000)

High Fidelity is a terrific movie, based on a terrific book, by Nick Hornby. It takes place mainly in a record store, and stars John Cusack as Rob, who is fond of making music lists, and is thus a character after my own heart. And it includes one of my all-time favorite exchanges of dialogue in a movie (Jack Black plays Barry):

Customer: Hi, do you have the song "I Just Called To Say I Love     You?" It's for my daughter's birthday.
Barry: Yea we have it.
Customer: Great great... Well, can I have it?
Barry: No, you can't.
Customer: Why not?!
Barry: Because it's sentimental tacky crap that's why. Do we look like a store that sells "I Just Called to Say I Love You"? Go to the mall!
Customer: What's your problem?!
Barry: Do you even know your daughter? There's no way she likes that song! Oh oh oh wait! Is she in a coma?

I have written previously about this movie here.

Spotlight Movie: High Fidelity (2000)

Based on the novel of the same name by Nick Hornby, High Fidelity is one of a rare breed, that in which the movie is just as good as the book (SEE ALSO About a Boy, based on a book by the same author, and Gone with the Wind). Ostensibly starring everyone's favorite, John Cusack, as record shop owner/inveterate listmaker/bad breaker-upper Rob, every scene that's not nailed down is stolen outright by Jack Black, who made his first cinematic splash here. Just watch his face contort through the five stages of grief as a customer dares to request a recording of Stevie Wonder's "I Just Called to Say I Love You!" Ably supported by an amazingly witty screenplay,THE movie soundtrack of the year, and a talented ensemble cast, including Iben Hjejle (who?) as Rob's true love, Laura; Todd Louiso as a fellow music store employee and a bevy of underemployed Hollywood actresses, including Catherine Zeta Jones, Lili Taylor, Lisa Bonet and Sara Gilbert, this movie is all that. Plus cameos from Tim Robbins and Bruce Springsteen(!) of all people. AND good news for theatre fans: though the musical version that was brought to Broadway closed after only a handful of performances, plans for the cast recording are still in play!