high fidelity

Watched the film High Fidelity in class last Thursday (yes, I know, very recent news . . . blame my sudden decision to get myself addicted to Football Manager 2008 again) and, I have to say, I enjoyed it quite a bit.

One of the first things that struck me about the film while watching it was the odd affinity I felt towards the character of Rob Gordon (played [masterfully, by the way] by John Cusack). I'm not exactly sure why, to be honest. Well, okay, perhaps it was, well, the whole "depressed loser" kinda thing going on with him. For some odd reason.

Another thing I noticed (and very much liked) was how . . . different the movie was and the way it told the story that it wanted to tell. It's definitely not cliche, and was quite a refreshing experience, at least as far as romantic-ish movies go. I liked how the movie started out with a breakup and then went on to detail more, all while Rob goes about his life at the record store and such.

Speaking of the record store, I really enjoyed the scenes set in there, particularly the ones involving Barry. I noticed that a lot of the songs and albums used/mentioned in the movie were really good ones too. Major props for The Jesus and Mary Chain's Psychocandy and Stiff Little Fingers' Inflammable Material.

Admittedly, some of the language used in the film was quite foul (repeated usage of the lovable f-word) and some of the scenes weren't exactly "healthy", but, really, it's not like I'm not used to that stuff. And it's not like we live in a world where everyone speaks "proper", clean language all the time and where no-one gets frisky once in a while. It'd be a sad world if it was, to be honest.

After the credits rolled and the movie ended and the lights went up (no, it wasn't a movie theatre but, well . . .) I couldn't escape feeling that it'd been two hours well-spent watching a quality movie, and I again enjoyed the fact that it was quite a world away from the cookie-cutter romantic tripe so popular in mainstream cinema.

And, of course, I began thinking about how nifty it would be to own a music store . . .