High Fidelity Reviews
Top CriticIf you can put up with all the archness and self-consciousness--there's quite a bit of both--this is an enjoyable romantic comedy.
Mr. Frears has managed for the most part to retain the velocity of the narrative without sacrificing the psychological coherence of the characters.
A funny, perceptive movie about pop music, a man's confused passions for records and women, and the lure of perpetual teenagehood.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
You're still smiling when the film is over.
| Original Score: 4/5
Created a doggedly faithful adaptation of Nick Hornby's cult-fave novel.
Cusack makes High Fidelity seem less self-indulgent than it is: It's impossible to imagine the movie without him.
Cusack is a master at playing smart, frazzled, self-flagellating hipsters, and the movie, propelled by his arias of angst, lets him strut his best stuff.
It's hard to remember the last time guys were nailed so perceptively and dragged into adulthood so warmly and entertainingly.
The cast has been put together like a good band.
[The script] is constantly scathing and comically cynical without ever turning really ugly or bitter.
There are a lot of wonderful supporting roles here, but the actor who'll get the most mileage is Jack Black in a career-setting turn as an obnoxious slacker.
Stephen Frears ... seems on unsteady ground converting an essentially British story (the novel was set in London) to the American idiom.
It's got great music -- and great music trivia -- but a shaky soul.
Trenchantly witty and acutely insightful script.
A cute, quaint, at times rather silly movie that displays a genuine affection for the rebel-nerd scholasticism of record-store junkies.
Full Review
| Original Score: B-
The insistent verbal nonsense among them wears thin very fast for folks who don't keep their vinyl collection in plastic sleeves. Absolutely, this is a romantic comedy that preaches to the converted.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Every single actor here rises to the occasion.
The British hero of Nick Hornby's novel, on which this movie is based, certainly does not scream out 'John Cusack.' And yet once you see him, you can't think of anyone who'd do it better.
It's a sweet, raffish entertainment, blessedly free of baloney.
There's a lot to enjoy in High Fidelity.
The movie is sparked by more than half a dozen incisive performances.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/5
Romantic sorrow -- and the self-reflexive dramas it inspires -- have rarely been this funny.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
There's not much to convince you that High Fidelity isn't a vanity production with some good tunes.
The quirky High Fidelity really deserves being called the first must-see movie of the century.
| Original Score: 3.5/4
This talky, entertaining film is like a good bull session with a friend who won't shut up.
Something that we can all laugh at -- sometimes raucously, sometimes tenderly, often ruefully.
Isn't all that romantic and is only half as funny as it thinks it is.
| Original Score: 2/4
A Woody Allen film for youngish white males who fetishize rock music and its many memorabilia and have commitment problems when flesh-and-blood women.
Stands out as a 'small' motion picture that deserves wide exposure.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Had High Fidelity been a glorified one-act set in Rob's store, with a wealth of banter among these assorted losers to keep us laughing, it would still be a fine film. Lucky for us, there is so much more.
High Fidelity easily cracks the top five list of reasons to go to the movies these days.
