High Fidelity

John Cusack routinely breaks the fourth wall in his portrayal of a sad sack record store owner going through a flustering mid-life crisis. Eccentric and clever at times, he's also a bit of a selfish, standoffish prick and that duality, combined with a stern lack of motivation to do something with himself, has long wreaked havoc with his love life. Very funny at moments and stretched thin at others, it's a wordy dissection of Generation X's slow, sad loss of touch with their adolescence and the lies we tell to ourselves and our loved ones. Though angled and multi-dimensional, Cusack's character never turns the corner into someone worth rooting for, so his chase after a nearly-lost girlfriend lacks teeth. Good for some bright laughs, it lacks much depth beyond the satisfying validation of identifying a few cherished LPs from your own collection in the background.

It’s pretty wild watching this today just in the way that they let John Cusack’s Rob Gordon character be so unlikable and barely learn anything by the end. It’s actually refreshing in comparison.