2K Replay: HIGH FIDELITY

 by Adam Riske

Nominated for “Best Cameo in a Movie” (Bruce Springsteen) at the MTV Movie Awards. He lost to James Van Der Beek (RIP) in Scary Movie.

• Best Scene/Moment: Almost any scene in this movie could work because it’s consistently great but for personal reasons I’ll go with when John Cusack stacks all his records on the floor to sort them autobiographically. I do something similar with my movies, where I like to pull them off the shelf and look through them often to decide what I can get rid of. Almost every time I find at least one movie I would probably sell if not for the fact it has some autobiographical significance in my life and I could never part with it.

• Best Song: Way too many to choose from, but my personal favorite is Stevie Wonder’s “I Believe (When I Fall in Love It Will Be Forever)” which plays over the end credits.

• Best Merch: A “John Cusack High Fidelity Movie Promo Dry Erase Board Rare Marker Touchstone 2000” for $25.44. This is awesome, especially for a person like me who loves making to-do lists. If I wrote down my top 5 things to do today on a High Fidelity dry erase board, I would be much more productive.

• Director Grade: High Fidelity was directed by Stephen Frears.
Great Movies: The Grifters, High Fidelity
Good Movies: Dirty Pretty Things, The Queen, Philomena
OK Movies: The Program
Bad Movies: Hero
Unseen By Me: Gumshoe, The Hit, My Beautiful Launderette, Price Up Your Ears, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Dangerous Liaisons, The Snapper, Mary Reilly, The Van, The Hi-Lo Country, Liam, Mrs Henderson Presents, Cheri, Tamara Drewe, Lay the Favorite, Florence Foster Jenkins, Victoria & Abdul, The Lost King
Overall Grade: B

• Double It with This 2000 Movie: Almost Famous

• Year 2000 Movies to Trailer Before Them: Coyote Ugly, Keeping the Faith, What Women Want

• Ella McCay or High Fidelity? High Fidelity

• Mall Movie? Borderline no. I feel like John Cusack movies would start at the fancy theater in town but eventually play the mall at the end of their run.

• Only in 2000: Me having an opinion about Iben Hjejle. I know she’s been in a lot of movies (especially Danish films) but the only other movie besides High Fidelity I’ve seen her in is Defiance and I remember nothing about it.

• Scene Stealer: Jack Black.

• I Miss: When movies shot in Chicago neighborhoods were commonplace.

• I Don’t Miss: The “What does it all mean?” phase where I look back on past relationships and regrets and try to interrogate them. I’m over doing that.

• 2000 Crush (tie): Catherine Zeta-Jones and Natasha Gregson Wagner.

• 2026 Crush (tie): Natasha Gregson Wagner and a little bit Lisa Bonet but she always seems way too cool for me.

• What I Thought in 2000: High Fidelity was the first John Cusack movie I liked because of him. I started out with him on stuff like Con Air and he always seemed like the actor your cool older brother’s into instead of someone for me. I love record stores and collector culture, so this movie spoke to me in 2000.

• What I Think in 2026: I love High Fidelity and enjoy it even more now than in 2000. It’s one of my favorite romantic comedies, it’s funny every time, the music is terrific, and it’s a great hangout movie. This is one of my favorite movies of the year 2000. It’s an all-timer.

P.S. Do I need to watch the TV series with Zoe Kravitz?