High Fidelity (8/10): A great ensemble cast and a wonderful soundtrack make this a fun experience.

“Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”

Stephen Frear’s High Fidelity breaks the fourth wall from the very opening scene as Rob Gordon (John Cusack) begins sharing with us about his top 5 breakups right at the time his girlfriend, Laura (Iben Hjejle), is moving out of his apartment and leaving him. It is evident he is hurt, but he brushes it off by saying she doesn’t even rank in his list of the most hurtful breakups. That is when he begins listing who each one of them were while we get flashbacks of those memories intertwined with the present in which we are introduced to his job, friends, and his passion for music. Rob is a vintage record store owner and his two employees, Dick (Todd Louiso) and Barry (Jack Black), are as much music snobs as he is, and they too enjoy making lists of their favorite things usually involving music. The more we get to know Rob, we realize that he isn’t the typical romantic character we’d find in a film like this. He is deeply flawed, he has cheated on his girlfriend, he doesn’t seem to be going anywhere with his life, and he is afraid of commitment. Somehow he always believes to be the victim in the break-ups, but from what he says we know that he has never been boyfriend of the year material. It is hard to root for a character like Rob, but John Cusack delivers such a charismatic and engaging performance that we accept his flaws and want him to get over the heartbreak. Along the way he realizes that Laura really belongs on the list and decides to revisit some of his past flames to discover what he has been doing wrong. 

Frears has directed some great films (The Queen, Philomena), along with not so good ones that feel like direct to TV movies, but High Fidelity belongs in his top list of best films. It is a romantic comedy that has an entertaining script, some great performances, and of course a wonderful soundtrack. The screenplay was adapted from Nick Horny’s book but instead of setting the story in London they bring it to Chicago and it absolutely works. Jack Black and Todd Louiso give strong supporting performances and you believe they actually are these snobs who are living music encyclopedias. They complement Cusack’s performance and deliver most of the comedic moments. As for John Cusack I believe this is one of his best performances although I still need to see a couple more of his films to solidify that claim. The romance in High Fidelity is also incredibly believable and relatable which is hard to come across by in most rom-coms. Neither Cusack nor Hjejle are portrayed as these perfect role models in a relationship, they are both flawed characters who have made some poor decisions.

Even though my music knowledge is very limited, I was able to relate to these characters because of their shared passion. I may not have that same passion for music, but I do for movies or sports so I understood where these characters were coming from and believed the culture this film created surrounding music. The screenwriters knew what they were writing about and each one of the actors delivered, and that is what has made High Fidelity such a cult favorite for many teens. It manages to be smart and funny at the same time. It is also one of the best examples of a film successfully being able to break the fourth wall and including the audience in the genius of the movie and its charm.   

Wild (6/10): A long walk in search of self-recovery

“What if what made me do all those things everyone thought I shouldn't have done was what also had got me here? What if I was never redeemed?”

Over the past decades Nick Hornby’s novels have been adapted for the big screen successfully (About a Boy, High Fidelity). He also adapted the wonderful screenplay for An Education. His latest screenplay, Wild, is based on Cheryl Strayed’s memoir who hiked over a thousand miles in the Pacific Crest Trail on her own. It is quite a fascinating tale directed by Jean-Marc Vallee (Dallas Buyers Club) and starring Reese Witherspoon as Cheryl. The Canadian born director has proven in the past that he can get great performances from his actors, and he does so once again. Witherspoon seems to be playing a similar character from the one she played in MUD. She has been through some traumatic events which have caused her some self destructive addiction problems, but we don’t know what they are at first because the way that Vallee tells the story is through flashbacks as Cheryl is walking through the trail. It rewards patient viewers because despite not being able to identify with her at the beginning we are given small glimpses of her past that will later on allow us to understand why she is doing this. What is made clear from the very opening scene is that she isn’t doing this simply as an adventure because she has  no experience whatsoever. She is walking with way too much weight despite her small size, which also is symbolic because we soon realize that she is carrying a heavy burden herself. Wild’s strength relies on Witherspoon’s performance and those encounters she has along the way, but this is ultimately a road trip movie we’ve seen done many times before in the past (Emilio Estevez directed his father Martin Sheen in The Way a few years ago, and Emile Hirsch starred in Into the Wild both with a very similar premise). Despite the gorgeous landscape, I wasn’t awed by the cinematography which kept its focus on Witherspoon’s inner struggles as she walked the walk.

Unlike what I’ve heard from most audiences, I wasn’t moved by Wild. It tells a powerful story, but somehow I didn’t feel that connection with the heroine of the film. Witherspoon gives a strong performance and we see her without any makeup and full of bruises from the expedition during most of the film. This was very much a physical role for her and she went all in. Laura Dern has also received a lot of acclaim for her supporting role as Cheryl’s mother during the flashback scenes. This mother and daughter relationship is given a lot of importance in Wild and both actresses deliver, although I wouldn’t go as far as considering them amongst my favorite of the year. They’ve both been nominated for their performances. The flashbacks weren’t my favorite part of the film however, because I enjoyed the encounters Cheryl had during the trail. She spends most of the film walking on her own, but there are brief encounters with several other hikers along the way. Those were perhaps the most engaging moments of the film for me. They are simple encounters, but very authentic reminding us the importance of human interaction. There is a scene near the end of the film where she encounter a boy and her grandmother that is very touching. Wild covers too familiar a territory to stand out for me, but I still enjoyed it and definitely would recommend it for Witherspoon’s strong lead performance. I would say that Wild isn’t as much a film about self-discovery as it is about self-recovery becauase Cheryl is trying to recover from destructive addictions while isolating herself from society and taking a thousand mile journey across the Pacific Crest.