That Time The Boss Came To John Cusack In A Vision

For this edition of Musician Movie Cameo Monday, I take a look at a memorable scene in one of my favorite films, Stephen Frears’ edgy 2000 rom com HIGH FIDELITY. Based on a very relatable (at least to me) novel by Nick Hornby, the movie concerns John Cusack as Rob, a heartbroken Chicago record store owner, who comically reflects on his love-life. After a misguided phone call in which he tries to track down his first girlfriend, he plops down on his bed to contemplate reaching out to the rest of his top five failed romantic relationships. 

“All of them, you know,” Rob tells the camera (he breaks the fourth wall throughout the film). “Just see them, and talk to them…like a Bruce Springsteen song.”

That’s when The Boss appears, playing licks on his Fender Telecaster, and responding to Rob by saying, “You call, ask them how they are, and see if they’ve forgiven you.” Rob smiles, and adds “Yeah, then I’d feel good, and they’d feel good.” Springsteen interjects, “They’d feel good, maybe, but you’d feel better.” 

 

Rob basks in the idea, “I’d feel clean, and calm.” Springsteen concludes, “That’s what you’re looking for when you get ready to start again, it’d be good for you. You’d give that final goodbye and good luck to your old-time top five and move on down the road.”

The Springsteen song that this scenario most resembles is “Bobby Jean,” especially in the line, “And I’m just calling one last time, not to change your mind / But just to say ‘I miss you baby. Good luck. Goodbye, Bobby Jean.’” The version of Rob in the novel mentions this tune, and declares that, “I’d like my life to be like a Bruce Springsteen song.” So, obviously, the filmmakers took this notion further.

 

It’s notable that although this cameo is Springsteen’s first major movie role (if you don’t count concert films or rock videos), HIGH FIDELITY contains an excerpt of only one of his songs (“The River”). Meanwhile, Bob Dylan, who was Cusack’s first choice for The Boss’s part, has two songs in the movie.

 

In a later interview, Cusack explained how Springsteen’s cameo came about: “I just called Bruce, and said, ‘Look, I know this is a weird question, but do you want to play yourself in a film talking to me in my head?’ And he went, ‘Yeah!’ I’m like, ‘Wow!’ We started laughing.”

Cusack’s co-screenwriter, Steve Pink, said that The Boss was “like the magical Yoda that gives him the advice in his head,” and revealed that Springsteen had some input into the scene, “I’m happy to do this. But you can’t really say that they’ll feel better. You don’t really know that they’ll feel better.” This inspired the idea to change the line to “then they’ll feel good…maybe.”

 

Pink posited that this “helped our movie. He made it more sophisticated. And he was right.”

 

So the appearance of the celebrated rock artist in HIGH FIDELITY elevated the film in more than one way, and The Boss went on to an acclaimed acting career stealing movie after movie with his homespun persona. Okay, that didn’t happen, but with the guy’s unmistakable presence, it’s not a far-fetched premise.

 

Hornsby’s book, High Fidelity, was also adapted into a Broadway Musical, and a TV series which aired on Hulu in 2020. The part of Rob was gender flipped into Robyn, played by Zoë Kravitz, whose mother Lisa, was in the movie. 

Many scenes in the show were variations or straight lifts of parts of the movie, so it was natural that they’d recreate the musician cameo fantasy. In this version, Robyn is visited by a vision of Debbie Harry of the beloved band Blondie, who spouts dialogue very close to Springsteen’s: “Well, maybe they won’t feel so good, but you’ll feel great!”

When I posted about HIGH FIDELITY celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2010 (not sure why I didn’t update that in 2020), I didn’t even mention the Springsteen cameo. This is weird as it’s such a crucial part of the narrative. I guess I’m making up for that now, which makes me feel good, and you’ll feel good too...maybe.

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Film Babble Blog’s 2015 Fall Film Round-Up Part 1

So many movies, so little time.

With a few exceptions, I’ve found it to be a fine fall for film. The movies that have stood out to me include THE MARTIAN, BRIDGE OF SPIES, STEVE JOBS, SICARIO, ROOM, SPOTLIGHT, and CREED (click on the titles to read my reviews), but there are many more that I have seen over the last few months but haven’t blogged about yet. So I thought I’d take a look back, and clean out my notebook in the process, especially because a bunch more movies are coming fast.

I’ll start with what’s currently #1 at the box office, Francis Lawrence’s THE HUNGER GAMES: MOCKINGJAY - PART 2, the fourth and final film in the popular franchise. I enjoyed the first two entries in the series, but haven’t been into either half of MOCKINGJAY. PART 2 is a washed out slog through bleak terrain with very little action (certainly not of the fiery kind that the poster implies) or emotional connection. Jennifer Lawrence and the rest of the cast make the most out of the murk, which has to do with our arrow-shooting heroine, Katniss Everdeen, and crew taking down the evil Capitol or some such, but I was so ready for it to end way before it did. The most notable, and maybe the most depressing, part is that it contains the last film work of Philip Seymour Hoffman, whose loss can really be felt in a concluding scene in which a letter from his character to Katniss has to stand in for him.

Next up, a few weeks back I had the choice between an advance screening of CREED and the new Pixar movie, Peter Sohn’s THE GOOD DINOSAUR. Because of their track record, I went with Pixar. I chose…poorly. The obvious upside is that the film, set in a world in which dinosaurs never went extinct, is gorgeously animated with stunning photo-realistic landscapes and vibrant colors that really pop in 3D. The downside is that, after half a decade of development hell with changes in director and voice cast, the resulting film’s story, about Arlo the Apatosaurus’ adventure accompanied by a feral caveboy, is probably Pixar’s least substantial. After the screening, I joked with friend, and fellow blogger, William Fonvielle of Filmvielle, that it needed a MacGuffin, but it probably really needed a few more re-writes.

A much better animated feature this season, is Steve Martino’s THE PEANUTS MOVIE, the first “Peanuts” film in 35 years (the last one, BON VOYAGE, CHARLIE BROWN (AND DON’T COME BACK!), I saw as a kid at the theater – I’m old). It’s apparent that the filmmakers, including Peanuts creator Charles M. Schultz’s son Craig, and grandson Bryan, who co-wrote and co-produced, took a lot of care in paying proper tribute to the style, tone, and sentiment of the original strip (and the TV specials and movies), right down to every character’s expression. 

The premise, involving Charlie Brown trying to impress the ever elusive Little Red-Haired Girl, is full of humorous and heartfelt moments, and Snoopy’s subplot, involving his imaginary WWI air battles with the Red Baron, is pretty entertaining too. The animation may be a little too fancy - such intricately applied shadows and lighting on these kids’ faces seem a bit much at times – and I could’ve done without the pop song concessions, but this enjoyable update acutely captures Schultz’s ‘loser who wins’ spirit.

On the indie front, there’s John Crowley’s BROOKLYN which has been getting well deserved buzz and is currently #9 at the box office. It’s a very pretty period piece, based on Colm Tóibín’s acclaimed 2009 novel, that boasts a strong performance by Saoirse Ronan as Eilis, a shy Irish immigrant struggling to adapt to her new life in 1950s Brooklyn. In yet another likable turn, Jim Broadbent plays a kindly priest who helps Eilis get a job working a cosmetics counter in a department store, where she’s watched over by Jessica Paré (Mad Men) as the head clerk. Eilis finds love in the form of Emory Cohen as Tony, a charming Italian-American who scopes her out at a dance because he “likes Irish Girls.”

Eillis’ learns that her sister Rose (Fiona Glascott) back home in Ireland has died and she decides to return home, but before she goes, she and Tony get secretly married at City Hall. Once back home she finds herself with a new suitor (Domhnall Gleeson) while letters from Tony stack up unopened. So our heroine, who grows more and more confident as the film progresses, has to make a choice between the two vastly different lifes.

The screenplay, adapted by Nick Hornby (HIGH FIDELITY, AN EDUCATION), is tenderly written, giving Eilis’ story a lot of resonance, and it’s a handsome looking film, warmly shot by cinematographer Yves Bélanger (WILD, DALLAS BUYER’S CLUB). Although there’s another ‘50s-set drama (hint: it stars Cate Blanchett) soon to release that’s far superior, BROOKLYN is a beautifully drawn drama that is sure to get plenty of awards season action.

Stay tuned for part 2.

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Blu Ray/DVD Reviews: WE ARE THE BEST!, WRINKLES, & A LONG WAY DOWN

Got a few new release Blu rays and DVDs to babble about, so let’s get right to ‘em:

WE ARE THE BEST! 
(Dir. Lukas Moodysson, 2013) 

This sweet Swedish film, which dropped last month on Magnolia Home Entertainment, may the most punk rock movie I’ve seen in ages. Based on a graphic novel by the director’s wife (“Never Goodnight” by Coco Moodysson), it concerns a mohawked-haired Mira Barkhammar and a short curly-haired Mira Grosin as 13-year old best friends in 1982 Stockholm, who start a punk rock band despite not being able to play any instruments (just like real punk rockers!). They recruit the long-haired blonde Liv LeMoyne, a talented classical guitarist, who endures her band-mates mocking her Christianity force-cutting her hair because she just wants to belong.

So the girls bash their way through their one gloriously crude song (“Hate the Sport,” an attack on their gym class), ignore their uncool parents, while hoping to attract the attention of some punk rock boys. Barkhammar, Grosin, and LeMoyne may make messy music together, but they hit all the right notes acting-wise in this spirited and funny depiction of friendship, rebellion, and growing up. Sadly, neither the Blu ray or DVD editions of this film have any Special Features. In Swedish with English subtitles.

WRINKLES (Dir. Ignacio Ferreras, 2011)

Another film based on a comic book (“Wrinkles” by Paco Roca), this Spanish film is one of those animated Foreign films that features name American voices in its English language version (see: THE WIND RISES). Martin Sheen plays the protagonist Emilio, who is placed by his son (Matthew Modine) in an elderly care facility where he rooms with a charming yet cunning codger voiced by George Coe (okay, not really a name but a respected character actor of many credits including SNL and KRAMER VS. KRAMER). 

WRINKLES, which released last summer on DVD only, is a sad and poignant adult story that never gets too schmaltzy, though Nani Garcia's score does skirt that line. Sheen's voice-work is impeccable, most notably in scenes in which he's learning that he's experiencing early symptoms of Alzheimers, but Coe steals the show, and the film's perspective in the final third. There's a lot of heart in this depiction of old folks' home living, even if the animation is Beavis and Butthead-ish at times. Special Features: Behind the Scenes (production drawings and storyboards), Feature-Length Animatic, and Theatrical Trailer.

A LONG WAY DOWN (Dir. Pascal Chaumeil, 2014)

I loved Nick Hornby's 2005 novel, and looked forward to a film version, but despite a stellar cast this production by BBC Films (released on Blu ray and DVD on Sept. 9th) may be the worst adaptation of the British author's work yet - no, I'm not forgetting FEVER PITCH. 

Pierce Brosnan, Toni Collette, Aaron Paul, and Imogen Poots play four strangers who happen to meet on New Year's Eve on the roof of a tall building where they each individually came to commit suicide. They form a connection to each other and go about helping one another confront their problems - TV chat show host Brosnan had a career ending fling with an underage girl; Collette is lonely with only her mentally challenged son in her life; Paul is a failed rock musician recently diagnosed with cancer; the hard partying Poots has a horrible relationship with her politician father (Sam Neill). 

But much like its flighty characters the film just goes through the motions. The foursome take part in a media-driven cover story that they were saved from killing themselves by an angel that looked like Matt Damon, then they go on a tropical vacation together, for some reason, and somewhere along the way they make a pact to not take their lives until Valentine's Day.

Throughout, Chaumeil displays the same sunny cheesiness that he employed in 2010's HEARTBREAKER, and the same unfocused and fluffy feeling results. Worse yet, the screenplay by Jack Thorne has completely lost the book's thoughtful thread and rendered its insights into meaninglessness. A real missed opportunity. Special Features: Deleted scenes, and Theatrical trailer.

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Honoring The 10th Anniversary Of HIGH FIDELITY

Although it didn’t come in at #1 at the box office over its opening weekend, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE is certainly John Cusack’s most notable movie in years.

10 years in fact. For March 31st, 2000 was the US release date of HIGH FIDELITY, a defining film of Cusack’s career, and one of my all-time favorite films. So to honor the film on its 10th birthday here’s a personal look back at the film beginning with the original book: 

When I heard, sometime in the late 90’s, that they were going to make a movie version of Nick Hornby’s best selling novel “High Fidelity”, I was very skeptical. This was more than just the usual “the book is always better” argument, I felt like this book was my personal emotional property.

Well, the kind of personal emotional property that one shares in common with a huge group of people, but it’s just that I was, and still am to some extent, one of “those guys” that the book described in excruciating yet hilarious detail. You see, in this case “those guys” are the guys who are rock snob geeks who have lousy love-lives but have amazing record collections.

A friend, another one of “those guys”, recommended me the book shortly after its publication in 1995. At that time I worked in a CD store in a strip mall in Greensboro, North Carolina - I moved to that area earlier in the decade because I wanted to be with my girlfriend of over 6 years. In the days after our painful break-up I toiled behind the counters of this new and used compact disc retail store making lists of favorite songs, joining my co-workers in belittling clueless customers, and trying to get over the piles of baggage I was still carrying from that doomed relationship.

The experience of first reading “High Fidelity” was actually a bit disconcerting – I felt it hit too close to home. I joked to friends that it made me feel like I had been bugged, like somebody had been recording all my conversations about what songs to play at a funeral or what’s the best album opening song ever and mixing in exact statements made in fights between me and my ex and turning in them into clever prose. I grew to love it and laugh with it but I still wondered – who was this Nick Hornby fellow and how did he know so much about me?

So by the time the movie was announced, the book was a pretty hardcore emotional touchstone in my psyche. I knew that it was the same for tons of “those guys” out there who all felt this book was about them – oh, no a movie could ruin our sacred text, making it into another rom com that doesn’t take any of this record store culture seriously!

But when I heard John Cusack was starring (and co-writing) and THE GRIFTERS (a Cusack favorite of mine) director Stephen Frears was attached, some of my cynicism evaporated.

The cynicism that remained was directed at the fact that the book took place in London and was written in what I felt at the time was a very British voice. The book was also named after an Elvis Costello song for Christ sakes!

What I didn’t consider was that “those guys” were everywhere and the location didn’t matter. So as protagonist Rob Gordon (his last name was Fleming in the book but ostensibly that would’ve been too British) says: “It’s not what you’re like, it’s what you like”, I had to realize that it’s not where you are, it’s still just what you like.

While the setting of the story moved to Chicago, and it contains lots of great locales (The Double Door, Lincoln Park, The Biograph Theater), people everywhere live their lives through the filter of pop culture so it could have been reasonably set anywhere.

I also should’ve considered that Cusack himself is one of “those guys.”

He took the text seriously and worked hard to keep its heart and content largely intact. Viewing it for the first time on the big screen 10 years ago I was delighted at how faithful it was to its source. Hornby agreed: “At times, it appears to be a film in which John Cusack reads my book” he told the New York Times at the time of the film’s release.

The film got so many things right – the pop culture riffing wasn’t forced, the soundtrack (The Kinks, Stereolab, Bob Dylan, The Beta Band, The Velvet Underground, etc.) was well chosen, and I don’t think any movie has better depicted how it feels to try to get through a day at your workplace when your heart is broken to pieces.

I’ve been in many independent record stores that highly resembled Rob’s shop Championship Vinyl with every surface covered in rock 'n roll posters, promotional stickers, and concert flyers. Between that and Rob’s apartment, there is no end to trying to identify every cool rock signifier in sight – oh, there’s Sonic Youth’s “Goo”!

There’s a poster for pre-label Pavement! There’s Brian Eno’s “Before and After Science” on vinyl and then later held up by Rob on CD! This was also pointed out in this blogpost.

In all the times I’ve watched the film over the years its arc never tires me – though the thought of enduring the same stuff in real life does. The boy loses girl, boy goes on a neurotic quest to understand why every relationship he’s had failed while wanting his ex to return arc is so amusing and empowering to watch here as a witty movie, but living through that is Hell. After a more recent break-up than the one I spoke of earlier I drunkenly considered calling my “top 5” exes like Rob does, but thankfully came to my senses with no misguided contact made.

Throughout the film Cusack addresses the camera directly, another move I wasn't sure I'd be keen on, guiding us through his heartache. It's an effective device because there is no other meta gimmickry or self referential winking going on - the words and his performance stand alone.

There are so many great lines, most of which directly from the Hornby novel, that still hit close to home, but after this long they sting in a good way:

“Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?”

“No woman in the history of the world is having better sex than the sex you are having with Ian…in my head.”

“Now, the making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many dos and don'ts. First of all you're using someone else's poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.”

That last quote, incidentally, I've gotten as a sound sniplet on many mix-tapes then later CDR comps - an obvious choice but a good one.

At this point I must note Jack Black absolutely steals the movie away from Cusack’s lovelorn lamenting with a full throttle performance that brought him to the attention of many. He owns the screen as the loud mouth rock fan with musical aspirations who shouts down anybody who disagrees with him. The way he aggravates Rob constantly saying such things as: “Rob, I'm telling you this for your own good, that's the worst fuckin' sweater I've ever seen, that's a Cosby sweater!” is among the film’s best running jokes.

As much as I love this film I have some reservations.

In a scene set at the now defunct Chicago club, the Lounge Axe, Rob’s just as musically obsessive employees Dick and Barry (Todd Louiso and Jack Black) fantasize about wanting to date a musician. “I want to live with a musician. They’d write songs at home and ask me what I think of them; maybe include one of our private little jokes in the liner notes.”

Uh, no you wouldn’t. As obsessive as these guys are they would be jealously tortured by the nights when their dream musician would be at a late seemingly never ending recording session or out on the road sleeping in hotel or van with their fellow band mates. I’m just saying, because, yes, I dated a musician. Of course, I realize that their tunnel vision delusion may be a crucial point of social satire.

Rob’s ex girlfriend Laura is played by the still little known Iben Hjejle and while she has some chemistry with Cusack she seems a bit off. Likewise Lisa Bonet as the dream musician Rob beds on the side of his heartbroken agony. But, again, the fact that the women in Rob’s life are miscast may be precisely the point as well.

I would never call this film a “rom com” because the only thing our protagonist is truly romantic about is music. Even as it settles into a happy ending grove with Rob adding Stevie Wonder’s “I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)” to a mix-tape for Laura, you get the sense that the just reconciled relationship is still doomed. The film essentially plays on an endless loop as real life on again, off again relationships often do.

So, 10 years later the question isn’t does HIGH FIDELITY still hold up, because of course it does. As Rob puts it: “It would be nice to think that since I was 14, times have changed. Relationships have become more sophisticated. Females less cruel. Skins thicker. Instincts more developed.” But he comes to the pretty much the same conclusion that one of his heroes Elvis Costello did: “History repeats the same defeats, the glib replies, the same defeats.”

So the real question that remains is what Rob posits at the beginning of the film: “What came first, the music or the misery?” I would say the music because when the misery came later we had a soundtrack to it already picked out and waiting.

In the decade since HIGH FIDELITY, Cusack has gone through a run of mostly mediocre movies including RUNAWAY JURY, MARTIAN CHILD, GRACE IS GONE, and 2012. It's amusing that in his first truly funny movie in 10 years, HOT TUB TIME MACHINE of course, has him at one point heartbroken and drunk, sitting on the floor writing break-up poetry. Rob Gordon lives on.

The film itself lives on in a couple of odd adaptations. It was turned into a Broadway musical in 2006 by writer David Lindsay-Abaire, lyricist Amanda Green, and composer Tom Kitt. The production closed after only 14 performances and received only lukewarm reviews, but some of the songs are kinda catchy. Can't really comment on the show itself because I haven't seen it but it strikes me that the material may not be translatable to the stage.

The material works better coming from an unexpected platform: the recently released hip hop disc "Don Cusack In High Fidelity" by Donhill, a member of the rap trio Tanya Morgan. The characters and narrative are recast into a satisfying song cycle.

Such lively tracks such as "Championship Vinyl", "Laura' Song", and "Love Junkie" instantly prove that this universally relatable material could really be set anywhere.

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AN EDUCATION: The Film Babble Blog Review

AN EDUCATION (Dir. Lone Scherfig, 2009)

It certainly isn’t a “meet cute” when 16 year old school girl Carey Mulligan is offered a ride home from Peter Sarsgaard in his snazzy sports car, but it isn’t exactly a “meet creep” either. Though Sarsgaard has a creepy reputation (his monologue on SNL a few years back was completely about how creepy he can be) here his character is a charming witty Englishman who has the ticket to an opulent new life for Mulligan, one filled with elegant culture and reams of romance. Or so it seems.

Set in a pre-Beatlemania Britain that Mulligan repeatedly calls “boring”, and based on a recently published memoir by Lynn Barber, the story is a simple coming of age one. Mulligan is impressed by Sarsgaard – a man able to charm her parents (a wonderfully befuddled Alfred Molina and a smirking Cara Seymour) into letting her go to a concert and dinner for their first date. 

Sarsgaard then reaches further with overnight trips to Oxford and Paris while Mulligan’s school mates blush with envy and her teacher (Olivia Williams) and headmistress (Emma Thompson) disapprove.

Our pithy protagonist is a bit taken aback when she discovers that her new beau is an art thief and a slick wheeler and dealer involved in blockbusting (the practice of moving minorities into apartments to make old racist women vacate so the apartments can be purchased cheaply), but she’s still soft for Sarsgaard.

As the first solo screenplay written by Nick Hornby (“High Fidelity”, “About A Boy”, “Fever Pitch” and their respective film adaptations) one of the best modern novelists working today, AN EDUCATION is tightly written with sharp realistic dialogue and a touching tone. It is, perhaps is a bit too tightly written as the last act has some pat payoffs and all too tidy summations of character’s realizations. 

That doesn't stop it from being a sweet little gem of a movie with great chemistry between the actors and a very satisfying ending. I doubt it will win any awards but I bet it’ll make a bunch of “best of 2009” year end lists. Although, not sure yet if it’ll make mine.

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