John Cusack is a charming screen presence with a gift for making fairly lousy films deeply entertaining. His commitment to 2012 made the stupid premise at least campily palatable, and Better Off Dead would have been a nondescript teen sex comedy without his appealing deadpan performance.
And perhaps his most beloved role was from 2000 – oh, it was a more innocent time! – in High Fidelity, where he played record store owner Rob Gordon, a man so obsessed with music that he just can’t get relationships right, the adorable nerd!
But watching it again there’s a new interpretation. Which is this: Rob Gordon is, if not an actual incel, certainly incel-adjacent.
For those who just remember the bits in the record store where Jack Black was rude to people, here’s a recap:
Rob has just been dumped by his girlfriend Laura (Iben Hjejle) and then recaps the five most epic dumplings of his life. He then hunts down his exes, ostensibly to discover what was wrong with him, and then stalks his most recent ex until she gives up and lets him do whatever in the aftermath of her father’s funeral. The end.
In case you were wondering how sympathetic the film is to Rob’s perspective, there’s even a scene when a Laura’s new boyfriend asking that Rob not stalk his girlfriend is beaten to death (in a fantasy sequence, admittedly). Yes, it’s Tim Robbins playing a jerk with a ponytail, but even so.
And as he’s trying to convince his ex to come back he uses arguments like “Did I beat you? Did I tell you you were a bad person?” as though she was unreasonable not to want to be partnered up with a guy who doesn’t appear to like her.
And Laura doesn’t mince words: she explains that the reason she’s coming back is that she’s exhausted by the pressure. It’s played for laughs, but goddamn if this isn’t the most chilling bit of the film:
Laura: I’m too tired not to be with you.
High Fidelity, bringing the romance!
Rob: What, so if you had a bit more energy we’d stay split up, but things being as they are, with you being wiped out and all, you want to get back together? Is that it?
Laura: Yeah.
The book, in its semi-defence, is a little more nuanced but the basic idea of Man Angry At Woman For Inadequately Liking Him Harasses Her Into Compliance remains. It also has more references to the Auteurs, the most underrated band of all time, but even so:
Rob feels entitled to access to women, and gets sad, angry and self-righteous when he’s denied it. And then he… um, gets the girl. Let’s get it on!
The film does, to be fair, have a banger of a soundtrack. So you know, swings and roundabouts.
