High Frequency
More good movies from late 2000
Originally written: December 2000
High Fidelity
Frequency
Shanghai Noon
I've seen three movies over the last two months, all good to great. The best of them is High Fidelity, the adaptation of Nick Hornby's novel about a music store owner trying to deal with love and its ramifications. It was adapted by and stars John Cusack, one of those quirky leading men who always seems to pick good movies, or write them himself. This is no exception: a bright and very funny tale, revolving around the three weirdoes who run the music store.
Cusask is the best adjusted of them and he is off-the-planet as a result of his girl-friend leaving him for the Tim Robbins next door. This leads him into reverie and list-making, recalling his earlier disastrous break-ups and causing him to seek out the women from his past to discover why the earlier affairs failed and why bhis life does not seem to be working out at all well. This is recounted from a perspective of his interaction with his employees in the music store he runs; and from his attemnpts to win back his lady or embark on another perilous love quest.
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His Sancho Panzas are the delightful Jack Black, a pompous, over-sized rock snob, and Todd Louiso, a pale introverted loser who starts to discover himself. They maintain a hectic pace within the shop, sometimes insulting, occasionally helping the few customers that brave their opinionated assistance. There are a plethora female scene-setters, including Lili Taylor, Joan Cusack and Catherine Zeta-Jones, as former girlfriends or their mates.
High Fidelity is ultimately a voyage of discovery for the protagonist, Cusack at his idiosyncratic best. Directed by Stephen Frears, this is one of the joys of the movie year; certainly among the top two mor three movies made in 2000. Highly recommended.
Frequency is an above average time travel-ham radio-serial killer movie. Father and son find that they can talk to each other over a thirty year gap and the concatenations of their discussions leads to changes in the past which have ramifications in the future. As each change occurs, they need to again work towards ameliorating the problems arising.
The early parts of the scenario are set in 1969 as the Amazing Mets move towards their first (and most surprising) pennant. Dennis Quaid is very good as the father, a fireman and ham radio fanatic. Jim Caviezel is equally strong as his grown-up son and the common factor in both eras is Andre Braugher's cop. Braugher gets very few movie parts - he was memorable as the educated negro in Glory - although his television work is uniformly brilliant. The rewst of the cast is up to the same standard.
Frequency one of the few movies to actually think deeply about the paradoxes of changing the past and Toby Emmerich's script is intricately woven. It is best sf movie (leaving aside Being John Malkovich) since The Truman Show. Recommended.
Shanghai Noon is funny enough but it has large patches of deadness. Jackie Chan's latest takes him into the Wild West and the usual series of chaotic fight scenes. Entertaining enough but missing the x factor to elevate it.
[Note: Information about the movies mentioned, including cast and crew lists and all sorts of trivia, is available at the Internet Movie Database (IMDb).]