My all-time, top-five, desert island John Cusack films are as follows: No. 5, Say Anything. No. 4, Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil. No. 3, Grosse Point Blank. No. 2, Runaway Jury. No. 1, the mighty High Fidelity.

Remember those damn lists? There was a while back in the early 2000s where you couldn’t escape them, no matter how hard you tried. They were everywhere. For every topic. I am so thankful that trend quickly died.

Yes, I feel a little dirty for resurrecting it here.

For better or for worse, High Fidelity spoke to – and continues to speak to – generations of males of a certain mindset. I am a card-carrying member of this demographic. My three biggest collections are music, movies and books. It’s an insatiable bloodlust. It’s defining. I’ve been guilty of judging others based on their tastes in entertainment. We are all Rob Gordon. We all wish we owned a record store and DJ’d on the side. We may not envy Rob’s love life, but we can all relate. There’s a shared history there. We are men, which means we are overgrown children who are both fascinated and at odds with the opposite sex. Both Nick Hornby – the author of the book the film is based on – and John Cusack are masters at conveying this.

This is the movie that turned me on to the glory and wonder that is Nick Hornby’s bibliography. That is a gift that I can never fully repay. If you have not read any of Hornby’s work, please rectify that at your earliest convivence. Start with High Fidelity. It’s familiar ground and the perfect gateway drug. Continue on to Juliet Naked, Slam, About a Boy and A Long Way Down. If you’re feeling froggy, check out Funny Girl. If you need more rock and roll in your life, crack open a copy of Songbook. Hornby is an amazing author.

I don’t know if this is John Cusack at this absolute best, but it is certainly him at his most comfortable. Cusack owns this character to such an extent that at times it feels like a documentary that slipped through a wormhole from an alternate reality, showcasing his life and times had the acting gig never panned out. He is Rob Gordon. He is everyman.

But while Cusack is the star of this flick, it is truly an ensemble piece. Lisa Bonet makes a rare appearance as one of his love interests. Why we never see her in film much anymore is truly a mystery to me. It’s been a long way since The Cosby Show.

And then there’s Jack Black, in what many consider his break out role. There is this strange phenomena with actors where after you see them showcased properly for the first time, you suddenly realize you’ve been seeing them for years and never noticed it. This was my first taste of Jack Black, or at least so I thought. Then I spotted him while watching old episodes of Northern Exposure. And there he was again in Bob Roberts. Suddenly you realize that hot new talent was right under your nose the entire time.

The opposite to this phenomena is, of course, the slow creep. The slow creep usually involves character actors rather than breakout stars, but the process is similar. Every movie you watch, you keep noticing that one actor over and over again – possibly cloned – seemingly everywhere. This is how I fell in love with Vincent Schiavelli, Brion James and so many more. Character actors are the backbone of Hollywood.

High Fidelity earns bonus points for the best use of breaking the fourth wall since Ferris Bueller’s Day Off and any number of Burt Reynolds flicks.

It is the perfect movie for being in love, getting out of love, or licking your wounds from getting your ass kicked by love. It’s an emotional morass, a spiritual gray area and you’ll relate to it more than you ever thought you would.

Still, the book is so much better.

Read it.