High Fidelity (2000)

Director: Stephen Frears

Cast: John Cusack, Jack Black, Lisa Bonet, Iben Hjelje

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, well. Where does one begin with a question like that? I’m not entirely sure just how many times I saw this movie in the spring of 2003 (for reasons) but I do know it was a lot. Change popular music to movies, and I felt a lot like Rob Gordon there for a little bit about twenty years back.

Did I Like It: We’re a different world now. I’ve changed, and even Rob Gordon (Cusack) has changed*. Can a movie which lived so aggressively rent free in my head at one time mean the same thing now? Should it?

As with many other movies I have seen dozens of times before, I had half a dozen other things going on while it was playing, but I couldn’t help dropping those other things and once again being transfixed by the movie. I doubt I’ll ever have it on repeat again like I did back then, but the memories are all still there, and enough time has passed to make them something akin to pleasant. I wonder what Rob is like now. I’d like to think that he would have the same morbid fascination with his prior antics that I do.

Aside from that, every note of the movie feels correct. The soundtrack is great top to bottom, and that has almost nothing to do with the memories it inspires. Jack Black arrives as the movie star we now know him to be. It is truly impressive that the filmmakers were able to change the location of their adaptation from London to Chicago, aside from the long runner where Rob goes on and on about the hypothetical man “called Ian (Tim Robbins)” and I don’t think any American has ever avoided the verb “named” that resolutely.

* Played most recently by Zoë Kravitz in a recent television series that absolutely should have gotten a second season, but I digress

The Queen (2006)

Director: Stephen Frears

Cast: Helen Mirren, Michael Sheen, James Cromwell, Helen McCrory

Have I Seen it Before: Oh, yes. And yet, why revisit it now? I’ve slipped hard into a period of Anglophilia recently, and as long as Netflix stays stingy with seasons of The Crown, I have to find my fix elsewhere. Thankfully, there are any number of movies that can fill the gaps between seasons. Spencer (2021) filled in nicely between seasons 4 and 5. This one—also written by Crown primary writer Peter Morgan, picks up almost perfectly from the end of the recently released season 5. I suppose it’s only a matter of time before I feel the need to take in The King’s Speech (2010) again as some kind of prequel to the whole affair.

Did I Like It:  There’s a delightful, understated quality to this, especially when compared with its episodic spiritual successor. TV imbues the House of Windsor with a bombast that necessitates a Hans Zimmer score, here moments—even, oddly, the moments leading up to Diana’s death—are given a quaint, pointedly British, almost comedic, feel of an independent movie. Mirren and the rest of the cast never so much as flirt with a natural inclination toward impersonation or self-parody. The juxtaposition of real footage with the fictionalized narrative also more easily leads me to suspend my disbelief. Everything about the film which could be controlled is executed at the highest level.

But, as with any historical drama, there’s a few limitations that lead the film not to age as well as one might hope. Moments of the infamous Panorama interview don’t ring true, because I have a devil of a time believing that the Queen (Mirren) ever watched the interview, and the fact that the interview was used at all (given what we know now about how the interview was originally obtained) feels a little gross. Additionally, the ominous dwelling on the fact that Blair’s (Sheen) popularity may not last forever seems a little beside the point, especially in an era where the idea that Blair was ever popular seems a little ridiculous, and the shelf life of a current Prime Ministers are negatively compared to produce.