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High Fidelity at 20: the sneakily dark edge of a comedy about bad breakups

Stephen Frears’ smart adaptation of Nick Hornby’s novel of stunted growth remains as compelling as ever with one of John Cusack’s best performances

Rob Gordon is kind of a jerk. And High Fidelity, based on Nick Hornby’s incisive dissection of the pop-addled male brain, is about the process of him becoming a little less of a jerk. It didn’t seem necessary to point that out 20 years ago, when the film received exactly the niche appreciation it was destined to find, but it does now, because it’s not often we’re given a hero as blinkered as Rob Gordon and not told how we’re supposed to feel about him.

Related: Erin Brockovich at 20: how a grim true story became a glossy star vehicle

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