With today's episode drop, we're moving into a new mini-block of themed episodes, all of which involve music in one way or another. And in this episode we start where most people did when it came to music back in the day: in the record shop. This despite the fact that by the time either of these films came out, vinyl was considered a more or less quaint format for music.
We begin with 1995's Empire Records, directed by Allan Moyle and starring a lot of people who weren't honest-to-god stars yet, so you'll have a lot of "Ermahgerd, they're such babies here!" and you'd be correct. This is one of those films that takes place over roughly a 24-hour period (probably just a little longer), and a bunch of lives manage to change in a big way during that day.
From there we move to High Fidelity (2000), directed by Stephen Frears and starring John Cusack, Iben Hjejle, Jack Black and a couple of surprises here and there. It's a spot-on look at the near-middle-aged man's psyche just before he realizes that he can't keep on doing stuff the way he's been doing it so far. So again, by the end of the film lives change, but it just takes a little longer.
COMING ATTRACTIONS:
Our next episode is a fun one, as we look at a couple of biographical movies that are presented in a rather unconventional way. We'll start with 2007's I'm Not There, directed by Todd Haynes, and then move on to Love and Mercy from 2014, directed by Bill Pohlad. Interestingly, they have something in common not only with each other, but with the recent Elvis biopic, which hadn't yet been released at the time we recorded that episode. So watch this space for that detail.
