Doctor A.D. Reviews

High Fidelity (2000)

Should Have Gone Straight To Comedy Central

[5/10 · 4 April 2000]

While it was a bit of a lukewarm surprise to actually hear four Drag City recording artists in the movie (note to the unaware: the "demo tape" that the skate punks made was actually real music by a real life established band- Royal Trux- which was a totally unrealistic point in the movie, esp. since the lead singer heard on the "demo tape" happens to be a female), I as a non-fictional music enthusiast felt inadequately stereotyped and somewhat patronized. High Fidelity misses the point in portraying record nerds the same way Hollywood usually misses the point in portraying christians: you can't can't get the real humor and drama out of a picture unless you can fully comprehend the people you are depicting and convince THEM to believe in your story. I was not convinced. This movie did little for me except serve as a strong reminder as to why I prefer mail order to physical record stores: most people who work in record stores are annoying. Beyond that, I thought the acting was standard and the story was completely boring. Buy the soundtrack and wait for the video if you really think you absolutely must suffer through this.

The Night of the Hunter (1955)

Hilarious!

[6/10 · 4 February 2000]

I think that if I had seen "Night Of The Hunter" on t.v. When I was six years old it might have left some kind of twisted, haunting impression on me; however, as an adult I don't see anything suspenseful about this film or for that matter anything of great value at all beyond its sheer ridiculousness. This movie is very dated. Don't get me wrong- I thoroughly enjoyed it until the novelty wore off, but then I got extremely bored about the time the kids started drifting down the river and then all of a sudden it seemed like an entirely different film altogether and then Mitchum came back and nothing particularly climactic happened and then I was like, "what???!!!??" But don't look for a scare here- it's more like farcical comedy. The whole religious freak theme is hilarious, and the music is beautifully silly. There are some neat shots (the underwater car/corpse etc.) and Mitchum gives a fine performance (if he intended to play the part as comedy), but don't expect anything amazing.