High Fidelity

it always seemed to me that Nick Hornby’s writing was our secret weapon and if we stuck to it, we’d be alright,” admits director Stephen Frears, recalling the approach he took while adapting 2000’s zeitgeist-capturing comedy High Fidelity. Back in the early-’90s, Hornby’s story of a commitment-phobe record-store owner, endlessly obsessed with listing his favourite albums and seemingly baffled by the motivations of the opposite sex, struck a chord with audiences.

It also caught the attention of John Cusack, who, help introduce a then-largely-unknown Jack Black to the world, and effortlessly encapsulate the pulse and spirit of a post-’90s, music-loving generation. Although as Frears tells , ’s enduring success was all a bit of a happy accident.