Maple poster (frontman Al Johnson has a cameo in the movie). Then there are all the local band posters: two Wilco posters (one in the store and one in the Reader's office), the Schubas poster hanging in Rob's apartment from an actual 1999 Of Montreal show, a Jesus Lizard poster, and a U.S. The production designers stuck band and label ephemera everywhere, including stickers of Chicago record label Touch and Go and Chicago punk bands Apocalypse Hoboken and Pailhead. While watching the record store scenes, take a moment to pause every minute to find music Easter eggs. Local music, both mainstream and obscure, is literally splattered everywhere in the film. The good news: After being vacant for 15 years, the storefront on the corner of Milwaukee and Honore used as an exterior for Vinyl finally has a new tenant in 20-year-old local shoe store City Soles.ģ. Even though corporate retailers such as Urban Outfitters and food chains like Umami Burger moved into the block, in many ways Wicker Park remains grungy-chic, with flourishing old-school establishments Reckless Records, neighboring music venue Double Door, and "drinking lunch on a school day" Hi-Fi locale Rainbo Club. Ironically, Rob jokes that sometimes he feels like quitting his job and working at a Virgin Megastore, but the record megastores of yesteryear are mostly gone and the indie stores are the ones standing. In the film, Rob had to borrow money from his lawyer girlfriend Laura, which means in 2015 he really wouldn't be able to pay Championship Vinyl's rent and support himself financially-though vinyl sales have soared in the past decade, so you never know. Today, the median household income is $77,357 and the average household net worth is $724,612. Throughout the years, the neighborhood has undergone a number of facelifts.
#Reckless records high fidelity movie
In 1999, when the movie was filmed, Wicker Park had started to gentrify, but in 1990 only one percent of the denizens made more than $100,000 per year, while the majority made less than $10,000. Wicker Park has changed a lot in 15 years, but it's also stayed the same. Cusack's dad, Dick, plays the minster in Laura's dad's funeral scene, and Cusack's frequent sister collaborator, Joan, plays Rob's friend.Ģ.
She supposedly introduced Nina Gordon and Louise Post to one another they subsequently formed the hitmaking alt-rock band Veruca Salt (they get a shoutout in the movie). Taylor, who plays Sarah, number five on Rob's Desert Island All-Time Top Five Most Memorable Breakups (in Chronological Order) list, grew up in Glencoe, Illinois, another 'burb. Cusack has said his reasoning was that while reading the book, the places where Rob would hang out in Chicago popped in his head. The 1995 Nick Hornby novel of the same name that the film's based on was set in London, but Cusack and team moved the action to Chicago. DeVincentis are Chicagoans, and so is star Lili Taylor.Ĭusack grew up in Chicago 'burb Evanston, and he and Pink attended the same high school, Evanston Township. John Cusack and his co-producers/co-music supervisors/co-writers Steve Pink and D.V. Here, in Rob Gordon style, are the top five reasons why.ġ. At its essence, the city of Chicago is as much of a character as the sophomoric Rob, which is why 15 years after its release today, High Fidelity is arguably the truest Chicago-based film ever made. Gordon is a small business owner in a boho neighborhood, and his coworkers are self-professed music snobs, but they remind us of bona fide people that you would encounter not only in real Wicker Park record store Reckless Records, but also Chicago in general. A showier Chicago film like Ferris Bueller's Day Off employs numerous clips of the Sears Tower (it'll always be the "Sears" to Chicagoans), but in High Fidelity the characters populate "real Chicago," which is centered in the non-touristy Wicker Park. Otherwise, only viewers who have spent good time in the city and are well-versed in its music scene would observe that they're watching Chicago and not, say, Cleveland. In fact, the only true giveaways that the movie does take place in Chicago are scenes filmed on the El, a closeup of a fake Chicago address on a piece of mail, and a couple of background shots of the skyline. The word "Chicago" isn't even uttered until 25 minutes into the movie and then it's only used a couple more times. When record store owner Rob Gordon (John Cusack) speaks to no one in particular during the opening of High Fidelity and asks, "What came first, the music or the misery?" he's doing it from his lived-in Chicago apartment that's adorned with local concert posters.
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