Wednesday, May 03, 2023

Movie review - "Empire Records" (1995) **

 I missed the cult of this but it has its charms especially as a period piece - Gen X, floppy hair, flannos, boots, the "day in the life of a [insert thing]" structure, the music, record stores. The record store seems very big and the casting director had a great day - Ethan Embry, Liv Tyler, Rene Zellweger, Robin Tunney. Rory Cochrane is fun and a skinny Antony La Paglia has floppy hair.

It's not High Fidelity but it's its own thing. There is camraderie and mugging. I didn't like that lack of reality - it never felt like a real record store and no one seemed to do any work. Would an indie store have a day devoted to a fading 80s idol (Maxwell Caulfield having a ball)? Liv Tyler throws herself at him, rips off her clothes to get in her underwear... he asks for oral sex... and then Liv feels cheap? Then Rene Zellweger goes and sleeps with him and that's bad because...? 

There's some young floppy haired boy and La Paglia's older floppy haired guy who doesn't get a "staff with crush on him" story. The stories are a mixture of cartoons and heavy drama (neglected kid, Liv Tyler's hooked on bennies, Robin Tunney shaved her head and... something).

Look the actors are pretty and have charisma. I can see why no one wen to see it when it came out.

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