High Fidelity is a 2000 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Stephen Frears, starring John Cusack, Jack Black, and Iben Hjejle.

By day, Rob manages Championship Vinyl, a record store where he and his employees, Dick and Barry, indulge in their encyclopedic musical knowledge.

While serious, his relationship with Laura was rocky, as he often had to ask for money, and at one point he slept with another woman while she was pregnant without his knowledge, prompting her to abort the baby secretly while they reconciled.

Number 2 is Penny Hardwick, his high school girlfriend who he dumped after she routinely refused to be intimate with him, only to sleep with another guy shortly afterward.

Teen skateboarders Vince and Justin, frequently cause trouble in the store until Rob discovers their music project, The Kinky Wizards.

However, after finding a letter addressed to "I. Raymond," Rob realizes he is their former upstairs lifestyle guru neighbor, nicknamed "Ray", known for keeping them awake with his frequent sexual encounters, which they used to jokingly discuss.

At a celebration for the release of Vince and Justin's single, organized by Laura, Rob is pleasantly surprised by the performance of Barry's band.

[7] The writers decided to change the book's setting from London to Chicago because they were more familiar with the city, and it also had a "great alternative music scene", according to Pink.

[10] Charlotte Tudor, of the film's distributor, Buena Vista, said: "Chicago has the same feel as north London, there is a vibrant music scene, a lot of the action is set in smoky bars and, of course, there is the climate.

Cusack found that the greatest challenge adapting the novel was pulling off Rob Gordon's frequent breaking of the fourth wall and talking directly to the audience.

[4] Cusack and the writers floated the idea that Rob could have a conversation with Bruce Springsteen in his head, inspired by a reference in Hornby's book where the narrator wishes he could handle his past girlfriends as well as Springsteen does in his song "Bobby Jean" on Born in the U.S.A.[13] They never believed they would actually get the musician to appear in the film, but thought putting him in the script would make the studio excited about it.

"[14] Frears was at the Berlin International Film Festival and seeing Mifune's Last Song, starring Iben Hjejle, realized that he had found the female lead.

The critical consensus states: "The deft hand of director Stephen Frears and strong performances by the ensemble cast combine to tell an entertaining story with a rock-solid soundtrack.

[29] Roger Ebert gave the film four out of four and wrote, "Watching High Fidelity, I had the feeling I could walk out of the theater and meet the same people on the street — and want to, which is an even higher compliment.

"[31] In his review for The New York Times, Stephen Holden praised Cusack's performance, writing, "a master at projecting easygoing camaraderie, he navigates the transitions with such an astonishing naturalness and fluency that you're almost unaware of them.

"[32] USA Today did not give the film a positive review: "Let's be kind and just say High Fidelity doesn't quite belong beside Grosse Pointe Blank and The Sure Thing in Cusack's greatest hits collection.

"[33] In his review for Entertainment Weekly, Owen Gleiberman gave the film a "B−" rating and wrote, "In High Fidelity, Rob's music fixation is a signpost of his arrested adolescence; he needs to get past records to find true love.

DeVincentis and Steve Pink—have rewritten Scott Rosenberg's script to catch Hornby's spirit without losing the sick comic twists they gave 1997's Grosse Pointe Blank.

"[35] In his review for The Observer, Philip French wrote, "High Fidelity is an extraordinarily funny film, full of verbal and visual wit.

[40] Alternative singer-songwriter Regina Spektor was watching the movie when she wrote her 2006 song "Fidelity", which marked her first entry into the Billboard charts.

[42] In 2010, Tanya Morgan member Donwill released the solo album Don Cusack In High Fidelity, which he recorded from the perspective of the film's character.

[43] In April 2018, ABC Signature Studios announced that it was developing a television series adaptation of High Fidelity with Midnight Radio (Scott Rosenberg, Jeff Pinkner, Josh Appelbaum, and Andre Nemec).