Empire Records is an odd movie, considered by some to be a cult classic, although it’s arguable whether it deserves the title. Personally, I think that the movie unwittingly manages to pick up on one very powerful emotion to carry it through and that emotion is nostalgia.

The plot revolves around the fate of an old-school record store (much like the ones we will never see in this country) where pretty much everything happens all at once over the course of a single day; Rex Manning Day.

Essentially, the record store is in trouble, the people working in the store have their own issues going on in-between and eventually they all come together to save the store, so basically nothing earth shattering there.

From a technical standpoint, it would be quite easy to write this one off too. The dialog seems to run like a first draft of a screenplay; the director could have really made a lot of better choices, particularly those jarring scenes when the characters break the fourth wall. The acting is…good at times and over the top at others.

 

Liv Tyler (Lord of the Rings, Steven Tyler’s Daughter) plays the role of the prettiest girl to work in a record store, who happens to have a rather unfortunate crush on the sleazy and highly tanned Rex Manning, played by Maxwell Caulfield (Grease 2). Most of the performances in this movie are played fairly straight but Caulfield is sure to generate some actual loathing from the audience, which must mean he’s doing a good job.

 

His vocals on “Say No More (Mon Amore)" is particularly well done in that I wanted to reach through the screen and silence the man, except I was too rooted to my chair in horror.

 

Meanwhile, Renée Zellweger (Jerry Maguire, Bridget Jones’s Diary) also does a decent job, and sings at the end of the movie, although, personally, I much prefer the original version of Sugar High by Coyote Shivers.

 

Honorable mentions include Robin Tunney (TV’s The Mentalist) as a very 90’s-emo Deb and the very zen Rory Cochrane (Dazed and Confused, A Scanner Darkly, CSI Miami)

 

The biggest star of the movie has to be its soundtrack which has some really great tunes in there. Personal favourites include The Innocence Mission- 'Bright as Yellow', Toad The Wet Sprocket’s ‘Crazy Life’, Evan Dando’s ‘The Ballad of El Godo’ and of course Sugar High by Coyote Shivers (who also acts in the movie and performs it at the end).

 

The magic of this movie is in the sense of nostalgia it creates. I stumbled across the most apt description of this movie online the other day. To paraphrase: Empire Records is sort of like that girl in school who you had that really intense crush on but was pretty much out of your league and so you go on with your life only to bump into her again later and you realize that she’s actually quite dim but nevertheless, the affection remains.

 

For some reason the characters are likeable…eventually, and the soundtrack is that kind of fun/guilty pleasure 90’s cheesy alt rock that just really gets down past your world weary cynicism and reminds you that a long time ago you were a little like one of the characters in that movie; it’s the ugly and embarrassing truth but it takes you back to a more idealistic time and maybe that’s not such a bad thing.

 

All of the characters ‘issues’ end up quite small and fixable and the fact that the solution to everyone’s problems is to have a concert and raise money seems quite anti-climactic but I guess that’s just another reason why this movie will remind you of simpler times.

 

Empire Records is a decent coming of age, feel-good movie with heaps of nostalgia inducing potential, so if that’s what you’re looking for, this movie wouldn’t be the worst way to spend one and a half hours.

Reviewed by Channa Fernandopulle