I wasn’t planning to see High Fidelity on opening day. Really, I wasn’t. I’ve got piles of things to do. But Randy was unintentionally a bad influence and I ended up at the matinee. So, in the spirit of the film (which was Most Excellent), here are my top five John Cusack movies in reverse chronological order, with a few autobiographical references. I realized today that the reason I love his definitive films so much is that he’s basically my age and his characters always hit my psyche at just the right time.

• High Fidelity – I don’t want to spoil the film for those who haven’t seen it, but if a guy like Rob can make the realization he does towards the end of the movie, there may be hope after all.
• Grosse Pointe Blank – 10 year high school reunion. Released the same year as mine. ’nuff said.
• Say Anything – “The world is full of guys. Be a man. Don’t be a guy.” If only more guys had a friend like Corey. There’d be more men and fewer guys.
• Better Off Dead – just plain fun. And I like baseball.
• The Sure Thing – OK, I have to admit that I haven’t seen this yet. But it launched his career. I will rent it soon.

And, from the official web site’s Top Five lists, I discovered that Rob’s second favorite book of all time is Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson. Cool.