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copyright ©1999-2001
DigsMagazine.com.
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flick pick
| Empire
Records 1995
Directed by: Allan Moyle
Written by: Carol Heikkinen
Starring: Anthony LaPaglia, Rory Cochrane, Johnny Whitworth,
Robin Tunney, Liv Tyler, Renee Zellweger, Ethan Embry, Brendan
Sexton III
Language: English
Look for it at the video store under:
comedy
Watch it when you’re in the mood
for something: dumb
but fun |
The
critic says:
 ½/ 5 the rating
system explained
Fun factor:
/ 5 |
Plot synopsis
In the little microcosm of
independent record store Empire Records, the young employees wrestle
with the usual teenage dilemmas and life crises. AJ contemplates going
to art school, and finding a way to tell beautiful, brainy Corey that he’s
in love with her. Corey, meanwhile, is too stressed out by the pressure
she feels to be perpetually perfect that she’s completely oblivious to
AJ’s feeble attempts at asking her out. Her best friend Gina,
meanwhile, can’t decide whether to fight or embrace her reputation as
nothing more than the town slut. Then there’s suicidal outcast Debra,
flaky Mark, and aloof oddball Lucas. Overseeing them all is the owner of
the store, a hip, middle-aged, wannabe drummer named Joe. What Joe hasn’t
told his kids, however, is that the store’s in big financial trouble,
and at the end of the day, he may be forced to sell it off to an evil
music chain.
Review I
miss the eighties. Granted, I don’t really remember them all that
clearly, not in their full brat-pack glory anyway, but boy does high
school look fun in those John Hughes movies. So why doesn’t anyone
make movies like those anymore – teenybopper flicks filled with fun
music, pretty people, and enough adolescent hyper-angst to make you
yearn for the days when you were blissfully deluded in your conviction
that the world revolved around you, you, you? Ah, but they do! Empire
Records may have been made in 1995, but it follows the exact same
formula that makes those eighties-style teen ensemble cast flicks such a
guilty viewing pleasure. True, it has absolutely no plot to speak of,
and when you realize that the movie takes place in a single day in the
life of these characters, you realize how preposterous it is that: 1)
this one little record store is as hopping and happening a place as the
film would lead us to believe, and 2) each and every character undergoes
a major life revelation by movie’s end. But despite it’s 100%
fluffiness, the movie has an indisputable charm that comes largely from
the quirky characters that inhabit its world -- from Rory Cochrane’s
deadpan funny, pseudo-philosophical, turtleneck-clad Lucas, to Ethan
Embry’s very lovable Mark, whose daydreams prominently feature GWAR,
to Brendan Sexton III’s hilariously misguided Warren Beatty, a
juvenile delinquent who shoplifts rap and Mariah Carey CDs. Filled with
quotable lines galore, Empire Records is one of those movies that
transcends plot. Besides, unrealistic as it truly is, Empire Records
looks like a damn fun place to work.
—reviewed by Y. Sun
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