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The Arts Intel Report

A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler
A Cultural Compass
For the World Traveler

High Fidelity

Streaming on Hulu

An early-90s Nick Hornby couldn’t have anticipated the cinematic universe that High Fidelity would go on to spawn. The 1995 novel about a lonely, depressed vintage-record-shop owner named Rob was first adapted for the screen in 2000, starring John Cusack and Jack Black. (Their characters hotly debate the merits of Bob Dylan songs—the movie holds a position in the hipster canon equivalent to that of Star Wars.) Now it has been reimagined as a Hulu series, but there’s a gender flip: Zoë Kravitz is the new Rob. (Her mother, Lisa Bonet, appeared in the film as a seductive singer-songwriter.) Kravitz is charming as a pessimistic, heartbroken weirdo—even though it’s hard to believe that she’s ever been broken up with—but her blend of misanthropy and neediness comes through to sell you on the story. And her prettiness ultimately makes the lovesick whining more palatable. —Zoe Dubno