I caught High Fidelity over the weekend, and was reminded that it's ten years old.
Iben Hjejle hasn't made a major American movie since. Todd Louiso's basically gotten by on bit television appearances since, though he was in Snakes on a Plane, so points, dude. Lisa Bonet was on Life on Mars, which is a further reminder that I really need to get around to catching the British original first. Joan Cusack's mostly continued to be stuck in roles that are incredibly far beneath her. With the exception of Mystic River, Tim Robbins has mostly spent his time in projects that didn't get as much traction as it seems like they should have. John Cusack has vacillated between extreme romantic drippiness and overdone action and suspense. And Jack Black's succeeded by relying on the parts of himself that let him play the jackass in Barry, rather than the smart guy (with rare exceptions, I thought he was quite good in The Holiday).
Looking back that way, all of those subsequent careers seem like a significant waste of talent. Maybe High Fidelity was just a rare moment of artistic convergence for all of these folks. Maybe it's just that my own personal history makes me feel intensely sentimental about the damn movie (although I still can't listen to "I Believe (When I Fall in Love With You it Will Be Forever" with the kind of equanimity and peacefulness I think you're supposed to feel at the end of it). But I do think it was that kind of great, deeply-felt, emotionally and physically specific but universally relatable movie that's all too rare these days. It really does make me feel kind of old that I've been carrying it around as a touchstone for more than a decade.