Cinema Revisited: Empire Records (1995)

Directed by Allan Moyle. Cast: Anthony LaPaglia, Renee Zellweger, Debi Mazar, Live Tyler, Maxwell Caufield, Rory Cochrane, Johnny Whitworth, Robin Tunney, Ethan Embry. Released September 24, 1995. Running time: 107 minutes.

There are several unsettling factors about "Empire Records." First, the very fact that this cheerful movie about music geeks in a home-owned record store is now 25 years old. Also, there is the fact that it was a resounding box office flop, but after its release to video it became a cult classic and made its costs back.

However, what is commendable about the movie is that it hasn't dated. The old songs were already old and respected as classics. The concept of record stores is not obsolete, in fact they have since become even more popular; a staple of nearly every city's downtown area.

The underlying story is serious. The manager of the record store does not want it to fall into corporate hands, so he is saving to buy it himself and retain its purity and its staff. He trusts one of the workers to close one night, and he takes the store money and attempts to gamble it to a higher sum so the manager can buy the business. Instead he loses $9000.

However, with that as the film's basis, the substance is filled the various characters who work at the store -- all of them quirky music-oriented types whom we cannot imagine doing anything else. Thing is, the tie-wearing manager, with his intelligence and stoicism, is also likely incapable of doing anything else. The record store is not what they do, it is who they are. There is a certain level of inspiring purity and genuineness to each of them. They don't pretend to anything beyond their immediate surroundings. Some embrace the edgier aspects of their quirks, but the entire attitude of the film is both merry and relaxed. And it is fun to see early movie appearances by the likes of Liv Tyler, Renee Zellweger, and Eric Embry.

There are some highlights. Maxwell Caufield is perfectly unsettling as an 80s-era pop heartthrob who has aged out of his persona and developed an abject disdain for his fans. When he does an in-store appearance, one of the workers (Liv Tyler) approaches him with a sense of genuine affection, and he thinks she simply wants to perform oral sex like a groupie. This hurts her deeply, and the response from the other workers shows camaraderie and understanding.

As with most films that are decades old, there are some dated elements regarding archaic technology, as it has advanced so rapidly in the past quarter century. The film has no linear narrative, and its separate vignettes are often tangential, and dropped without tying up loose ends. But "Empire Records" is so good at conveying the working (and workers) in a record store and their various quirks and exploits, it continues to be entertaining.

Certainly, "Empire Records" isn't an example of great cinema. But it has enough value as entertainment to make its cult status understandable. And despite it being 25 years old, it really hasn't dated very much at all.