Empire Records (1995)

3 Stars (out of 4)

What's with Today, Today?

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

A group of Gen X misfits pass a day working in a record store. Lucas (Rory Cochrane), who was entrusted with closing the night before, runs to Atlantic City to try to increase the day's earnings in order to prevent the store from being sold to a soulless corporate giant. He loses. But today is "Rex Manning Day." An aging, faded pop star (Maxwell Caulfield) will be signing copies of his pathetic new LP. Pretty Cory (Liv Tyler) hopes to live up to her childhood crush and lose her virginity to him. A.J. (Johnny Whitworth) has a crush on Corey and has chosen today to tell her. Mark (Ethan Embry) is a goofy stoner who watches a Gwar video and imagines himself playing guitar with the band. Debra (Robin Tunney) is another misfit who today decides to shave her head. Gina (Renee Zellweger), in her tiny miniskirts, is the store slut. A shoplifter who calls himself "Warren" (Brendan Sexton) is caught and detained. And manager Joe (Anthony LaPaglia) tries to deal with all the insanity.

Despite all this, not much actually happens in Empire Records, and what happens is fairly predictable. The general consensus was that it was "a soundtrack in search of a movie." And if you compare it to other Gen X hangout films like The Breakfast Club, Dazed and Confused, Clerks, that other record-store movie High Fidelity, and director Allan Moyle's own earlier movie Pump Up the Volume, this one comes up short. But what is does have is a cool vibe. Like Gen X itself, the movie doesn't seem to care. It's just doing its thing. And it has rightfully become a cult classic. Debi Mazar co-stars as Rex's handler, who quits and embarks upon a romance with Joe.