Empire Records follows a day in the life of the staff at the titular music store as the store's closure looms. It's classic teen fair (basically The Breakfast Club in a shop) as the characters make decisions about their future, wrestle with finding a place in life and look to the future whilst Joe the fatherly manager tries to keep everything under control.
Featuring a young cast of up and comers with Liv Tyler, Robin Tunney, Rory Cochrane and Renée Zellweger a year before her break out role in Jerry Maguire it's a film that bounces along from farce to TV life drama of the week fare.
What sets the film apart though (beyond the curiosity factor of the cast in before they were famous roles) is the films soundtrack. The is barely a scene or sequence in the film that isn't played out to the backing of choice picks from the American alt-rock scene. And all the tracks used suit the soundtrack without question as a cultural item that is so very much of it's time and place
In fact in places the films is almost a music video in and of itself. The tone of the picture is uneven as it tires to decide what it wants to be but individual moments come together excellently although it is a shame it doesn't manage to sustain the verve of the opening and early sections, it also fair to say that it is fairly easy to see where each of the character's arcs will take them.
So it's not vastly original and doesn't really hold many surprises but check it out at least for the soundtrack and the very least you'll see Renee prancing around in nothing but an apron.
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