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My Generation.
Jan. 8th, 2006 03:06 pmI rented some movies last night.
I rented The Big Lebowski because it seems like every guy I know quotes it and thinks it's the best thing ever. I had seen it at the theater and I don't think I "got" it then, I had also seen it randomly because my friend and I had wanted to see a movie and it was the only one neither of us had seen yet (or even heard of for that matter). So, anyway...I rented it and watched it again and laughed out loud a few times but I still hold that it's simply a "boy movie" like Swingers is. Yes, I hear a ton of people talk about how great they are, but all these people are guys. I liked it alright, but I wouldn't go so far as to be memorizing quotes from it. But I am glad I've now seen it again.
The other movie I rented was Singles . I rented that one because Joe N. had said it had a great soundtrack and it was just a standard I really needed to see. Despite some troubles with the DVD, I watched it last night as well. It was a decent movie, but what really caught me was how VERY 90's it was. I would say that Singles and Reality Bites are probably the movies that sort of definited a generation, the clothes, the cast, the music (hell, Singles has Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder IN it). The 90s were great for a lot of reasons, there was a sort of cultural revolution in a way, more serious music, new music, intellectualism and a separation from decadence. But when push comes to shove, as much as I'd like to think of it as "my" generation, it wasn't, it was my brother's, he was a Gen Xer, he graduated college in 1994-5, this was his time, and he has music collection to reflect that, and the Lollapalooza shirts as well.
It wasn't my generation, we were, what, called the Gen Yers, whatever the hell that means. Did we have a set of movies that defined our generation? The 90s had Singles and Reality Bites, and Winona Ryder. The 80s had the brat pack movies and anything with Molly Ringwald in it. I don't know enough of the movies before that to think about what defined them, but certainly Rebel Without a Cause for the 50s would be a contender and maybe The Graduate for the 60s. But what do we have, the Gen Yers for the late 90s and early 2000s? It makes me sad to think that our generation could be defined by Scream and American Pie...lame teen slasher flicks and movies about guys fucking pies, but they did have some of the music of the time (what was popular, boy bands and rock metal, oye). But perhaps the 70s were Porkies and Police Academy, and if that's the case, maybe it comes in waves (though I think of Saturday Night Fever is more like it). It makes me sad though...I don't want that to be my generation.
Any other thoughts on what defined us would be appreciated. I mean, we had Titanic, but that was a "period" piece so that hardly defines us. A movie ABOUT our generation...did we have one? And yes, more recently there may have been some sleeper hits like Garden State, but do they DEFINE our generation, were they popular enough for that, and it seems a bit late to have hit the mark, but maybe it still counts. This makes me very sad though, that we've not had more than that and that our generation's face has been Kirsten Dunst, just no. Ugh.
I rented The Big Lebowski because it seems like every guy I know quotes it and thinks it's the best thing ever. I had seen it at the theater and I don't think I "got" it then, I had also seen it randomly because my friend and I had wanted to see a movie and it was the only one neither of us had seen yet (or even heard of for that matter). So, anyway...I rented it and watched it again and laughed out loud a few times but I still hold that it's simply a "boy movie" like Swingers is. Yes, I hear a ton of people talk about how great they are, but all these people are guys. I liked it alright, but I wouldn't go so far as to be memorizing quotes from it. But I am glad I've now seen it again.
The other movie I rented was Singles . I rented that one because Joe N. had said it had a great soundtrack and it was just a standard I really needed to see. Despite some troubles with the DVD, I watched it last night as well. It was a decent movie, but what really caught me was how VERY 90's it was. I would say that Singles and Reality Bites are probably the movies that sort of definited a generation, the clothes, the cast, the music (hell, Singles has Chris Cornell and Eddie Vedder IN it). The 90s were great for a lot of reasons, there was a sort of cultural revolution in a way, more serious music, new music, intellectualism and a separation from decadence. But when push comes to shove, as much as I'd like to think of it as "my" generation, it wasn't, it was my brother's, he was a Gen Xer, he graduated college in 1994-5, this was his time, and he has music collection to reflect that, and the Lollapalooza shirts as well.
It wasn't my generation, we were, what, called the Gen Yers, whatever the hell that means. Did we have a set of movies that defined our generation? The 90s had Singles and Reality Bites, and Winona Ryder. The 80s had the brat pack movies and anything with Molly Ringwald in it. I don't know enough of the movies before that to think about what defined them, but certainly Rebel Without a Cause for the 50s would be a contender and maybe The Graduate for the 60s. But what do we have, the Gen Yers for the late 90s and early 2000s? It makes me sad to think that our generation could be defined by Scream and American Pie...lame teen slasher flicks and movies about guys fucking pies, but they did have some of the music of the time (what was popular, boy bands and rock metal, oye). But perhaps the 70s were Porkies and Police Academy, and if that's the case, maybe it comes in waves (though I think of Saturday Night Fever is more like it). It makes me sad though...I don't want that to be my generation.
Any other thoughts on what defined us would be appreciated. I mean, we had Titanic, but that was a "period" piece so that hardly defines us. A movie ABOUT our generation...did we have one? And yes, more recently there may have been some sleeper hits like Garden State, but do they DEFINE our generation, were they popular enough for that, and it seems a bit late to have hit the mark, but maybe it still counts. This makes me very sad though, that we've not had more than that and that our generation's face has been Kirsten Dunst, just no. Ugh.
