whole lot of other shit that could fit in here I guess... Empire Records... Clueless... Singles... Swingers maybe.

Poll question: best "Gen X" movies

Poll result (26 votes) Dazed & Confused (7 votes) Vote Clerks (14 votes) Vote Reality Bites (2 votes) Vote Chasing Amy (1 votes) Vote Slacker (0 votes) Vote something else (2 votes) Vote

Not sure you can really call that a Gen X film.

but the feel is def early 90s gen x

>but the feel is def early 90s gen x


you can't make a movie about a generation of people using the backdrop of a totally different generation.


That's like saying "American Graffitti" was made for 70's babies.


No. it was made for 50's babies who were adults in the 70's ( same with "The Big Chill" and 30-somethings in the 80's).


a Generation X film is made with people and settings that would have still been ( for lack of a better term) 'relevant' in the 90's. like "Singles" or some other shit like that.

>>but the feel is def early 90s gen x
>
>
>you can't make a movie about a generation of people using the
>backdrop of a totally different generation.

says who?


>That's like saying "American Graffitti" was made for 70's
>babies.

not really

>No. it was made for 50's babies who were adults in the 70's (
>same with "The Big Chill" and 30-somethings in the 80's).
>
>
>a Generation X film is made with people and settings that
>would have still been ( for lack of a better term) 'relevant'
>in the 90's. like "Singles" or some other shit like that.


weak analysis man... really weak. I'm not saying that Dazed didn't tap into the socio cultural atmosphere that surrounded the 70s... but the shit also had a foot in the 90s

there was nothing uniquely 70s about that movie... with slight changes it could have been made about the 80s 90s and 2000s because it just tapped into timeless youthful angst.

>there was nothing uniquely 70s about that movie... with
>slight changes it could have been made about the 80s 90s and
>2000s because it just tapped into timeless youthful angst.

You can argue that there's nothing uniquely 70's about it but there's also absolutely nothing uniquely Gen X about it either. If a movie could have been ANY decade, why would you call it be considered a Gen X movie? Shouldn't a Gen X movie be definitively based in that generation?

maybe "coming of age" aint the right term... but fuck it

DTS

>>you can't make a movie about a generation of people using
>the
>>backdrop of a totally different generation.
>
>says who?
>


says the definition of Movie genres. I couldn't make a movie in downtown Chicago tomorrow morning and call it a Western, now could I?


The setting itself, is a character, potna.



>>a Generation X film is made with people and settings that
>>would have still been ( for lack of a better term)
>'relevant'
>>in the 90's. like "Singles" or some other shit like that.
>
>
>weak analysis man... really weak. I'm not saying that Dazed
>didn't tap into the socio cultural atmosphere that surrounded
>the 70s... but the shit also had a foot in the 90s


but you can't call a film set in the 70's a Gen X film. Unless the characters in that film were toddlers or pre-teens. and you'd STILL have to have some 80's shit in there to call it a 'coming-of-age' film. There's NO way you could get it done if it was set in the 70's.


>
>there was nothing uniquely 70s about that movie... with
>slight changes it could have been made about the 80s 90s and
>2000s because it just tapped into timeless youthful angst.


soundtrack and costumes, notwithstanding, I assume?


1. Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer
2. Slow Ride - Foghat
3. School's Out - Alice Cooper
4. Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas
5. Tush - ZZ Top
6. Love Hurts - Nazareth
7. Stranglehold - Ted Nugent
8. Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
9. Fox On The Run - Sweet
10. Low Rider - War
11. Tuesday's Gone - Lynyrd Skynyrd
12. Highway Star - Deep Purple
13. Rock And Roll All Night - Kiss
14. Paranoid - Black Sabbath


dude, ALL that shit was recorded in the 1970's. When most Gen X'ers were kids, if not babies. Are you seriously trying to say that Ted Nugent and Deep Purple were the soundtrack to the Generation X movement? If so we might as well do away with 1989-2000.

Where's the Grunge? Where's the Hip-Hop? Where's the Dance music?


there's NOTHING remotely Gen X about that soundtrack. NOTHING.

>
>>>you can't make a movie about a generation of people using
>>the
>>>backdrop of a totally different generation.
>>
>>says who?
>>
>
>
>says the definition of Movie genres. I couldn't make a movie
>in downtown Chicago tomorrow morning and call it a Western,
>now could I?
>
>
>The setting itself, is a character, potna.


dude, stop... writers/filmakers throughout time have used historical settings to focus on modern society.

>>>a Generation X film is made with people and settings that
>>>would have still been ( for lack of a better term)
>>'relevant'
>>>in the 90's. like "Singles" or some other shit like that.
>>
>>
>>weak analysis man... really weak. I'm not saying that Dazed
>>didn't tap into the socio cultural atmosphere that
>surrounded
>>the 70s... but the shit also had a foot in the 90s
>
>
>but you can't call a film set in the 70's a Gen X film. Unless
>the characters in that film were toddlers or pre-teens. and
>you'd STILL have to have some 80's shit in there to call it a
>'coming-of-age' film. There's NO way you could get it done if
>it was set in the 70's.


That 70s Show disagrees with you.... set in the 70s, yet dealt with alot of modern day shit.

>>there was nothing uniquely 70s about that movie... with
>>slight changes it could have been made about the 80s 90s and
>>2000s because it just tapped into timeless youthful angst.
>
>
>soundtrack and costumes, notwithstanding, I assume?

>1. Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo - Rick Derringer
>2. Slow Ride - Foghat
>3. School's Out - Alice Cooper
>4. Jim Dandy - Black Oak Arkansas
>5. Tush - ZZ Top
>6. Love Hurts - Nazareth
>7. Stranglehold - Ted Nugent
>8. Cherry Bomb - The Runaways
>9. Fox On The Run - Sweet
>10. Low Rider - War
>11. Tuesday's Gone - Lynyrd Skynyrd
>12. Highway Star - Deep Purple
>13. Rock And Roll All Night - Kiss
>14. Paranoid - Black Sabbath
>
>
>dude, ALL that shit was recorded in the 1970's. When most Gen
>X'ers were kids, if not babies. Are you seriously trying to
>say that Ted Nugent and Deep Purple were the soundtrack to the
>Generation X movement? If so we might as well do away with
>1989-2000.
>
>Where's the Grunge? Where's the Hip-Hop? Where's the Dance
>music?
>
>
>there's NOTHING remotely Gen X about that soundtrack.
>NOTHING.


the fuck? dude... change the music, change some cultural refrences and the movie coulda been set in ANY fucking decade

It really touched on some of the anti-establishment feelings and gender politics of the Gen X'ers.

you guys are being idiots, dazed and confused is clearly a gen x movie.

it shares a sensibility with films made at the same time, and is enjoyed most by people who are gen xers or early gen y-folks like me.

it was at a time when young people were trying to appropriate 70s culture, even more so than now, and parker posey's in the fucking movie for god's sake.

just like wet hot american summer is not a gen x movie (it's not, gen x is old), aliens don't watch star trek, and borat isn't for kazakhs (kazakhstanis?). no need to be so damn literal.

i wouldn't call it THE archetypal 90s movie, but it's not miscategorized here.

"it shares a sensibility with films made at the same time, and is enjoyed most by people who are gen xers or early gen y-folks like me."

"Sensibility"? It shares a sensibility with films made in the 60's like Animal House.

Also, how is Wet Hot American Summer a film made by Gen Xers and based around when actual Gen Xers would have been in those positions at the summer camp not a Gen X movie by your definition? That makes no sense whatsoever.

If you want to talk about 90's Indie Movies fine. But if you are talking about Gen X movies (which InKast now admits he wasn't really focusing on), then Dazed and Confused isn't in the conversation.

each generation is going to take a look at standard themes like "this is what teenagers do" and "hey we had a war" and "settling down"

movies like "dazed and confused" and "wet hot american summer" are about transferring and communicating that experience from people 'making' the culture to the people defining what their generation means at the time. dazed and confused wasn't for linklater's people. wet hot american summer wasn't for the people who went to high school will the folks on the state.

you know who loves dazed and confused?

people like this:
http://www.popmatters.com/pm/feature/6574/the-rural-hipster-why-we-need-chuck-klosterman/

not people like this:
http://www.nndb.com/lists/959/000105644/

>movies like "dazed and confused" and "wet hot american summer"
>are about transferring and communicating that experience from
>people 'making' the culture to the people defining what their
>generation means at the time. dazed and confused wasn't for
>linklater's people. wet hot american summer wasn't for the
>people who went to high school will the folks on the state.

So you define a generation by the films/shows made by people from the previous generation about their own generation as long as they touch on timeless feelings/emotions that can be felt by EVERY generation?

Generation X is around 1965 to 1981. By your definition, a show like Happy Days is a Gen X show. Wonder Years is a show that Gen Xers watch but that doesn't make it the definitive Gen X show (since it doesn't define Gen X at all).

The bottom line is that if someone watches Dazed and Confused, That 70's Show, or The Wonder Years, it doesn't really tell them anything about Generation X or the time they lived in.

EDIT: Also, I didn't follow your first link. Chuck Klosterman is Gen X. Do you think he didn't like those movies? Do you think Gen Xers don't enjoy his writing?

people who were teenagers when the show was airing.

people in generation x and younger often like dazed and confused, people older generally don't.

Look at the other films. They are films that defined the generation. It was the generation seeing themselves on screen in their own time. Slackers, Clerks, Reality Bites, Kids, Boyz in the Hood, etc.

Nobody is going to say: Describe what Generation X is like and say "Dazed and Confused". It's nonsensical.

why no gen-x in their 30s and 40s movies?

why use kids as an example when it involves characters too young to be gen x and is directed by a boomer?

this kind of definition is why dazed and confused fits to me, and you're gonna have to expand your definition to convince me otherwise.

people watching dazed and confused in the 90s WERE seeing themselves.

just me and the millenials to deal with your shit then.

We're worse than the boomers.

I hate to say it but we can at the beginning of the internet revolution and global economy. The old jobs are overseas (the hubs still being run by the old guard) and the new jobs are being created by the younger generations that grew up with computers.

I was about to throw a little rant on my blog about this but the end of Generation X is basically like the Apple IIGS. We were outdated as soon as we arrived.

>people watching dazed and confused in the 90s WERE seeing
>themselves.

The majority of Gen Xers were not seeing themselves in that movie at all. They were seeing themselves more in 80's movies (that actually came out in the 80's).

I was off with Kids. I counted it because I'm on the end of Gen X so I still connected to it but it doesn't fit.

As for focusing on teenagers, it doesn't have to be that but usually when people get older the generational blend ends. Do you have any suggestions? Fight Club could work. Little Miss Sunshine is on the border. I just can't think of any.

>this kind of definition is why dazed and confused fits to me,
>and you're gonna have to expand your definition to convince me
>otherwise.

Huh? Why would I have to expand my definition? Gen X movies are movies of the generation that define the generation. A movie based on seniors in high school in 1976 doesn't fit Gen X.

How can you define Generation X with a movie that occured before half of Generation X was even born?

of course they were seeing themselves.

I'm saying a Gen X movie helps define the generation. You are saying a movie that takes place in 1976 somehow does that. It makes NO sense.

It's like saying The Wedding Singer defines the Millenial generation.

is that millenials don't like the wedding singer all that much. i mean, what 12 year old in 1998 is sitting around saying," gee, i sure wish i could find a real connection with drew barrymore too". the target audience for that movie isn't millenials anyway, its generation x. cause they be getting married and falling in love and wanting to find jobs that they don't hate themselves for.

generation x LOVES them some dazed and confused. loves it. cause when most of them saw it they just wanted to play pool with mustache matthew and hook up some beer and get someone to kiss them WHEN THAT MOVIE CAME OUT.

let's go back to happy days, because its super 70s and set in the 50s. let's go back to that 70s show, because its super milleniumy and set in the 70s.

and 90s and 80s and 70s and 60s interpretations of those same eras are gonna vary widely.

let's go back and say every kid that was 11 when the sandlot came out doesn't give a shit about the 50s, but they still share that as a cultural touchstone.

let's talk about fucking westerns and how important they were to kids 50 years ago.

generations are about shared cultural moments and experiences, and dazed and confused was one for generation x. movies don't just document whats happening in the world. they're part of the cultural framework that each generation has to appropriate to define itself.

When you think of the 70's, do you think the Cunninghams and the Fonz? No, you think of Saturday Night Fever.

Gen X watched The Wonder Years. If you were going to define Gen X, you wouldn't say "Oh it's like Kevin Arnold and the Wonder Years." You can make a reference to WATCHING that show, but to act like that show in any way defines the people of that time is just plain stupid.

People might share a common bond of the Wonder Years, but what you see in the Wonder Years in NO WAY encapsulates what they went through at that time.

look, the whole power of dazed and confused and the wonder years when they step beyond the timeless issues stuff is that they share a perspective with the audience on what those things mean.

dazed and confused is dismissive of 70s politics but not 70s counterculture, for example. its saying, if we had been around then, this is how we would have handled ourselves. or if a movie or show is set in the past and the characters commit to some sort of behavior or attitude that people in the consuming culture wouldn't agree with, its done with a wink at the audience. see, forrest gump.

they share that perspective with the audience intended to consume that media in 1993 or 1990 or whatever.

understanding how the generation before you is different from you, filtering out the parts that don't matter to you, creating a narrative of how they got it right and what it all meant, thats part of defining YOUR generation.

>look, the whole power of dazed and confused and the wonder
>years when they step beyond the timeless issues stuff is that
>they share a perspective with the audience on what those
>things mean.
>
>dazed and confused is dismissive of 70s politics but not 70s
>counterculture, for example. its saying, if we had been around
>then, this is how we would have handled ourselves. or if a
>movie or show is set in the past and the characters commit to
>some sort of behavior or attitude that people in the consuming
>culture wouldn't agree with, its done with a wink at the
>audience. see, forrest gump.
>
>they share that perspective with the audience intended to
>consume that media in 1993 or 1990 or whatever.
>
>understanding how the generation before you is different from
>you, filtering out the parts that don't matter to you,
>creating a narrative of how they got it right and what it all
>meant, thats part of defining YOUR generation.

Seriously. Just stop. This is nonsense. Dazed and Confused would still be loved by Millenials if it came out today and probably would have been loved by the late boomers. (Christ, most films critics are boomers and they loved it).

Your definition of a Gen X movie is basically a movie that people in Gen X like and came out when they were old enough to get it.

So again, Shakespeare in Love might as well count.

EDIT: Oh, and you're wrong about Wonder Years. Baby Boomers loved it as well. They ate that shit up. It wasn't shaped by one generation's POV. THAT'S what you really don't get and apparently can't ever open yourself up to even thinking about.

and you didn't think through why you were calling them an idiot.

second most votes. deal with it.

But since I now know that you think voicing an opinion is better than taking time to come up with a rational argument, have at it.

the fact that they got a LOT of shit right ( the costumes, the music) is the same reason the show was a CULT hit and not a real hit.

Meaning, only sarcastic "heads" saw what was dope about it. The audience of the show didn't exist.

The Gen X'ers ( who the show might've been aimed at) were infants and/or little kids during the era when the show was set. ( early 1970's). And those people who were teens and/or adults at the time think the show was stupid, becuase the pop culture references are kinda heavy handed.

Baby Boomers who have seen the show are like:

"big deal...they smoked weed in the basement and listened to Foghat..."

"they slept with each other's girlfriends and had shitty jobs. wow..."

So basically, aside from the witticism of the actors, "that 70's Show" didn't really bring too much to the table. And speaking as someone who saw a lot of that shit first hand, I took a LOT of offense to the way they handled the Disco era.

it's a movie about being a kid breaking out.

the people that love that movie are people who were kids breaking out after 1993.

Again, how does a film set in the 70's that features timeless themes get thrown into a list of films that define Generation X?

If you're defining the Indie Scene of the 90's, fine. It fits. But that's not what's commonly referred to as Gen X films.

i don't see why any of the others are particularly generation x if you want to make that argument. why clerks? why chasing amy (gay = 90s?) why slacker instead of dazed and confused? i don't even know anyone in the real world besides me who likes slacker.

so yeah, i think you all are too focused on the setting and thinking of a narrow experience of "gen x" that seems to involve kevin smith instead of maybe this post isn't a good idea.

do we mean gen x viewers?
do we mean shaping gen x?
do we mean gen x writers and directors?
do we mean a dominant gen x set of sensibilities in movieland?

i can see some version where john hughes movies count for example, and REALLY count, but for the most part i don't think they should?

i can see someone making it about paul shore movies, and i'm not sure that thats not legitimate?

so i don't see why folks chose to pick at "oh wtf dazed and confused."

But at least the others ones were in the right time frame. The others might not be the best choices but Dazed and Confused shouldn't even be eligible. It's like saying the Millenials are defined by Hairspray.

>i don't see why any of the others are particularly generation
>x if you want to make that argument. why clerks? why chasing
>amy (gay = 90s?) why slacker instead of dazed and confused? i
>don't even know anyone in the real world besides me who likes
>slacker.

I agree with you. Chasing Amy doesn't fit but at least it's in the right generation. Although I do think the gay community plays a big part of the 90's. The definitive Gen X play is probably Rent.

As for the movies, it's not a great list. You'd think Gen Xers either lived in Seattle, New Jersey, or 1976. (And the only black people were in 1976).

"Gen X" to me means a movie that defined that generation, the times they grew up in, etc. The problem (of course) is that Gen X spanned 20 years so it's a long period to cover. You could make an argument for The Breakfast Club or Less Than Zero just as you could Boyz in the Hood. But Dazed and Confused? No.

surely not challenger? cherynobl? reagan? aids? tear down this wall? cable television?

i did an internet search and there's a lot of stuff about kurt cobain. so generations only happen with frustrated kids of a certain class?

i mean i basically define my own generation as "people who grew up with aids, sexual revolution, post-affirmative action politics, environmentalism, etc as realities and not movements, who understood people were scared of the cold war but don't remember any of the tension personally, and came of age as the internet came of age" but i don't have a precise definition of x other than i'd think you'd have to remember a good chunk of the cold war.

"surely not challenger? cherynobl? reagan? aids? tear down this wall? cable television?"

Why not? Kurt Cobain was only the end of Gen X. And here's a key mistake. You did an INTERNET SEARCH! Most Gen Xers aren't blogging or writing pop culture stuff and the ones that are remember the 90's better than the 80's.

>i mean i basically define my own generation as "people who
>grew up with aids, sexual revolution, post-affirmative action
>politics, environmentalism, etc as realities and not
>movements, who understood people were scared of the cold war
>but don't remember any of the tension personally, and came of
>age as the internet came of age" but i don't have a precise
>definition of x other than i'd think you'd have to remember a
>good chunk of the cold war.

So say a high school movie based in 1986 comes out that had some timeless themes but took place in a time of casual sex, Reagonomics, no internet, the new technology was the microwave and Atari, homosexuals were still deep in the closet, no AIDS.

Again, even if that movie had some timeless themes of angst, love, what have you, would you think it defines your generation? Would you say "Now that is a Millenial Movie!"

>"surely not challenger? cherynobl? reagan? aids? tear down
>this wall? cable television?"

>Why not? Kurt Cobain was only the end of Gen X. And here's a
>key mistake. You did an INTERNET SEARCH! Most Gen Xers aren't
>blogging or writing pop culture stuff and the ones that are
>remember the 90's better than the 80's.

maybe i phrased that poorly. i was saying challenger doesn't seem like it was important enough, but i hear it a lot. the i didn't mean a "surely not" for everything else that followed

and of course generation x uses the internet.


>
>>i mean i basically define my own generation as "people who
>>grew up with aids, sexual revolution, post-affirmative
>action
>>politics, environmentalism, etc as realities and not
>>movements, who understood people were scared of the cold war
>>but don't remember any of the tension personally, and came
>of
>>age as the internet came of age" but i don't have a precise
>>definition of x other than i'd think you'd have to remember
>a
>>good chunk of the cold war.
>
>So say a high school movie based in 1986 comes out that had
>some timeless themes but took place in a time of casual sex,
>Reagonomics, no internet, the new technology was the microwave
>and Atari, homosexuals were still deep in the closet, no AIDS.
>
>
>Again, even if that movie had some timeless themes of angst,
>love, what have you, would you think it defines your
>generation? Would you say "Now that is a Millenial Movie!"

my point is if a movie set in 1986 had come out when i was in high school, i can guarantee it would have approached that setting from a perspective that i could relate to, which would ultimately have a huge impact on how it told the story of "1986."

whether it was a millenial movie would depend entirely on how good a job was done with it. the moment for my generation has passed though. i'd consider 24-hour party a movie that people in my generation (that've seen it) would see as a movie that fit generation y sensibilities. same for boogie nights or blow.

i know a lot of kids in their teens and their teachers in the 2000s who idenitified with remember the titans, and it is very much a movie of this era, not a movie of the 1960s.

>my point is if a movie set in 1986 had come out when i was in
>high school, i can guarantee it would have approached that
>setting from a perspective that i could relate to, which would
>ultimately have a huge impact on how it told the story of
>"1986."

Yeah, you would have related to it as a HIGH SCHOOL MOVIE. You wouldn't look at it and say "You know that's the times I'm living in."

And what about the Millenials who were born from 1990 - 2000? Over half of your generation isn't going to know a world without MTV, Microwaves, Internet, AIDS, etc. It would be completely foreign. Why would they see a movie from 1986 and be "Yeah, that defines me and my generation."

>i know a lot of kids in their teens and their teachers in the
>2000s who idenitified with remember the titans, and it is very
>much a movie of this era, not a movie of the 1960s.

IT'S A MOVIE OF EVERY ERA! You are honestly making no sense. What is your point? How is Remember the Titans at all on point when you even write that TEACHERS AND STUDENTS relate to it? How can it be of a certain generation when it's from the 60's and has a message that spans all generations? How is that a Millenial Movie?

Just because you can relate to a movie doesn't make it the definitive movie of that generation.

Honestly, since you completely ignore the concept of a movie defining a time period, this whole thing is moot.

my generation begins with people born in 81-82-83 and ends with people born at 1991-2 at the latest. if you remember reagan well, you don't count. if you can't remember a time before aim or the disney channel, you don't count.

as an experiment though, i'll find some 16 year olds and see what they think of dazed and confused.


and you're still waaaaay too hung up on setting. go watch some vietnam movies from the past 35 years and see how they've changed. you can learn a lot about the times people are living in without the movie actually being about the times those people are living in.

So who do you ascribe the change to? The boomers that make the movie? The Gen Xers who are viewing the movie?

Who does Saving Private Ryan define? Boomers like Spielberg? Gen Xers? Gen Y?

By your logic, Generation X is going to defend Generation Y. Do you really think Diablo Cody gives a fuck what Gen Y thinks? No, she's writing the films she wants. Yet you'd have them defend the latter generation. It makes ZERO sense.

it *was* a generation x film.

it wasn't specifically about generation x-ers

but it was a hit amongst generation x-ers

>it wasn't specifically about generation x-ers

And if it isn't specifically about Gen X then it's not a "Gen X film" IMO. I would consider a Gen X film a film that shows the Gen X experience. Dazed and Confused hits on timeless themes but pretty much nobody would point to it and say "That's what being in Generation X was like"

>but it was a hit amongst generation x-ers

This is different from a "Gen X film" in my opinion. That's just naming films that were in the pop culture of generation X and that could be just about anything from Dazed and Confused to Dumb and Dumber to Tremors.

and thats saying something, given the Duke football post in OKSports.


And where's the Singles option or fuckin High Fidelity?

"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

and probably holds its own with PF too.

"Your current frequencies of understanding outweigh that which has been given for you to understand." Saul Williams

Boyz n the Hood
Juice
Menace II Society
Fresh
Swingers
House Party (the original)
Friday


**************************************

"I'm sick of followin' my dreams. I'm just gonna ask where they goin', and hook with them later." - Mitch Hedberg

"I don't think muthafuckas went to the moon either, but that's just me..." - Mos

I went to see that movie the night it opened, and since I got there late, I was in the front row, and spent most of the night looking STRAIGHT up at the screen. So not only did I had a throbbing migrane from the neck pain, I can't even remember what the movie was about...


nothing against the movie itself, but I have NOTHING but bad memories of that whole experience.

**********
anyways..

**********
anyways..

that would be star wars and raiders and fame and ghostbusters and stripes and the john hughes 80s movies and such