# Generation X Movies - Let's Find Some Good Ones **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 28, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645 "2019-05-28T15:02:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2019, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/41 "2019-05-29T21:52:28Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > I don’t know if they named generations before the Boomers. Exactly my point. There’s no reason we have to continue naming them, and honestly I think the phenomenon is running out of steam. ---
**Author:** ![MDfive21](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecc23a/32.png) [@MDfive21](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MDfive21)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2019, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/42 "2019-05-29T22:15:39Z")
Menace II Society and a handful of other gang movies of that time capture the black genX experience. Boiler Room is a sort of genX tribute to Wall Street. The Matrix was produced later but tapped into the disillusion with society generally associated with genXers. Thomas A. Anderson is the definition of genX. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2019, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/43 "2019-05-29T22:25:34Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > Exactly my point. There’s no reason we have to continue naming them, and honestly I think the phenomenon is running out of steam. I doubt it. I think calling generations by their name is as big as it’s ever been. I mean, I don’t really remember people bitching about “Xers” back in the day (there was a little bit of it, mostly being referred to as “slackers,” not so much by our generational name), but now it’s Millennials this and Millennials that by a bunch of grumpy old folk. When Gen Z grows up, the oldsters will be bitching about them as well, as I’m sure with a name to boot. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2019, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/44 "2019-05-29T22:41:04Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I doubt it. I think calling generations by their name is as big as it’s ever been. I mean, I don’t really remember people bitching about “Xers” back in the day (there was a little bit of it, mostly being referred to as “slackers,” not so much by our generational name) I remember a metric shit-ton of bitching about (or at least talking about) Generation X back in the late 80s / early 90s. On par with or even more than has been the case with Millenials. I also remember tons and tons of talk about Generation Y in the early 90s, before “Millenials” caught on. (That’s why I thought they were two different things.) I don’t hear anybody talking about Generation Z anywhere. I didn’t even know that was the name until I looked it up the earlier today for this thread. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2019, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/45 "2019-05-29T23:34:40Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > I remember a metric shit-ton of bitching about (or at least talking about) Generation X back in the late 80s / early 90s. On par with or even more than has been the case with Millenials. I don’t remember the term “Gen X” or “Generation X” really being popular until after Coupland’s book came out in 1991. Certainly, we didn’t talk about Gen X when I was in high until after that (I was in high school from '89 to '93). Searching Google Books from 1980 through 1989, I don’t see a single cite for “Generation X” referring to the generation (though there are two for a Billy Idol’s band Generation X). Generation X or Gen X only seems to appear in the next decade. Looking through the Chicago Trib archive, I see the same thing; the 80s references are only to the band; the first reference to the generation is in 1991. There was talk of Generation X, and I was in high school and college when the term started becoming very popular, but my experience is that while we got a little scorn for being slackers or something like that, it’s nothing like all the jabber-jawing I hear about Millennials for the past decade. ---
**Author:** ![dorvann](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/df705f/32.png) [@dorvann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dorvann)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2019, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/46 "2019-05-29T23:48:29Z")
I can’t believe I forgot to mention _Beavis and Butthead Do America_. I think Beavis and Butthead are a caricature of Generation X metalheads. Edit: _Wayne’s World_ is a good representation of them too. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/47 "2019-05-30T00:12:16Z")
> [@Telperion](#): > > I’ll be flabbergasted if it isn’t Fast Times at Ridgemont High. The movie isn’t great, but the cast list is filled to the brim with future stars. Who in that movie is Gen X?? ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 7:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/48 "2019-05-30T07:10:24Z")
Jodie Foster isn’t usually associated with Generation X, but she is definitely a part of it. _Silence of the Lambs_ for the win! ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/49 "2019-05-30T08:30:43Z")
How about the films of Jim Jarmusch (_Mystery Train, Broken Flowers,_ etc.) and Gus VanSant (_My Own Private Idaho, Swoon_)? They deal with themes and motifs not generally associated with Baby Boom directors, regardless of their actual ages. Also, Wes Anderson. ---
**Author:** ![Horatio\_Hellpop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Horatio\_Hellpop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Horatio_Hellpop)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/50 "2019-05-30T08:35:04Z")
_Black Hawk Down_ has the distinction of being the first major war movie released after 9/11, and the first to deal with themes made relevant by that (although it was made before the attack). _Iron Man_ had a Gen X director and star. _Dead Poets Society_ deserves a mention. ---
**Author:** ![Telperion](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telperion/32/509_2.png) [@Telperion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telperion)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 8:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/51 "2019-05-30T08:45:49Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > Who in that movie is Gen X?? It’d be easier to count the ones who aren’t. It’s about a group of teenagers in the early 80s, which means they had to be born in the 60s because that’s how math works. ---
**Author:** ![Nauplius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nauplius/32/51_2.png) [@Nauplius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nauplius)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/52 "2019-05-30T13:42:02Z")
What about a movie like **I, Tonya**? Would that qualify? ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/53 "2019-05-30T13:59:40Z")
Being an older Gen X’er, i would have to say that Fast Times at Ridgemont High best defined my era. Breakfast Club and Repo man were also pretty representative. Though I am not black or from a big city, Spike Lee’s early movies like School Daze and Do the Right Thing seemed to capture the era pretty well. ---
**Author:** ![SykoSkotty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c0e974/32.png) [@SykoSkotty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SykoSkotty)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/54 "2019-05-30T14:52:52Z")
All the John Hughes movies from the 80’s & early 90’s IMHO: Pretty in Pink 16 Candles Weird Science Some Kind of Wonderful The Great Outdoors Uncle Buck Mr Mom Christmas Vacation Vacation Ferris and I’m sure there are many others I can’t recall at the moment. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/55 "2019-05-30T19:32:33Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > I don’t remember the term “Gen X” or “Generation X” really being popular until after Coupland’s book came out in 1991. I had never heard or read the term before seeing that book, and I’m Gen X. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 8:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/56 "2019-05-30T20:04:15Z")
> [@terentii](#): > > So in other words, nothing like _ **The Elephant Man** _, _ **Chariots of Fire** _, _ **Ghandi** _, or _ **First Blood** _. > > I was 25 in 1980, but I didn’t feel that much out of the times. Ahem. _ **Gandhi** _. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2019, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/57 "2019-05-30T20:15:46Z")
Princess Bride ---
**Author:** ![EinsteinsHund](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/einsteinshund/32/8400_2.png) [@EinsteinsHund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EinsteinsHund)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2019, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/58 "2019-05-31T16:27:53Z")
Most movies posted so far are from the eighties when the GenXers were in their teens, but the first thing I associate with Generation X is early 90s grunge done by twenty-somethings and listened to by twenty-somethings with a similar cultural and musical socialization. In this regard, Cameron Crowes’ [Singles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singles_(1992_film))(along with its soundtrack) is my archetypical Gen X movie. ---
**Author:** ![DorkVader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/73ab20/32.png) [@DorkVader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DorkVader)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2019, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/59 "2019-06-01T21:04:27Z")
Heavy Metal (the movie) In my mind, it was one of the earlier samples of dystopian/cyberpunkish scifi and fantasy as that style really began to rise in popularity. Definitely a GenX movie to my way of thinking ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2019, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645/60 "2019-06-02T02:41:30Z")
Billy Madison. No, really. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/generation-x-movies-lets-find-some-good-ones/834645.md?page=2)