# What movies best sum up the 90's? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 8, 2002, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367 "2002-10-08T14:59:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Legomancer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/779978/32.png) [@Legomancer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Legomancer)\ **Post date:** [October 10, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367/41 "2002-10-10T02:37:33Z")
I would include **Johnny Mnemonic**. Oh, it sucks rocks, but it has that whole early-90s Cyberpunk thing going on. Especially effective because it came out after that fad was more or less gone. Maybe there’s a better movie to use for this sort of thing. And I hated it, but **Natural Born Killers** has a lot of 90s elements to it. ---
**Author:** ![Morgainelf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Morgainelf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgainelf)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2002, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367/42 "2002-10-14T14:41:00Z")
I think **Clerks** captures the 90’s slacker vibe really well, as well as the generation’s fascination with pop cultre (Star Wars in particular). I listed movies that felt “familiar” to me when I watched them - movies that made me feel that someone in Hollywood understood what it was like for the Gen X crowd in the 90’s. (OK, I never had sex with a corpse in the bathroom of a Quicky Mart, but anyway…) I’ll probably get slammed for the whole Gen X thang, but that’s what I was thinking. M’Elf ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [October 14, 2002, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367/43 "2002-10-14T20:36:10Z")
Just curious on why people think Pulp Fiction? The movie almost transcends a decate. If not for the cell phones, it could have been any decade. ---
**Author:** ![Menocchio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de053/32.png) [@Menocchio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Menocchio)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367/44 "2002-10-15T19:09:45Z")
_The Big Lebowski_ also chimed on the slacker vibe, with hints of PC and 90’s style hedonism. It’s also the first movie, to my recollection, that used the decade as a historical setting, instead of just being contemporary. _Donny Darko_ gave a good look at what is was like to be young in the era of feelings. **Oblong** , _Fiction_ deserves a nod not so much because it reflected the 90’s, but because it was arguably the best film of that decade, and certainly one of the most celebrated and influential. It’s like trying to discuss the Elizabethan era without mentioning _Hamlet_, although that play also transcends any particular historical setting. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367/45 "2002-10-15T19:31:10Z")
I guess the reason I would include **Pulp Fiction** is that it was so influential on popular culture. In my view, it helped _create_ the vibe of the 90’s. And also, it influenced/was influenced by the depressing heroin chic of the mid-90’s. Remember all those skinny, hollow-eyed models that were all over your magazine covers in the wake of Pulp Fiction? ---
**Author:** ![Aitara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b3f665/32.png) [@Aitara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aitara)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367/46 "2002-10-15T19:56:16Z")
I would also include **Bridget Jones’ Diary** in there. Granted, this came out in 2001, it signified the 90’s to me. ---
**Author:** ![Blackeyes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f6c823/32.png) [@Blackeyes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blackeyes)\ **Post date:** [October 15, 2002, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367/47 "2002-10-15T21:39:43Z")
> [@](#): > > Wag the Dog. This movie perfectly summarized the entire Clinton era. Am I alone when I say I can’t watch CNN for a minute without thinking of that movie? Does Bin Laden even freakin’ exist?! Anyways, big ups for _Mallrats_. Even though _Ghost World_ came out in 2000, it had a definite 90s vibe to it. How about _Billy Madison/Happy Gilmore_, because they were such funny movies. _Independence Day_ and _Armageddon_, those major blockbuster space attack flics that sucked. But were some of the top grossing films of their year. For a glimpse of a certain subject, try the HBO original movie about the Matt Shepard slaying. Or for a slightly different glimpse of the same subject, try _The Birdcage_. The _Scream_ trilogy, showing the style of 90s horror. _The Sixth Sense_ and _Unbreakable_ maybe? The state of family life, the fear of death in the new world order, comic books in society?! _Wayne’s World_! And damnit, _Good Will Hunting_! If they had made a _Sienfield_ movie, that would be at the top of the list. Because it was the 90s. ---
**Author:** ![Oblong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/c0e974/32.png) [@Oblong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oblong)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367/48 "2002-10-17T01:08:46Z")
I guess I’m looking at this from the perspective of a historian 200 years from now looking for what life was like in teh 1990s. Pulp Fiction would not show that. Yes it was influential and would be important if choosing the best films of the 90s and should be included in any film study of that decade but when I watch it, I don’t get the sense that it shows any vibe of the decade. I think it was a great movie but not representative of the 1990s in particular. It could have just as easily been the 1970s. Just my opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2002, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367/49 "2002-10-17T02:43:18Z")
I had a friend who had a theory that the 1990s could be split into two sections – she refered to the early part as “BC” or “Before _Clueless_”. She felt that _Clueless_ marked (and helped to cause) the shift from early-90s grunge and angst to a happier and more fashion-and-consumerism-based era. She considered this a good thing. I do not, but I am inclined to agree with her theory anyway. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-movies-best-sum-up-the-90s/131367.md?page=2)