For office culture, I’d say Office Space and Clockwatchers.
For the partying culture, I’d say Swingers and Go.
Business world, early 90’s: Barbarians at the Gate.
Philadelphia (AIDS, and justice for gays, becomes a mainstream story)
The Rapture (alienation, millenialist anxiety, & religious extremism)
and, oddly enough,
Goldeneye for its setting in post-breakup Russia, with its Moscow gangster capitalists and other anarchic forces undermining society and security in the wake of the Cold War.
The Peacemaker addressed similar concerns in a much more serious way (Serbian intellectual-turned-terrorist trying to nuke Manhattan), but wasn’t nearly as much fun to watch.
Aside from maybe the Kevin Smith movies and maybe a few select others, I think we’ll have to wait and see what film has to say about the 90’s. I mean, alot of what my generation knows about the 60’s and 70’s comes from movies made in the 90’s (Dazed and Confused, Boogie Nights, The Stoned Age, etc all come to mind.)
If I had to pick 3 movies I would probably say…
Menace II Society - “I don’t give a fuck” - “reality”
Friday - “I don’t give a fuck” - comedy
and Clerks - “I don’t give a fuck” intellectual suburban slacker.
Startup.com
This was basically a documentary but it got a theatrical release so maybe it counts as a movie. The story of two Internet entrepreneurs during the Internet boom and bust. I thought it gave a terrific feel for the rather flaky world of Internet entrepreneurship.
Dead on here, my friend !
I’m just going to throw 10 out that come to mind as commenting on politics, society, and the American mindset at the time (or just plain offered a little slice o’ life):
Reality Bites
A Few Good Men
Wag The Dog
GI Jane
Friday
Scream
Very Bad Things
The Wood
Boys On The Side
Office Space
I opened this thread expressly to post Office Space, but I see that’s been covered. Clerks, I also agree with.
I’d have to go with some of those already posted, plus a few of my own:
- Office Space (defining our lives and our jobs)
- Fight Club (defining the X generation as it comes into adulthood)
- Black Hawk Down (for America’s military aspect–the world’s peace keeper–in the 90’s)
- The Matrix (the technological aspect of every nerd’s dream)
- Traffic (shows the life behind the life, so to speak.)
This movie perfectly summarized the entire Clinton era.
OK, after reviewing the movies already listed, and giving some more thought to it, my list of ten movies which capture the vibe of the 90’s would be:[ol][li]Office Space. Nice lampoon of 90’s corporate culture.[/li][li]Singles. I think Cameron Crowe must have intentionally made this movie to be a future nostalgia piece for the Seattle/grunge era.[/li][li]Primary Colors. Captures 90’s political culture (and does so much better than Wag the Dog).[/li][li]Pulp Fiction. Hard to talk 90’s film without mention of this movie. Hugely influential.[/li][li]Swingers. (Good call, Dooku.) This one catches the 90’s party scene.[/li][li]Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels. In some ways derivative of Pulp Fiction, but to me this film is Europe in the 90’s.[/li][li]Can’t Hardly Wait. Another movie that screams 90’s. The 90’s teen scene.[/li][li]Kids. The darker side of the teen scene.[/li][li]Boyz N Da Hood. Provides some perspective for the Rodney King riots and the OJ trial, I think.[/li][li]High Fidelity. This one’s personal, I guess. (Sort of sums up spoke- in the 90s.)[/ol][/li]
Hmmm. Two Travolta movies on the list. Yep, those were the 90’s.
Oh, and honorable mention to Run, Lola, Run for 90’s Europe.
And I would have included Startup.com (which I agree really caught the whole dot com boom and bust beautifully), but I’m thinking documentaries might be cheating. Good one, though.
Oh, also honorable mention to Trainspotting for our European sub-category.
Fight Club- I’ll second this one. It’s like the evil version of “Office Space.” You’ve got materialism, the fall of culture, the pointlessness of society…it’s all good. 
For some reason, Fargo springs to mind but I guess it could take place any time really.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day and The Silence of the Lambs.
I probably should not have left The Matrix off my list. It very much has a 90’s “feel” to it, even though it’s science fiction.
I suppose it has a 90’s feel in the same way that Soylent Green or The Omega Man has a 70’s feel.
Drawing Flies
Clerks
1991: The Year Punk Broke (documentary)
Drawing Flies
Clerks
1991: The Year Punk Broke (documentary)
I see Clerks popping up a lot. I loved that movie, but really, I don’t see anything about it that particularly screams 90’s.
If you’re going to go with a Kevin Smith movie, I would say Chasing Amy has a more definite 90’s vibe. (Lesbianism? Tres 90’s!)
Thoughts?
Spoke- – Primary Colors was gonna be MY pick . Good call.
One people are missing is Scorsese’s urban drama Clockers. Also, New Jack City.
Scorsese only produced Clockers. It was directed by Spike Lee.