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.
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
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.
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.
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?
I would also include Bridget Jones’ Diary in there. Granted, this came out in 2001, it signified the 90’s to me.
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.
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.
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.