For research purposes, I have decided to do a few blog posts here and there about the decade in which I came of age and the decade in which my next WIP is going to take place. A decade that looks like paradise compared to the misery wreaked upon us since 2000. Y2K was real, except it wasn't what we thought it would be.
So, I invite you to join me in the reminiscing, if indeed you can remember and relate to the gloriously...what...? cynical, languid, dark, dreamy, grungy, retro, heroin addled 90s.
I will start with a film that was meant to characterize generation X, which I think characterizes a group a little older than me. I was generation XY. I think. Who cares? Reality Bites (1994) was a film filled with angst, grunge, arty malaise, guilt ridden casual sex and, of course, cigarettes. I was 17 that year. I liked it and in some ways I aspired to be those characters. Yet, I also remember thinking it was lame. I guess because I was supposed to, being an angst ridden anti-establishment teenager of the day.
I remember thinking it was totally wrong of Wynona Ryder to even consider dating a stiff like Ben Stiller - their characters I mean. Who wouldn't have, in the 90s, lusted after the sulky, selfish, grungy Ethan Hawke. We all knew he had a heart in that player costume of his. He was just damaged, like everyone else.
"Did he dazzle you with his extensive knowledge of mineral water or was it his in-depth analysis of Marky Mark that finally reeled you in. I just would have liked to have been there to watch how you rationalized sleeping with a yuppie-head cheeseball..."
There's no point to any of this. It's all just a... a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. So I take pleasure in the details."
"Troy, aren't you excited? Troy: I'm bursting with fruit flavor. "
I loved that movie! I swore it defined who I was in my late teens/early twenties. Except it was nothing like my life. But I still swore it was ^_^
ReplyDeleteOh I haven't seen that movie in such a long time... totally agree... now I want to watch it again:)
ReplyDeleteI thought I was too cool to watch this movie when it came out. I think all the flannel I wore in the 90's fuzzed up my brain or something.
ReplyDeleteI found your blog from the A to Z Challenge :) (getting an early start). I loved Reality Bites, but more so when I watched in in college than when it first came out (I was in high school). I loved that Winona's character got schooled on the use of the word irony (which the majority of the general population still use incorrectly - it is not a synonym for coincidence!) and I also loved that she used her parent's gas card to get cash from strangers. Only when you're broke and out on your own for the first time does that really hit home.
ReplyDeleteLoved Ethan Hawke in that, although in subsequent viewings, he's pretty much a jerk.
Thanks for stopping by Lorali, tfwalsh, Lindsey, and Stephsco! I thought people would ridicule me for this post. I too thought I was too cool, but I liked it anyway. Great observations, btw, Stephsco. They were so...broke and of course as anadult, the Ethan Hawke character seems like a jerk to me now. Stay tuned for more 90s installments. On to Heathers next. I think that was the 90s at least.
ReplyDelete90's--- nostalgia indeed!
ReplyDeleteStopping by to welcome you on board the A to Z Challenge April 2012
We shall have loads of fun exchanging comments and visits!
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LOL - I loved that movie then. As for Y2K, dang, I was with my sister in a hot tub in the hills of Berkeley watching the lights of San Francisco and wondering if everything would turn off. Needless to say, it was a bit anticlimatic when midnight rolled around!
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