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  • We think you should watch these movies or don't we?

  • Don't care.

  • Welcome to watch Mojo.

  • And today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 gen X movies.

  • If you could just go ahead and make sure you do that from now on, that would be great.

  • And, uh, I'll go ahead and make sure you get another copy of that memo.

  • Okay?

  • Yeah, I have the memo.

  • I've got it.

  • It's right for this list.

  • We're looking at films that were important for the generation born between 1961 and 1981 otherwise known as Generation X.

  • Although this generation is often stereotyped as apathetic, thes films speak to what many were thinking and feeling at the time.

  • In other words, they're more than just popular.

  • They helped capture the spirit of a generation.

  • Hold up, Tom.

  • Out damn out!

  • Y'all take a chill, you need toe cool that shit out.

  • And that's the double truth.

  • Ruth, please note we won't be including Spike Lee's Do the Right thing or Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction.

  • However, as their appeal is something that's transcended generations.

  • What what country?

  • You from what Watch what ain't no country.

  • I've ever heard of.

  • They speak English.

  • And what if you like what you're hearing?

  • Be sure to check out the full song at the link below.

  • Let me start.

  • Uh oh.

  • Number 10 kids.

  • Filmmakers Larry Clark and Harmony Corinne are no strangers to controversy.

  • And it was this 1995 film that first brought their unique and challenging ideas and visuals to the big screen.

  • Kids tells a very simple story about inner city kids and their experiences with sex, drugs and boredom.

  • This ties into the overarching apathy that many Gen Xers were feeling around this time, while also serving as a dramatic shift from the feel good kids films of the 19 eighties.

  • Tell me says What's up?

  • Do you want to speak to me?

  • That dick?

  • You still mad at him?

  • Off course I am.

  • How am I gonna get him after what he did?

  • Well, what did he dio he still have virginity.

  • Corinne Screenplay is harsh and unforgiving, while Clark directs the film with a lurid I that raised critical eyebrows then and continues to do so today.

  • I thought you had a brother.

  • No, I ain't nobody.

  • What about you?

  • No, I can't My mom will let me have with number nine boys in the hood.

  • Realistic depictions of inner city life weren't exactly commonplace on the big screen in 1991.

  • Did you hear the shooting last night?

  • Yeah, I heard it.

  • I got on my base.

  • Manu was scary Cat, My momma say a bullet don't have no name on it.

  • And perhaps that's why Generation X responded so intensely to writer director John Singleton's feature directorial debut, Boys in the Hood.

  • It's a coming of age tale but told from a fresh and honest perspective while covering thematic ground that was long overdue.

  • That photo photo We got a problem here.

  • Boys in the hood doesn't sugarcoat or apologize for the life choices of its characters, and it makes us care about the story being told, even if there is a whole lot of gray area in between right and wrong.

  • Moreover, Singleton's film introduced actors like Angela Bassett, Cuba Gooding Jr and Ice Cube audiences that were ready to embrace them as the future stars.

  • They would become Man, pick Chris Up, pump my start trip.

  • That's the food pressure Hey e even got my gap number eight office space.

  • Mike Judge had already endeared himself big time to Gen Xers with his hit animated series Beavis and Butthead before jumping to the big screen.

  • So it makes sense that his first live action feature film also resonated with, um, Office space came at the right place in the right time, capturing the desire of Generation X to break away from the dreary 95 doldrums.

  • Uh, we have sort of a problem here.

  • Yeah, you apparently didn't put one of the new cover sheets on your TPS reports.

  • Oh, yeah.

  • I'm sorry about that.

  • I forgot.

  • Sure.

  • The film achieves this end with a whole bunch of great satire and quotable humor.

  • But office space, like many Mike judge projects, is a lot smarter than it might seem at first glance.

  • Tell me about it, man.

  • Oh, Oh, I gotta wake my ass up at six AM every day this week, drag upto Alaska Linda's.

  • Yeah, I'm doing the drywall up there at the new McDonald's.

  • Many comedies seem dated right after they hit theaters, but office space continues to strike nerves and funny bones.

  • Years later, it looks like you've been missing a lot of work lately, I wouldn't say I've been missing it.

  • Bob Good one.

  • That's number seven Singles Singles was another hit for former Rolling Stone writer and fast times at Ridgemont High screenwriter Cameron Crowe and an example of just how adept the director was at connecting with young people across generations.

  • I'm 23.

  • Remember how old 23 seemed when you were little?

  • I mean, I thought people were gonna be traveling in airlocks and I would have five kids.

  • Generation X was the intended target this time, and with grunge rock at an all time high, singles hit a bullseye by setting it's romantic comedy story in Seattle.

  • Steve, you just follow your instincts.

  • I mean, don't treat this like casual sex.

  • Casual sex doesn't even exist anymore.

  • It's lethal.

  • It's over.

  • There are few movies Mawr, quintessential e nineties than this one, right down to members of Sound Garden and Pearl Jam appearing as supporting characters.

  • Okay, okay, so the haircuts and fashion choices and singles probably haven't aged all that well.

  • But for viewers of a certain age, Cameron Crowe's story just hits all the right wistful buttons.

  • Number six Empire Records so is working in a record store Really, like living out Empire Records?

  • Well, no, no, it's not.

  • But that didn't stop in entire generation of people, from daydreaming about the kinds of adventures and lives drama and all that these very cool and very pretty people enjoyed on a daily basis.

  • Oh, I've decided I'm going to start a band.

  • Really?

  • Yeah.

  • First thing you need is a name.

  • Empire Records stood out from the often cynical portrayal of Gen X Youth and film by presenting a group of friends who seemed to genuinely enjoy each other's company.

  • The fact that the film boasted a killer soundtracks certainly didn't hurt matters any four viewers today, Empire Records is just pure nostalgia.

  • Ah, look back at a time when we could all pretend that slinging CDs and tapes could actually pay the bills.

  • Why did you do that?

  • Mr.

  • Typical Nutty Teenager in America Number five Before Sunrise Before Sunrise is a unique film on this list and that it seems to have more in common with the slow burn cinema of the 19 seventies.

  • Director and co writer Richard Linklater capitalized on the success of his 1993 hit Dazed and Confused to create this sweet, smart and touching love story.

  • A single night affair between an American and French tourist that asks more questions than it answers.

  • How do you speak such good English?

  • Me?

  • I'm American.

  • You're American?

  • Yeah.

  • Are you sure?

  • Yeah.

  • Hey, No, I'm Turkey.

  • I knew you were American before sunrise is dialogue heavy and character driven.

  • The kind of film that GEN X audiences were perhaps more open to is the decade rolled on.

  • Today the film is considered a cult classic, proving that link leaders output continues to win over audiences across generations.

  • I don't think I'm going to be able to make it for lunch today.

  • I'm sorry.

  • I I met a guy in the train and I got off with him in Vienna.

  • Were still there.

  • Are you crazy?

  • Probably Number four.

  • The Breakfast Club.

  • Consider this next entry on our list, the sort of Gen X movie that just fits into our criteria.

  • Sure, the sweet spot for many Gen X movie watchers was arguably the nineties, but those born in the seventies probably have a fund memory of watching.

  • The Breakfast Club is a kid on naked blonde.

  • What's going to a bar with a poodle under one arm on a 2 ft salami.

  • Under the other, writer director John Hughes managed to capture the zeitgeist of how compartmentalized many young Gen Xers felt and how they wish to break out from the expectations of both their parents and the previous generation.

  • Why is that door closed?

  • Why is that door closed?

  • How are we supposed to know we're not supposed to move right?

  • Jock, prep, geek, outcast and weirdo.

  • I'll spend a few hours of detention together, but wind up learning Ah, whole lot more about themselves and each other by the time the day is done.

  • But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain and an athlete and a basket case, a princess and a criminal.

  • Does that answer your question?

  • Sincerely, yours.

  • Breakfast Club number three Clerks Clerks A true cult classic from writer director Kevin Smith was one of the little underground flicks that really resonated with audiences in the Indy obsessed nineties.

  • Sir, what are either one of these any good?

  • I don't watch movies.

  • Well, have you heard anything about either one of them?

  • I find it's best to stay out of other people's affairs.

  • Just as the 19 seventies New Hollywood movement put the power in the hands of writers and directors, so, too, did the floodgates open for Generation X filmmakers to tell their own stories.

  • Clerks was shot in black and white for a meager initial budget of 27 grand, but earned a cult following thanks to the wit and charm of the script.

  • I love women.

  • Did you want Grizzly Adams?

  • Moreover, Clerks represents the generation's desire for more relatable storytelling, as opposed to the bloated Hollywood epics of old.

  • You know there's a million fine looking women in the world do, but they don't all bring you lasagna at work.

  • Most I'm just cheat on you.

  • It also proved that the average Joe could make his own movie, get it distributed and actually succeed.

  • Number to Fight Club.

  • If Office Space was a comedic satire of the white collar misery machine, then considered David Fincher's fight club to be, it's bad boy alter ego.

  • The first rule of Fight club is you do not talk about Fight club.

  • The second rule of Fight club is you do not talk about Fight Club, the film possesses similar themes of Generation X versus the status quo, but inserts sequences of sweaty macho violence and throbbing electron ICS to drive its point home.

  • David Fincher and screenwriter Jim Pools adapt Chuck Politics novel with a hefty helping of dark comedy while at the same time adopting a visual style that's dirty and grimy.

  • Sometimes Tyler spoke for me, fell down some stairs, fell down some stairs.

  • Add to that inventive jump cuts and intentional fourth wall breaks, and you get a film that really stands out.

  • Fight Club is a movie that probably couldn't have been made in any other decade, but that Timestamp is also part of its charm.

  • Wow!

  • Okay, you are now firing a gun at your imaginary friend near 400 gallons of like a restaurant.

  • When I think of Generation X stereotypes, I think of cynicism, plaid and the movie.

  • We haven't number one on this list, so let's look through the time capsule.

  • That is our honorable mentions.

  • And then we'll see our top Gen X movie when Dorothy meets the Scarecrow and they do that little dance at that crossroads and they think about going all these directions, then they end up going in that one direction.

  • I mean, all those other directions.

  • Just because they thought about it became separate realities.

  • I mean, they just went on from there and lived the rest of their life.

  • You know, greetings and salutations.

  • You, Heather?

  • No, I'm a Veronica Sawyer.

  • I don't know why Dionne's going out with a high school boy there.

  • Like dogs, you have to clean them and feed them.

  • And they're just like these nervous creatures that jump and slobber all over you.

  • No.

  • Get off of me.

  • Oh, F Okay, that's all the time we have for this week until then.

  • Goodnight.

  • Party on Wayne party on Garth.

  • Way on.

  • We're clear.

  • Express to the class how an important historical figure from each of your time period would view the world of San Dimas 1988.

  • Yeah, we're in danger of flunking most heinously tomorrow, Ted.

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  • Number one.

  • Reality bites.

  • Reality Bites ticks all the right boxes to be a perfect flick for the Generation X crowd, a beautiful and touching story of the triumph of the human spirit so cheesy I can't watch him without crackers.

  • For starters, it employs a cast of classic Gen X favorites, including Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Janeane Garafalo.

  • I'm gonna try on the TV, They're Bryant Gumbel will be.

  • And he'll say, Today we have with us the Pulitzer Prize winning documentarian Lalane appears.

  • Second, it's a meta sort of movie that's about filmmaking, as writers, character works on a documentary detail ing life and love in the nineties, Finally, themes of gay rights, AIDS awareness and listless apathy all fall perfectly in line with what many in Generation X were feeling at the time.

  • Yeah, well, I forgot.

  • I'm not qualified to talk to you.

  • I'm sorry.

  • I can't be Mr Hey, look at me.

  • I'm Buddha on the mountaintop.

  • Reality Bites is a perfect storm of sorts.

  • Ah, pleasantly dated kind of film that's of its time in the best possible way.

  • Do you agree with our picks?

  • Let us know in the comments.

  • Hey, if you're a fan of the song playing right now, be sure to check out the music video for it right here.

  • E uh, smooth.

We think you should watch these movies or don't we?

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