What was the most 90s movie in the 90s?

[Martinus]

Swingers is probably my favorite 90s movie.  Not sure I'd call it the "most 90s" movie, though.

Yeah. I think people are voting for their favourite movie, not the most quintessentially 90s movie.

[Ideologue]

I guess American Beauty will be a controversial choice, but I think it encapsulates the middle class ennui of the time and aimlessness of the young generation.

Indeed--another reason to boost for American Beauty (albeit not moreso than Clerks) as "The Film of the 1990s" is how viciously people turned against it once the 21st century was underway.  Of course, you could say that about Fight Club.

I question Seven.  My third favorite Fincher film, and a big hit, and all that, but it practically takes place in an alternate dimension and while it has a lot to say it doesn't appear to me to be speaking for a decade or a generation.  Rather just for Andrew Kevin Walker's unpleasant time in New York, and David Fincher's skill at producing gross nihilistic shockers.

[celedhring]

Pulp Fiction is the epitome of film postmodernism in the West, really. I agree with Ide that his effect on my generation was insane - I started film school two years after it was released and every-fucking-body was shooting and writing Pulp Fiction ripoffs - but it stands on its own. It's the perfect encapsulation and regurgitation of how films were made in America up to that point. One of my teachers used to quip that all of American film history existed so Tarantino could go and make Pulp Fiction.

[Ideologue]

See, that's the kind of overpraise that 20 years later sounds insane.

Douglas Sirk didn't make movies so Tarantino could put his name on a fucking steak.

[celedhring]

See, that's the kind of overpraise that 20 years later sounds insane.

Douglas Sirk didn't make movies so Tarantino could put his name on a fucking steak.

He said that in 2010 :p

He used to get very emotional when talking about films though. I loved him.

[The Brain]

He used to get very emotional when talking about films though.

Like me when I talk about Valhalla Rising.

[Malthus]

He used to get very emotional when talking about films though.

Like me when I talk about Valhalla Rising.

A movie that perfectly summarizes Sweden for foreigners. 

[Ed Anger]

Wild Things

What about Showgirls?

Barf.

[garbon]

Wild Things

What about Showgirls?

Barf.

[Malthus]

For me it was Pulp Fiction - because it was a movie made up of borrowings from other eras, thrown together with ironic style -- an attitude that perfectly summarizes the '90s.

[Valmy]

Showgirls gives everybody AIDS and shit.

[Ed Anger]

Joe Eszterhas is an abomination.

[Admiral Yi]

Showgirls might have worked if whatshername had better tits.

[Warspite]

If I had to pick a basket of films that I consider very 90s, and between them capture many of its aspects (at least in the rich world), then it would be:

- Trainspotting
- Clueless
- The Big Lebowski
- Office Space
- Pulp Fiction
- The Matrix

Of these, I reckon Pulp Fiction is the most 1990s of them all, even if it doesn't have flannel shirts or normcore.

[The Larch]

flannel shirts or normcore.

That's what Clerks is for.