One of the most emblematic movies of the 90s.
“So… what are we doing for New Year’s?”
It both perfectly summarizes, and effectively flicks-off the light switch on that cinematic decade. Of course mileage varies based on one’s subjective pop radar, but this one checks all my 90s boxes in the best possible way:
- Pulp Fiction-esque non-linear shenanigans, check.
- Sarcastic and loquacious Slackers, check.
- Counter-cultural setting and appropriate soundtrack, check.
- Ironic pop cultural-references galore, check.
- Antiestablishmentarianism and the pericombobulations (it’s a perfectly cromulent word) of selling-out, check.
- Indie-darling director in the form of Doug Liman, check.
- Trippy drug fugue, check.
- Familiar faces sorta cast against type, check.
- Serpentine font title logo, check.
The list goes on…
Beyond that, it’s a glorious celebration of youthful carelessness that perfectly captures that heady and kinetic sliver of time before the Y2K bug destroyed civilization as we know it.
Like the end of Fight Club, or the burning down the Initech offices, or Neo figuring out the Matrix, this movie always felt like a good place to leave the 20th century.
-Pop