THE CULTURE THAT MADE ME PART 1
The Cool, The Cringe, and The Cancelled
It is early, the cats are still sleeping. I could see the light shifting from pale blue to peach. The smoke is starting to arrive in Vancouver. Somewhere not too far away it is raining sparks and ash. Basically, the whole world is a mess. I was smug to think I had avoided the post-tour crash by staying too productive to notice the adrenaline taper off, but no, yesterday I had to power down. I could not compute anything else, so I soothed myself by walking around the Mall and then re-watching the Exorcist III. How do you escape when you need a break?
shared a post a couple days ago about the pop culture moments that shaped them, and it inspired me take an inventory of my own. The 90s and 00s were a wild time for pop culture. In many ways I still feel like a teenager, always searching and digging for the bits that light up my brain. Here’s a mostly chronological inventory, so you can see how I digested the cultural brain-stew in a timeframe that bridges pre- and deep Internet.Part One is all about Movies— Let’s go!
Movies
Disney’s The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, 101 Dalmatians - I never identified with the Disney Princesses in the pink tulle, tiara kind of way but I do remember swimming like a mermaid and trying to sing like Ariel on more than a few occasions. Also 101 PUPPIES.
The NeverEnding Story - A horse drowns from depression in the Swamp of Sadness, and The Nothing scared me so bad, I slept with my bedroom door open for the rest of my childhood, even if it meant possibly being burned alive in a house fire. Needlessly cruel and frightening for a kids movie.
Wizards - “Let’s warn (no, terrify) children about the threats of nuclear war and technology!” I think I watched it by accident, maybe it was on TV.
Jurassic Park - My dinosaur obsession realized on the big screen. THE summer blockbuster of 1993. Guess how much it made at the box office?— $1.1 BILLION. It’s still pretty good actually.
Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade - A whole generation of people wanted to be swashbuckling archaeologists after watching this film. I was fascinated by the notes and sketches in the Grail Diary.
Batman Returns - Tim Burton, Gotham City, Catwoman, shiny leather, a bullwhip. This was definitely my Goth primer.
Romeo+Juliet - The theatrical release lined up perfectly with my English class curriculum, I was having a moment with Shakespeare. It was the first film I saw that had the pacing and flashiness of a music video. It’s a visual feast of young Leo, Roman Catholic iconography, gun fights, classic cars, tattoos, and neon crosses. Iconic 90s soundtrack. Love love love.
Clueless - The perfect popcorn movie about high school, crushes, parties, and my still favourite pastime, hanging out at the Mall.
The Crow - Continuing my immersion in Goth 101. The tragic death of Brandon Lee was everywhere in the News. More shiny leather, corpse paint, endless rain, an amazing soundtrack. It was said to be a cursed film.
Lost Highway - My first David Lynch film. My boyfriend was in a get-high-and watch-cult-movies phase and everything felt ominous and dangerous. I escaped into Lynch’s cinematic vocabulary. There are secrets in his films, and I like that he doesn’t explain everything away. Another amazing soundtrack, my proper introduction to David Bowie.
Eyes Wide Shut - Kubrick’s final film. A ‘Christmas’ movie about sex, death, and the occult. It’s a mystery, it rewards multiple viewings. You’ll need a password. It ended Tom and Nicole. I enjoyed discovering that the New York street scenes were painstakingly recreated on soundstage in London because Kubrick could/would not travel to the US to film, it makes the whole movie feel especially strange, dreamlike.
Blue Velvet - I was bedridden with the H1N1 flu variant and decided to watch this as my fever broke. Ideal viewing conditions.
Crash - It gives me the ick but much like driving past an actual car crash, I couldn’t look away. The characters do what they want in the name of satisfaction, and don’t give a shit what you think of them. I haven’t ever been able to finish the book, it’s so repulsive. Interestingly, director David Cronenberg has said he could not finish it either.
Lost in Translation - Scarjo adrift in Tokyo. A meditation on home, identity, and relationships. The dawn and dusk colour palettes remind me of airports, hotels, and jet lag on tour. Brilliant soundtrack, those Kevin Shields tracks are such a treat.
The Hunger - Bauhaus, Bowie, and vampires, this obviously makes the list. The best nightclub scene in a movie, full stop. I can’t believe how much sexy smoking is in this film. Every scene has a smouldering drag off a cigarette.
Paris, Texas - Love the visual poetry of Wim Wenders’ American road trip films and I’ll forever crush on Nastassja Kinski in her blonde bob and pink sweater dress.
Back soon with Books, Mags, TV, Music, and News! XO
Great list — strangely, had similar experiences with these films 🖤. Add to the “I was clearly too young or too demented to be viewing this so young” list — Dark Crystal, Legend, Elm Street, Excalibur.
I’ve seen mostly everything you’ve listed here, save for “The Hunger,” so that’s a definite must at some point. This specific point in time was interesting for cinema, from the abstract expression to cynicism. The 70s through the 90s was something else. I’m not sure that Neverending Story was needlessly cruel, even for a kids film. I’ve always liked that it never talked down to kids and was, in its own way, sort of brutally honest about depression and exploitation by way of. It holds up really well today, I think , and is just as creepy as it was then.
The older I’ve gotten (turned 40 this year), the more a lot of the films you’ve listed have become an extension of my thoughts and like yourself, helped formulate an understanding of the themes being explored. Kudos for putting together this list and sharing your own personal experiences! Movies and experiences should go hand in hand, hopefully the writer’s strike will give all the studios a moment of clarity and allow them to revisit the films that connected with us and what made them special rather than build franchises.