What is GenX's THE BIG CHILL generational movie?

Reality Bites?

Eww R1 there has to be something better. Singles was better.

Honestly there's no real equivalent. TBC was about 35/40 year olds with careers, families. No real equivalent, storywise.

We missed our chance to self-flagellate over the squandered promise of our youth à la The Big Chill, maybe because our youth wasn't about changing the world and then selling out to yuppiedom, but rather dodging the sporadic economic collapses that the yuppies created.

Maybe some depressing domestic film with Matt Damon would fit the bill. How about the DL crowd-pleaser We Bought a Zoo?

Metropolitan by Whit Stillman

Steel Magnolias?

Kids.

The current lot of wispy anorectic actors would never have the gravitas to even play convincing adults in a film.

Pulp fiction or clerks.

Single White Female? Ghost? Prettt Woman? Fried green tomatoes?

High Fidelity.

Clueless.

Dawson’s 50 Load Weekend Part 1?

High Fidelity, Heathers, Trainspotting, There's Something About Mary. Something like that.

Fight Club.

The Matrix.

28 Days Later

Fight Club is the perfect choice.

Mother, May I Sleep with Danger?

HEATHERS

Reality Bites.

Pop culture would say “Singles” or “Reality Bites.”

But, really, it’s “Bodies, Rest, and Motion.”

Pulp Fiction

I don't know the answer but it's certainly not Heathers. That's a movie about young people and it was made for young people. The characters in The Big chill are old enough to reflect on the last 15 years of adulthood.

Singles is kind of existential.

I really related to Reality Bites when it came out.

I still refer to my post-college, early career adulthood as my Melrose Place days.

Beautiful Girls

Gen X didnt have a movie but it had 2 iconic tv shows in Friends and Seinfeld.

Now that I think of it, I have to give that title to Friends (sadly because it sucked). Seinfeld was more Gen Jones than Gen X. Allthough Gen X-ers loved it.

The Simpsons was also very Gen X.

It probably hasn't been made yet

It's Reality Bites. End of thread.

Of all the movies listed:

1. Clueless (my choice)

2. Reality Bites

3. Fight Club.

Reality Bites is shockingly awful.

Reality Bites was no masterpiece but it was fun and witty and it showed young people struggling to find meaningful work, or just work. The corrupting influence of MTV seemed very GenX.

Best Man Holiday for my AAs.

Weren’t they older in The Big Chill than the characters in Reality Bites.

R34 Yes, but that's because the boomers were making movies about antiwar protest steal-this-book college buddies agonizing about selling out with their establishment jobs, Reality Bites is about what the fuck is a job anyway and how do I get a good one?

Reality Bites seems more similar to St Elmo’s Fire, like a 90s version of it.

I agree that it would be Singles.

A huge part of The Big Chill was the soundtrack, so I’m not sure many of the suggested movies are quite right. Singles, probably. Maybe Trainspotting?

[quote]Prettt Woman?

Wundy?

The Breakfast Club

St. Elmo's Fire.

I'm going with Clerks, Reality Bites, or Breakfast Club.

I'm voting for HIGH FIDELITY because the age group is right, and as R38 notes, there needs to be a strong musical element. The "Jack Black Walking on Sunshine" scene... Yep, that's what my thirties looked like.

What generation is The Big Chill supposed to be? Boomers? Because all those people were much older than me (a boomer)--but then the baby boom was almost 20 years.

They were definitely boomers, r44.

R45 Thanks. I didn't relate to them, though. They were the Vietnam generation, and there was no longer even a draft when I came of age. Similarly a GenX movie can cover a few decades.

Pretty in Pink

Good question OP, but I feel like Gen X may have already done that whole looking back thing as early as THE BREAKFAST CLUB.

Same for the late Gen X/early millennial generation. I know Dawson's Creek isn't a movie but like The Breakfast Club current culture was so embedded in life that those shows and movies had us analyzing and putting life into context as it was happening.

Party Girl

Or

Trick

The movie needs Parker Posey or Tori Spelling.

No, you are wrong; the movie needs one of these actors. Because.

Same here, R46. While we share a lot with the older Boomers, those of us born after 1955 also don't relate to a lot of The Big Chill. The music for sure, especially if you had older siblings. And while my politics were shaped by Vietnam, we didn't really have to worry about the draft. We were too young to go to Woodstock, but we all saw the movie. We graduated college during stagflation the the beginning of the Reagan era. Jobs were much harder to come by. We were born too late for the "boom." However, the legal drinking age was 18 for many of us, also. My sister could be from another world, having been born in 1950.

Some have referred to us as Generation Jones.

"Generation Jones grew up on the fumes of the 60s, with its promise of freedom and change. But they came of age in the Nixon era when TV brought war into their living rooms, and politics was front and center on the evening news," he told Newsweek.

It should be noted, though, that the signatuere generational TV show for Generation X would almost definitely be "the Brady Bunch"--everyone in my college knew that show better than any other because it was always syndicated when we were growing up.

The one place where reality bites did succeed in was the portrayal of endless aimless hanging out, in living rooms, on rooftops, in gas station convenience stores at 2am on a Tuesday. The joking and bullshitting and roasting and pretentious spitballing about art and philosophy and bad pop culture.

Aestheticized aimlessness.

Yes the “plot” of reality bites is truly terrible but the scenes of the friends wasting time together are still very charming and believable and succeed at making their shitty going nowhere lives feel aspirational

I'm old Gen X and loved Heathers, felt like it got me and my friends' jaded outlook.

But wasn't The Big Chill about middle-aged boomers reflecting on their youth? Has there been a movie about Gen X'ers hitting their 40s? Maybe that was High Fidelity?

I am definitely Generation Jones, R50. I was born in 1964, commonly recognized as the last year of Boomers. My parents are Boomers themselves and were young when they had me. I am a child of the 70s, too young to have experienced Flower Power and anti-war protests, but old enough to remember Nixon’s resignation – and I lived for the Bicentennial. So culturally I’m Gen X, but more precisely, Gen Jones.

When I watched The Big Chill the first few times, it felt like it was about people way older than me. And the music was really oldies to me. When I think of soundtracks that were part of the fabric of popular culture for my generation, the first one was probably Saturday Night Fever. After then I’m hard pressed to name another movie whose music captured and propelled the zeitgeist. Maybe Purple Rain?

R53, the silent generation isn’t going to give you what you seek. This is a generation of withholding what we think because they didn’t care.

We jumped out of expectations and gave some great art. Look at “Blast From the Past”. These are people who operate inside and outside of this system. You could even go with “Bedazzled”.

I'm cusp Gen X/Millenial and I was 14 when Reality Bites came out. 11 when Singles did. And those were all about post college Gen X so yes there can be a world of a difference between generations, though I definitely identify more with Gen X. Theres Gen X teens from The Breakfast Club in 1984 and Gen X teens from My so called life or Clueless.

In 1994/95 I meant to add.

I've been thinking about this thread all day!

I think the answer will be very different for older Gen Xers v younger Gen X.

I was born in 1980. For me it's Fight Club or Clueless. But I was in high school when Clueless came out and had just graduated when Fight Club came out. They definitely spoke to me more than the other films listed in this thread.

And Reality Bites hit me hard because it made me think of my two older sisters, their friends, etc. I don't think it's a great movie, but it absolutely defined a very specific time. At least for me.

R56, you and I just said (basically) the same thing! Sorry, I hadn't read the whole thread before I posted.

But I had NO idea Reality Bites came out in 1994! I thought it came out much earlier. Totally misremembered that one.

I also forgot about Breakfast Club. Even though I loved it, and watched it all the time in high school (on VHS, naturally), the characters felt from another time and place than my own life. That's for sure.

I was 25 when Reality Bites came out, and really related to it, especially the Steve Zaharia character since I wasn’t out yet. Maybe it helped me come out the next year?

Ahhh, but Heathers. In my top 5 all time favorite movies. I was just out of high school and I loved it so much.

Never saw singles

Steve zahn?

Singles was/is my favorite. I had zero interest in Fight Club and I fucking hated High Fidelity. Clueless feels more millennial to me.

Reality Bites was cute at the time, but it's not one I would rewatch now.

I know I saw Singles, but I don’t remember much about it other than that DL fave Bridget Fonda was in it.

"I also forgot about Breakfast Club. Even though I loved it, and watched it all the time in high school (on VHS, naturally), the characters felt from another time and place than my own life. That's for sure."

THE BREAKFAST CLUB is more "80s" than "GenX" to me. I liked it, but it feels like a movie by boomers (John Hughes) to say "we understand you, teenagers".

SINGLES was by a boomer too, of course (Cameron Crowe), but it was perfectly timed and placed - early 90s Seattle when Nirvana was wiping 80s pop off the map. But it doesn't feel as GenX to me as REALITY BITES. I need to watch these 2 movies again.

'Snark' is very GenX. Ethan Hawke did it well in Reality Bites

In Before Sunrise he was a sweet GenXer.

What bothered me about Reality Bites is it was so on the nose. "Hey look how it REALLY is for a bunch of 23 year olds, look how realistic and un sugarcoated and REAL it is! ". It was too self aware. Also 23 is still really young. You are just starting out, save the complaining for when you're 28.

What I loved about Reality Bites is that you knew every one of those characters. Either they were in your friend group or an adjacent friend group. I would be afraid to watch a sequel and see where those characters all are today.

Reality Bites vs. Singles

So funny how in Reality Bites they were all bitching about the cost of living. Try renting an apartment in any major city in 2025!

Wet Hot American Summer captures the most endearing aspects of Gen X.

Idiocracy sadly predicted the world the dumbest 50% of them would usher in when they got their turn at bat with devastating accuracy.

Office Space is probably the ultimate Gen X movie.

Mike Judge is way more Gen X than the Simpsons.

[quote]It should be noted, though, that the signatuere generational TV show for Generation X would almost definitely be "the Brady Bunch"--everyone in my college knew that show better than any other because it was always syndicated when we were growing up.

Half of Gen X wasn't even born yet when the Brady Bunch ended.

I believe Gen X is people born between 1965-1980.

Gen X were latchkey kids who were unsupervised for the most part, because both parents worked, which was uncommon in previous generations.

Helicopter parenting started with the following Millennials

[quote]Gen X were latchkey kids who were unsupervised for the most part, because both parents worked, which was uncommon in previous generations.

Working class women have always worked.

Boomers in particular come in many flavors and it's telling that the usual definition actually refers to the small set of upper middle class Boomers.

Broadly, you had one group that served in Vietnam, got married while still in their early 20s, were never hippies, did everything that was expected of them and settled down in blue collar jobs and are now the grandparents of adults.

You had another, smaller group of Boomers, which is the one that everyone focuses on, who were hippies and went to college in the 60s, were young singles in the 70s, yuppies in the 80s, helicopter parents in the 90s and are now the grandparents of toddlers.

R48 comes closest to nailing the differences between the generations.

R76 too.

[quote]Helicopter parenting started with the following Millennials

I meant Millennials were the first to have helicopter parents, not that they were the first to be helicopter parents.

R76 Working class women did work, to some extent, but many did not work once they had kids. Where I grew up, which was an average suburb in the northeast, I can't think of any women in the neighborhood that worked. Some had kids, some did not, some had grown kids--but none of them had jobs, excpet for one friend's mom who was divorced, and the grandmother lived with them, and she stayed home and minded the kids. My aunt (who lived in another town) had a job. Her kids were in high school. My mom workeduntil she had kids, went back to work when we were in high school.

The”quintessential” (mostly upper-middle class) Boomers R76 talks about told their Millennial kids that they could be whatever they wanted to be and encouraged them to participate in everything (“here’s a ribbon!”)

Gen X helicopter-parented Gen Z by telling them they never have to do anything they don’t want to do, especially if it makes them feel anxious or uncomfortable.

The Gen-X parenting style is a direct result of how they were raised. Let's be honest, we were raised by wolves, very little supervision, make your own way. Gen-X parents smother their children.

The problem is Gen X parents still want to go to the clubs or look sexy on Instagram. They act like their kid’s homie instead of their parent.

What was the last universally loved adult film by all races of the under 50 crowd that wasn’t spectacle.

Gen Z and their Gen X parents are just too much like friends. Gen Z and Gen AlPha tell their parents EVERYTHING. My 15 year old niece literally tells her mother everything, every boy she likes, every little argument or fight she has with her friends, everything that ever happens in her life. Its so weird. Their parents dont even have to nag them about opening up, they just do. And that makes it easier for kids to be influenced or swayed by their parent'd opinions.They have zero secrecy but it's also hard for kids to grow independently and become their own people. My 16 year old step nephew is the same. Tells his dad everything, about his 1st time, his girlfriend, all of that. Me, I think I kept 80% of it to myself and I liked it that way.

Garden State

People may hate it now, but it was well-received at the time and had a soundtrack that became a hit.

I’m also giving another vote to Beautiful Girls. Its premise—old friends reuniting and evaluating their lives—is much closer to The Big Chill than most of the movies listed here.

100% the same with my neices and nephew R86. But I don’t think it’s a bad thing, at least in every case. And there are still plenty of kids who have secrets.

Valentines Day. That’s how low rent Gen X is.

R87 I'm not saying it has to be like it was during our teens, I like that there is more communication but imo I feel it goes too far at times. Like mothers getting pissy at each other and starting drama over their dumb ass teenage daughters arguments.

"What was the last universally loved adult film by all races of the under 50 crowd that wasn’t spectacle."

THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

r85: "My 16 year old step nephew is the same. Tells his dad everything, about his 1st time, his girlfriend, all of that. Me, I think I kept 80% of it to myself and I liked it that way."

As your first time involved your step-uncle, I was happy not to hear about it.

R91 that's a no no. We're talking about my family here. Crude jokes are fine, but dont bring real people that are being discussed into it.

Reality Bites.

Where I work there's a high school girl doing an internship. She was playing that Senior Assasin Tik Tok game. Somebody was coing to the workplace to shoot her with a water pistol, and one of the women I work with, who's about 53, I think, got all involved in this and ran to the break room to tell the intern this other kid had come in with a water pistol. I mean, ran, like she was a kid, herself.

This really brought up to me the difference between GenX and me late-end Boomer, or my parents' generation. People my age wouldn't treat this as anything they wanted to be involved in or were interested in, and I'm sure when I was a kid, my parents' generation wouldn't have. It's how they think. They just don't totally grow up, or something.

How the fuck is Party Girl OR Trick--for christ's sake in the running here?

*someone was coming to the workplace

R94 Idk Im Gen X and I would have reacted in the same way you're saying late boomers would have. I have a couple of other Gen X-ers friends that would have too. We're young gen x/cusp millenial, dont know if that's why.

The Big Chill was a ripoff of The Return of the Secaucus Seven.

That's such a Gen X thing to say, R98.

I think it's Pooper Dink

[quote]that's a no no. We're talking about my family here.

Forget it, R92, it's Datalounge.

What about Slacker (the Linklater movie)?

IMO, there is no exact equivalent of THE BIG CHILL for Gen X because the theme of that movie is optimistic youth giving way to realistic adulthood with all its flaws and lessons and Gen X was never an optimistic generation to begin with.

If you have to pick one, it’s THE BREAKFAST CLUB, because Gen X reached this point of cynicism much earlier in life (as teens) instead of in their 30s.

A GenX “Big Chill” would have been made around 2005-2010.

But, that was when fantasy and comic book movies took over.

There wouldn’t have been much of an audience for a GenX “Big Chill.”

Fight Club is Gen X’s Big Chill. I said what I said. Neurotic ass cunts.

[quote]The problem is Gen X parents still want to go to the clubs or look sexy on Instagram. They act like their kid’s homie instead of their parent.

This is a huge problem, and I'm saying this as an Xer. So many of my peers in their 40s and 50s are behaving like they're still in their 20s and trying so hard to still be "hot." They're more concerned about being "friends" with their kids than being a parent. Sorry, but you're middle-aged and you have kids. You have to be a parent and be responsible.

I have to say that so many people of my generation really fucked up with the whole parenting thing.

It’s the millennials who refuse to grow up. Xers have been in our 40s since we were about 8 years old.

Most Xers are still doing the jeans and black tshirt thing (think Jennifer Aniston.)

Millennials are the ones sporting the yoga pants, camel toe, sausage curls and fake eyelashes look.

The 90210 reboot was our “Big Chill.”

Shinglesh!

Way to age gracelessly, r107.

"Those garsh darn youths with their yoga pants and camel toe! Why can't they wear t-shirts and jeans. Millennials never wear jeans!"

Bitches, I SAID it's Reality Bites.

I loved REALITY BITES but it never attained the classic status of THE BIG CHILL. This thread is the first time I’ve heard anyone talk about it in 20+ years.

I can say the same about the "The Big Chill." Is that really a mark against it?

I once had a roommate who would play TBC soundtrack incessantly. I have never forgave them. Once, I asked for a change, and it was the Forest Gump soundtrack. Tacky, just tacky.

Ugh!

SLACKER

SATC

The Office series finale.

I loved SCTV