They've all been greenlit up through 2025 anyways, so unfortunately we're stuck with them. It's all about minimizing risk with them so they go with safe IP brands. I hope enough people get sick of the same old same old and push back and demand new stuff.
@@benjaminschallwig43 I am too. The past in retrospect seems safe because you know what will happen but it didn't seem that way while you lived there. For example, Rodney King riots in 92 make George Floyd protests look like a picnic. Early 90s is also when the murder rate peaked in the US.
@@hamobu I have problems analyzing the situation of our society in the 90s (I'm from Germany) because I was dissociated from society these days. So I have trouble reflecting the general mood of a country since I was busy with my own feelings and my family situation back then. It might rather be my own personal problem if I have trouble realizing how a stable society feels.
@@spaceinbetween6591 That's due to the 80s having not only growth, but optimism and very clear advancement in technology that was tangible compared to the dot com bubble. New stuff was coming out all the time, Regan's presence invigorated American's sense of self worth, and rejuvenated patriotism among the population. He might not be the greatest president out there, but he knew how to get everyone eager to move forward and it worked. Meanwhile, Bush Sr was a bit mellow, and while Bill had given the 90s a sense of optimism as well in the early days of his presidency, his scandals by the end combined with a stability that didn't really grow, but didn't really drop either, gave Americans a sense of boredom compared to the 80s by the turn of the 21st century. The big growths, as far as we saw at the time, were not here yet, but around the corner. It didn't feel like we were at the peak of advancing like we did in the 80s, but rather waiting for it to come in the next decade.
@@VillemarMxO I am sorry look again ethnic maps before 90' and after 2000, an you will see who is missing the most, the Serbs! Facts speak for themselves.
Yeah, someone having lived though the falling apart of the USSR (with Yugoslavia and Caucasus taking the first places), would certainly disagree... (And note how the USA suddenly didn't have an "enemy" any more ?)
Weren't half the countries in the world going through a civil war, a collapse, rebellion, or economic slump. Even countries like Ireland, Portugal and Germany had millitary problems.
Even in America movies like menace to society and candy man show that bring a minority or a woman had drawbacks such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and violence.
Well, of course, because they just won the cold war. Just as naturally, losing the cold war had different implications, thats why life in the former soviet union and eastern europe was a complete shit show in the 90's.
I would say the same thing until i ask the question "at what cost?" We know there are systems that causes riches for one group by leeching and causing poverty in another.
Fight Club was in many ways the first movie of the 21st century. When I saw it in cinemas I was blown away. Nothing even remotely similar came before it.
Zoran Jankov You mean the US effort to Slobodan Milsovicj. He was a scam. No crime by the US there but the US forgot that war even happened.That was the US's crime.
You missed one of the most obvious, here - 'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999), in which Tom Cruise, unsatisfied by what life has to offer, pulls back the veil to find it's seedy underbelly.
Kubrick shot the most 90s identity crisis film. I only wish we would see what he REALLY shot and not the censored version that Warner Brothers released… which had a lot of the masonic rituals being removed from that Orgy place.
I absolutely love horror movies and I have found different patterns in horror movies throughout the decades. In the 1890's through the early 20's, there were a lot of Faustian films. The 30's and 40's feature haunted house elements, the 50's was a time of the Atomic Bomb anxieties, alien invasions and mad scientists. The 60's and 70s featured many urban stories of terror, where bad things might happened even in your own homes. The 80's featured sci fi elements like The Thing and Alien. The majority of the 90's horror films were either parody films on cliched horror tropes or serious serial killer movies. The 2000's had the zombie apocalypse boom and found footage films in the later time of the decade. The 2010's are mostly family affairs centered around motherhood.
@@daveteves nice insights, Dave! I do remember seeing a video (maybe from Now You See It, but can't recall) about the shifting themes in horror films. Film history is so rich.
The problem with Hollywood films is that they often reflect the exact opposite of reality. It comes with being in the Beverly Hills tinsle town bubble. Hollywood tends to create what their impression of the real world is.. and not always what it actually is. I was in college in the early 90s, and I never felt that the majority of people at these mundane jobs were unhappy. I was in NYC at the time and right before 9/11, it was probably one of the best decades for me.
Maybe the problem is with the audience who expect a film, a fictitious work of art, to reflect the world rather than show us a dramatized version of it. Why does a film have to obey anything other than the purpose it serves? The Matrix, for example, is a critique on the corporate world, so of course it's going to show a corporation as monster.
@@davidlean1060 Doesn't have to be anything, however, when a film is attempting to be sincere in its messaging and tone, it can often be somewhat propaganda-like. Sometimes, I feel like the film is trying to tell me something about a time and place that I know isn't true, or at the very least, highly skeptical.. especially if I lived through it. Maybe it's true for others, but it can even make a serious scene appear comical. Like Harvey Keitel playing the New York pimp in Taxi Driver. Even today, I notice Hollywood is often out of touch with reality. Which is fine, it's entertaining.. but also unintentionally funny.
I suspect the reason films depict people working in mundane jobs as being unhappy is because a lot of writers unhappily worked mundane jobs before they became writers. People who want to be film writers working in mundane jobs probably felt like they'd settled for the job and that it wasn't going anywhere - i.e. the job didn't help them fulfill their dream of being a writer.
I was one of those guys in 1999 in a cubicle trying to fix all the Y2K bugs. So many movies from that year I enjoyed, and I never made the connection between them all. And now it makes so much sense.
As a person born in 2000, I always wondered why many movies released in 1999 were so similar. I've tried Googling it and asking people I know who were alive during the 90s, but I never got a satisfying answer until I saw this video. Thank you.
Bro none of these movies are similar, by far. American Beauty, the Matrix, Fight Club ect ect. Go watch them, they're NOTHING alike regardless what this yt dweeb says. 1999 produced some great movies and this dude just tried to mash them all up which is just ridiculous if you've seen them.
@@WALLEsChannel1 I mentioned 3 movies made in 99 in which you could argue are similar in the "white guy tired of his life" category. But there are well over 20 really really good movies made that year and he titled this dumb ass video saying ALL 1999 movies are the same. All?? That's a stupid statement no matter how you look at it. What is it with this newer generation claiming ALL this or ALL that or he's the GOAT or she's the best ever? Lol Yall need to chill the hell out.
@@WALLEsChannel1 Couldn't have said it better myself. Plus, you're watching more good movies than I ever did at your age (I'm almost 30) so keep doing your thing :)
@@Jesse__H they're just pointing out that today's climate is too chaotic and fragile that actually having a stable, comfortable job would be a relief to some
There are so many opportunities today to have more control over your career and income. However, they are not as stable as a cubicle job. Something to be considered.
But it wasn't until another decade or more later that people realized that jobs in the United States for certain industries really were gone or going fast. Certain government agencies insisting on U.S. workers, for example, is the only reason that I have any chance at all of employment.
The internet bubble and housing bubble started in the 90s too, and most people cant recognize that its the bubble thats the problem, not the crash. House prices going up 100% while workers wages go up 10 due to cheap credit. So of course houses become unaffordable. And whats governments "cure"? Push interest rates down even further, pump more money into the system and not worry about the damage. Id love to buy a cheap house, just as cheaper cars and electronics better my life. Central banks however. Well theyre only concerned about house sellers
While it never explicitly features any cubicles, I can see the connection. A man, bored by his bourgeoisie lifestyle and privileges, seeks deeper meaning and connection in the mystery of the "elite" sexual activities. Whence he seeks these mysteries he only finds more mystery and confusion, while also betraying the deeper human connection to his family that exists in his material reality. Ultimately, the adventure he seeks is only the phantasie of the so-called elite and a betrayal of his human connection to his family. Yeah, I think it agrees with the theme of 1999 cubicle life.
@@oweng6575 Not to be mean but films are of and informed by the time in which they are made regardless of the source material... Come on guys. (Fight Club wasn't written in 1999 either it's not really relevant.)
That Hollywood-perceived 90s stability also resulted in the revival of big budget disaster films: Twister, Independence Day, Daylight, Dante's Peak, Volcano, Titanic, Hard Rain, Deep Impact, Godzilla, Armageddon, etc...
I love that this generation (T/Millennials) get told we were handed everything, while Gen-X had enough money to make movies about being bored at their stability.
Gen-X'ers really piss me off. (Note that I, being born in 1980, am barely a Gen-X'er myself, so I think I have enough "n-word privileges" to slam them.) The fact that the '90s were such a horrible decade for me to live through was in a large part due to their asinine youth culture. They started out in 1990 as obnoxiously enthusiastic rebels talking like retarded surfers and thinking hair metal and "Hammer"-style rap were cool, and by the end of the decade they were smug cigar-smoking hipsters with hideously tattooed bodies. Now those punks are in their forties and many of them have become REALLY reactionary with age, slavishly supporting Trump and lecturing young people about "old-fashioned values" they never practiced themselves. At least when the Boomers turned conservative, it was LIBERTARIAN conservative.
@Stix N' Stones That might be true to some extent, but I'm focusing less on Trump himself and more on the stereotyped image of his supporters. When you think of a Ronald Reagan conservative, you imagine a young man with a mullet haircut, a suit, a tie, and suspenders. When you think of a Trump conservative, you imagine a fat middle-aged man in a baseball cap complaining about anyone different from him. Trump himself may not be that, but he certainly dresses the part.
2019: - super-heroes - remakes - biographies Today's people wants the stability back, want things that are well know, and wants a saviour, someone who could bring the peace back again. We see exactly that on the politics. .
@@konroh2 there will be no savior unless God existe and Jesus comes down. Not a Christian btw. Humans are corrupt, the coolest person would still let his goods fade away with power.
@@nunyabusiness2785 80’s Music was also very uncool in the 2000’s as well. The 80’s was about fun and excess. The first 2 years of the 90’s was very identical to the 80’s, but musically and PoP culturally things then took a big change. In the 80’s music and pop culture was about fun, films like Back To The Future and Ghostbusters perfectly sum up the 80’s, and then bands like Motley Crue and Poison in the 80’s was about having fun and partying. Things took a big change in both music and in movies in the 90’s, Nirvana and Grunge took over, and Tarantino was a rising director. I think in the 90’s there was this uncertainty to where the future was heading, the blockbuster movies of the 90’s were disaster movies, films like Armageddon, Independence Day, Twister, Volcano, and Deep Impact. I think In the 90’s there was uncertainty about what the Millennium would bring, which then would lead into Y2K. People in the 90’s didn’t know what technology would bring in the future, hence technology fears being a big part of the story of The Matrix. The 90’s was also a time of nihilism, the 2 films of the 90’s that perfectly sum up that 90’s nihilism are Seven and Fight Club, Fight Clubs message was almost a don’t give a fuck attitude. The 90’s was also a decade of being provocative, Porn was being shown on TV (though not for free obviously, free Porn wouldn’t become a thing until mid 2000’s Internet), for example over here in the UK, Television X which is a Porn TV station was founded in the 90’s, though the TV station wasn’t free, you had to pay obviously. Which brings to the second biggest movie trend in the 90’s, the erotic thriller, films like Basic Instinct, Crash from 1996, The Babysitter from 1995, Wild Things, and many more was the second biggest movie trend of the 90’s behind the disaster films. In music after Grunge had died, there was a NU and heavier genre of music called Nu-Metal which was a genre about combining elements of Rap, Funk, Industrial, Grunge, and Metal all together. By 1999 the genre known as Nu-Metal was blowing up and by 1999 the biggest band on planet Earth was the Nu-Metal band Limp Bizkit. In the 90’s you also had TV shows like South Park and The Jerry Springer Show which was all about white trash TV and being provocative. The 2000’s would continue riding the 90’s nihilism until around 2008, 2008 was the year Social Media blew up into mainstream culture and America got its first Black President, by 2008 society was changing again and would ditch the nihilist and provocative that was the 90’s and most of the 2000’s in favour of Political Correctness. 2008 was when Social Media blew up into mainstream culture and it gives people a huge platform to complain and moan about every little thing, though PC Culture wouldn’t show its face until 2016. The 2010’s was a decade marked by unoriginality and a decade when being provocative was no longer acceptable, so combine those 2 together and it makes sense that the 2010’s was a decade almost none existent of Hard Rock music in the mainstream, a form of music that’s supposed to be provocative.
On point. Being a non suburban middle class white person during this era, all these movies came off as being far more abstract and contrived than reactionary.
Absolutely true, but I don't think it really fits the theme of stability and prosperity. Working at Initech is boring, sure. But Michael and Samir and a number of their coworkers get fired, Milton gets humiliated all the time and after a while isn't payed anymore. The movie is a critic on America's corporate management, and not exactly a demonstration of stability and prosperity.
@@rschroev True, but I believe it's both. Criticizing corporate culture is a big theme in the movie for sure but the main character also voices a major dissatisfaction with his life and career and as much as getting fired sucks I think Michael and Samir were secretly excited by the sudden change in their life which helps motivate them to join Peter in stealing the money. I do agree though that suburban malaise and boredom is not as central to Office Space as it is with the other movies he mentions, but it's still a piece of it.
Maybe it was great to be young because of all the innovation in entertainment. Movies and videogames and music all skyrocketed in the 90s. So that's awesome as a kid. However if you're spending all day every day in a gray box with a computer screen at work then it's not so great...
Amazing music, mind-blowing movies (my first movie at the cinema was Jurassic Park! Watched it twice!), shows, video games that made you WORK for it and could actually scare you. No mobiles, only time we were glued to a screen was when watching our favourite shows or played video games....and we played outdoors, making actual contact with people and developing interpersonal skills. Now most kids have "anxiety" and can't keep up with a conversation successfully unless it's behind a screen... So glad I had an actual childhood, the 90s was AWESOME. 😊✌
I remember being so fixated on 1999. Anything that had to do with the year or the decade of the 90's at all. I remember feeling things were so much better than what the present had to offer. The present at the time being from mid 00's to early 2010's. I remember how I wanted to see every movie from 99 as well. Stability is one way of putting it, i guess. For me it was maybe just nostalgia. I was only four years old in 1999. So what the hell did I know? And I see how I'm not the only one in my age group that wishes they had been born in another era. Another time. Now a couple years have gone by. I still look at those years fondly . Only now I'm more interested in the present.
@@grantjohnson5785 Both you and OP are falling for Nostalgia. The past seems safe because you know what will happen while in the present all you seem is uncertainty. Take boomers for example. Everyone remembers the good, which is cheaper houses, better jobs, etc. What people forget it the cold war and the draft. Not only were they at the very edge of nuclear annihilation (and their future seemed far from certain) but young men would randomly be drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam. That's on top of Jim Crow, normalized workplace sexual harassment, glass ceilings, etc.
@@hamobu Of course there was uncertainty back then, as there is today; I am quite well versed in history. I was referring more to the fact that music was actually good, everybody knew that a man was a man and a woman was a woman, and dressing in drag was just a joke (as evidenced by Bugs Bunny's penchant for it). In other words, despite some notable flaws, the culture was by far a healthier and more sane one.
@@grantjohnson5785 sounds to me that your problem is others making choices that you don't approve of. Back then life was hard on women, minorities and LGBT folks. If a woman ended up with a loser and abuser, she was stuck with him since she had no other options. The fact that people have more options now is a good thing.
@@hamobu You can interpret what I said however you like - you have that freedom. That doesn't mean you're interpreting it correctly, of course. Yes, life was SO hard on women... so hard that most of them still didn't have to work one job (let alone two) to feed their children. Yes, life was SO hard on minorities... so hard that poverty rates among minorities were lower then than they are now, and fewer of them grew up in fatherless homes. As for folks making bad choices with their sex life... well, my approval or disapproval has little to do with it. God's does.
@daAnder71 "... and it's set in the mid-1980s, so it's even less a "90s movie"." I think the time a period piece is made is more important than the period it's portraying as to which time a period piece belongs to. Largely because %CURRENT_YEAR% tends to have a bit of an influence on the attitudes towards said period. Dr Zhivago was adapted in 1965. According to IMDB, Anna Kerenina has been adapted for TV in 1977, 2000, 2013 and 2017 and I'd imagine the different adaptations would be very different in character. Why keep adapting the same work if not for that?
Depends on what industry you work in. I work in HVAC. I have an office job. My job is protected because my company cannot find smart enough people to train for tech support. Other industries are different.
As someone that has lived through the mid-to-late-1990s, I would kill for at least a tenth of the stability there was back then in contrast to today. Sure, not everything back then was roses, but still a lot calmer than today's world.
U mean when the government said to themselves, we need mkre money. Lets crash our planes into our buildings and blame it on people tht live in caves. Still waiting to see buildings being demolished by fire alone ( building 7) the twin towers were built to withstand airplanes flying into them. IM JUST SAYING. AND EPSTEIN Killed himself? Ha
Honestly as someone old enough to remember this time period, it really felt like the joy ended that day. Going into the millennium people were hopeful and then suddenly there was no hope. It's never really been the same since.
One of the best years ever for movies: Matrix, Fight Club, Magnolia, Amercan Beauty, etc. It's almost like 1999 was trying to tell us something about the next century.
American Beauty Austin Powers Spy Shagged Me Boondock Saints Fight Club Iron Giant Matrix Mummy Office Space Sixth Sense Talented Mr. Ripley Thomas Crown Toy Story 2
the funniest thing about watching this is that 90s were the most insane and unstable period in my country and American movies from that era have a whole different vibe for us
Gen Xers: This steady 9-5 job with health insurance is soul crushing man Millennials: Beats working as a barista at three different Starbucks so I can afford to rent a studio apartment with my 4 other roommates
Those 90s conflicts had no idea. I wish stability was the only complaint I had. Now us 80s babies have to deal with hidden terrors, collapse, recessions, widening inequality, growing instability and financial insecurities and social deterioration. All before we are 40, a major terrorist attack, the largest recession since the Depression and now a global pandemic.
I don't find 2019 safe or boring. A lot of folks think there's going to be a huge housing crash next year. I was planning on selling my house, but it's very affordable. I might just hold off. I bought my house for 150k, I'll sell it for 150k. The market price for it is 180k at the moment.
@@godzilladestroyscities1757 I was trying to say that it's ironic, when you compare the mentality of that era, being bored and looking to the future, to now and the problems we've been facing over the last decade. We're in the process of buying at the moment and I'm really glad we've got a 5yr fixed mortgage, because I think next year is going to be quite bad, financially. Some people are saying that the UK is expected to go into recession and interest rates will climb. Its scary stuff!
@@DadBod3000 Be more like the folks that survived the great depression. Don't borrow, just save. That mentality is heavily discouraged in our society, you can even see it with the low interest rates in your savings account.
I was amazed at the first few times i watched it. and malkovich truely put a lot of work in it. imagine having to film all the shots where there's multiples of him, multiple times! But it'S a very metaphorical movie. unlike some movies that hide meaning in plot and polish the story to the max, it has always been weird to me why they land back next to the highway like out of thin air. I dont know but that part just hit different.
Pretentious art house bullshit is what I would like to say, but this business we call show is a big tent, that can hold every idea, well maybe a couple of decades ago anyway. It'll come back around you'll see.
I watched american beauty for the first time last night and being John Malkovich the day before that and earlier this week i rewatched the matrix and fight club
Grackle2012 or I am just a loyal subscriber with the notification bell on and coincidentally watched those movies out of interest, which happens to be the case ;)
As much as I agree with your analysis of Fight Club, Streetbeefs was created to reduce gang violence/death from it by giving those already violent individuals a different somewhat safer outlet to quash their feuds.
1999 is the perfect mix of retro-futurism and post modern ideals. We were at the cusp of technology but not to the invasive point we're at now. Families were beginning to get home computers and the internet was vast unexplored territory
Brilliant hypothesis and great video! In 1999, I saw Fight Club in theaters. I remember thinking, “there sure have been a lot of amazing movies this year,” but never understood why. Perhaps it was hard to see at the time, since the films reflected their time. Anyway congrats on cracking the code.
Nail on the head. I’ve long thought of this sentiment relating to the comfort of pre-9/11 pop music. Just re-watched Ghost World (2001) last night, which is extremely relevant to the crossing of this “Why2K” rubicon of malaise. Just like the Universe and computational power under Moore’s Law, historically significant events seem to be occurring at an ever-accelerating rate. Take me back to ‘99. I’m tired.
I didn't think it was only stability/ instability but more boredom / looking for excitement and meaning. I think the 80's in America was a big boom of business, 'gettin' em', creating offices, having a lucrative job, the hierarchy of work life, that whole vibe and the 90's were sort of this weird leftover of that and left a lot of people questioning the 'meaning' of it all. I guess in a way it is about destabilisation, but I don't think it was boredom for the sake of stability. You can have stability but have a vibrant, interesting meaningful work life every day that has something to do with who YOU are. It also calls to mind Chandler in Friends, who felt the same way and had all of his jokes and fun time, and actual personality in his spare time. Thanks for the great vid!
You youngin'! You were born in a great year...great (if sometimes very corny) pop culture. But you're not a 90s kid! I was born in 1989, and so I grew up on 90s movies, music, cartoons, etc. You grew up on 2000s stuff.
It's ironic that back in the 90s stable jobs were seen as soul crushing and the draw of ire but nowadays there are many people who would kill for such employment.
Yeah, that's the irony of destiny: Late 90s America: I have a good job, but I'm so bored (Weird Al's "First World Problems" rings in your ear). Late 00s America: I lost my job and my house and became poor, I'm so depressed, wish I could go back in time.
gabriel perez Not really my guy lol I played video games at a very young age (like millions of other people) and started when I was about 2-3ish years old.
I’d add The Sixth Sense to this list too. There’s this calm and serenity on the surface with an undercurrent of anxiety and instability underneath the surface given the nature of the film’s themes.
The Historical Mirage - EVERY generation claims the preceding generation had it better. The secret that "everyone knows" is called The Open Secret. It's like the elephant in the room - everyone is aware but no one broaches the subject.
Me too. I'm 34 this year. I remember 1999 as a year when the future was bright and everything would be alright. 7 years later I joined Bush's war in Iraq. I loved the early 2000's also. I guess everyone loves their teens and early 20's. I've tried to explain to younger folks what it was like before the big 2008 crash. It seemed like every family could afford anything. There were always poor folks, but a lot of people seemed to be well off. Even music changed after the late 90's. Music started getting darker. Now it's all the same corporate bs, not worth listening to.
@@ThespeedrapThank God George W Bush beat him in 2000 to and put us in two wars killing, wounding and displacing millions and crashing the economy. I'm so happy he saved us from that horrible monster Gore 🙄
@@VillemarMxO who knows how Gore would had handled the situation.Politics is just a crock of shit whoever wins or loses.I wish W.was still the president than Trump he's much worse.
Interesting. I would describe this as Kafkaesque. There is an apparent prosperity yet one is oppressed because life is meaningless. That cog in the wheel feeling has taken hold of you by the throat and is sucking the air out of that cubicle. You start out as a young and vibrant careerist, and end up old and bitter at the end of each day. We call it work for good reasons. It's not get out of bed, eat breakfast, shower, brush your teeth, dress, and go for a walk in the park or sit in the cafe and talk politics or philosophy. It's a Monday, sleep in, wake up, panic, dress for work, miss the connecting train or bus, clock in late, get in trouble with your boss, welcome to Hell life. This is lots of coffee and spreadsheets hell. This is the hell where you die slowly doing the same little soul crushing task again and again, as you occasionally catch your reflection in a monitor screen, and see the guy from Edvard Munch's "The Scream". When we accomplish any state of affluencey, and have any time to spare then work gives way to introspection and that means philosophy of some kind. That is when you are in hell, seemingly. The truth is that you are only just waking up, like in the Matrix, or in the comedy Office Space. My father went into culture shock when he retired. He couldn't adjust to having an entire day all to himself. This was a good video.
My old man did something similar. He started rebuilding motorcycles. He's got about 8 or 9 now. Super pristine old motorcycles that he takes to shows. His entire life he was looking forward to retirement but he's not a guy that can be happy just fishing.
@@godzilladestroyscities1757 Yeah. My mother made my father look for a part time job. He got one in a hardware store. People need purpose. Otherwise they go crazy.
One of the best years ever for cinema. In the same year we got Fight Club and The Matrix, two utterly defining and revolutionary movies of the 90s. I mean The Matrix is one of the most influential movies ever made; it was a sensation and even 24 years later it has that aura and fascination about it for people who see for the 1st time. It was groundbraking. Fight Club has one of the best twists in history. And let's not forget that in 1999, movies like The Mummy, American Pie, Office Space, Magnolia, The Green Mile came out...
at 1:29 the Arabic newspaper in the matrix talks about something to do with opposition dialogue in Syria, at the time there was relatively nothing happening there, this scene always creeps me out.
could have been about taxes. or public transportation. in my experience, whenever a politician talks about anything, no matter how mundane, the opposing party stands up and says "hold on a minute"
I would say Terry Gilliam's Brazil also fits very well into this category. Although being from 1985, it feels a lot like a late 90s movie in all but visuals. It's also about a bored office worker wanting to break free from monotony and change the world he lives in.
Yup, no art is made in a vacuum! edit - I'd definitely be interested in a sister video to this one: how do the films of _right now_ tackle the (very different) zeitgeist of 2019?
To riff on this idea a bit, I would be curious in seeing videos on both the trends and attitudes of the 2000s and 2010s as reflected in the movies of the time. Off-hand, I would guess fears about terrorism, war, and government repression would be big in 2000s movies.
The fact that they had an issue with stability in the 90’s while my generation wants stability. Hell we have student loan debt, credit card debt, and can’t find a job for nothing even with a degree. I started an online business because I lost my last job and couldn’t find another. Nowadays they don’t pay much at regular jobs and you get treated like crap at your job before they fire you . In 2019, you either need a second job or need a side hustle. I don’t know about you but I would give anything for stability.
people in these movies are in their mid 30s so of course they have stability. you’re talking about people in the 20-30 range which is still fresh out of college so of course you won’t be as stable as a 37+ year old.
1999: some of the best movies, nonstop. In 1999 many thought Y2K would be the end of the world. We got the “radically different future”. But most of the dystopian stories feel very hypothetical, and before 9/11 things actually felt pretty stable. American Beauty’s exterior normalcy really shows how little seems to be going on. Really should have partied like it’s 1999
Actually the US bombarded my country to shit in 1999. And through the 90' my country fell apart in bloody wars. It was very unstable and troublesome time.
When you think about it, 'The Phantom Menace' is also a movie about the calm present and foreseeing a darker future.
Jean-Paul Lane Valley exactly.
Yo
Like Emperor Palpatine's theme playing at the end celebration
@@gc3k - Exactly!
Well the present wasn't exactly calm before and during Phantom Menace
In 2030
*The 2010’s, the decade of Repeats and Reboots*
and sjw gender swap crap
OMG 2010's are ending in a month.
Don’t forget super hero movies. All they make is shitty super hero movie now.
They've all been greenlit up through 2025 anyways, so unfortunately we're stuck with them. It's all about minimizing risk with them so they go with safe IP brands. I hope enough people get sick of the same old same old and push back and demand new stuff.
Decade of old IPs
Well, I am from Eastern Europe and I cannot apply the words "stability" and "calm" to 90's.
he talks about American society in this analysis
@@benjaminschallwig43 in the 90s in the US there was a Waco massacre and Oklahoma City bombing.
@@hamobu He talks about the general situation of American society in this commentary
@@benjaminschallwig43 I am too. The past in retrospect seems safe because you know what will happen but it didn't seem that way while you lived there. For example, Rodney King riots in 92 make George Floyd protests look like a picnic. Early 90s is also when the murder rate peaked in the US.
@@hamobu I have problems analyzing the situation of our society in the 90s (I'm from Germany) because I was dissociated from society these days. So I have trouble reflecting the general mood of a country since I was busy with my own feelings and my family situation back then.
It might rather be my own personal problem if I have trouble realizing how a stable society feels.
Any other time than the 90's: "WE WANT A STABLE COUNTRY!"
The 90's: "Well this is boring."
The 80s were a stable and prosperous time as well, yet the pop culture of that era was fun-oriented.
loved that line from this nirvana-song you mean
@@spaceinbetween6591 That's due to the 80s having not only growth, but optimism and very clear advancement in technology that was tangible compared to the dot com bubble. New stuff was coming out all the time, Regan's presence invigorated American's sense of self worth, and rejuvenated patriotism among the population. He might not be the greatest president out there, but he knew how to get everyone eager to move forward and it worked. Meanwhile, Bush Sr was a bit mellow, and while Bill had given the 90s a sense of optimism as well in the early days of his presidency, his scandals by the end combined with a stability that didn't really grow, but didn't really drop either, gave Americans a sense of boredom compared to the 80s by the turn of the 21st century. The big growths, as far as we saw at the time, were not here yet, but around the corner. It didn't feel like we were at the peak of advancing like we did in the 80s, but rather waiting for it to come in the next decade.
Today’s gonna feel like tomorrow someday. Tomorrow’s gonna feel like...
Well, that's what happens when the hero's journey ends
Later, it's up to him to decide if he wants to start another jorney
Commenting to please the algorithm and bring traffic to this great channel.
Eoin Campbell I'll do the same then.
joining you in your efforts
All hail the algorithm!
Me too
Well then dont mind me while I do the same
Hello from Latin America. I had to look up for stability in a dictionary.
@@FabioSalvador fucking ouch lol.
@@FabioSalvador You guys remember the 90s and all that sweet, sweet stability
Hola soy de irlanda del norte. Es casí igual aquí jaja
@@FabioSalvador Thanks to American Imperialism
No hay mucho de eso ahí.
Man people were really bored with stability and prosperity in the late 90s. Pleasantville and the Truman Show came out in 1998.
@@zoranjankov5438
Aren't you forgetting the part about your people trying to ethnically cleanse the Albanians out of existence?
The point isn‘t „boredom“. The point of all these movies is „breaking out“ from what we‘ve been told.
„Your life is a lie“ etc..
I say I'd rather be bored than live with fear of getting shot or otherwise.
@@RiC_David He's obviously talking about the balkanic wars
@@VillemarMxO I am sorry look again ethnic maps before 90' and after 2000, an you will see who is missing the most, the Serbs! Facts speak for themselves.
you should put the titles of the movies you talk about in the description
Yes, would help to be able to search them out again.
or even put the titles as a small lower thirds in the video!
@@Claude950 yes!! Great suggestion!
He says all the names of the movies as he's giving explanation.
@Nathan Bell What are you expecting people to actually watch the video? That's ludicrous.
I mean, The Phantom Menace is about trade disputes...
It's not though.
It's a metaphor of NAFTA
America: The 90's was a decade for stability
The rest of the world: Yeah right...
Yeah, someone having lived though the falling apart of the USSR (with Yugoslavia and Caucasus taking the first places), would certainly disagree... (And note how the USA suddenly didn't have an "enemy" any more ?)
Weren't half the countries in the world going through a civil war, a collapse, rebellion, or economic slump. Even countries like Ireland, Portugal and Germany had millitary problems.
Even in America movies like menace to society and candy man show that bring a minority or a woman had drawbacks such as racism, sexism, homophobia, and violence.
It’s almost like middle class white America is completely oblivious to the trail of shit and destruction left in its wake.
Well, of course, because they just won the cold war. Just as naturally, losing the cold war had different implications, thats why life in the former soviet union and eastern europe was a complete shit show in the 90's.
I really miss the "boredom" of a nation in a surplus and job growth at an all time high.
Boredom gives the feeling of time stretching on forever which is great. Right now it feels more like hurtling towards certain doom.
You know what they say: 'The grass is always greener on the other side'. Though I see your point, nonetheless.
I lived it. Wasn’t all that prosperous for most. Income inequality didn’t begin in 2008
If you were upper income, sure. The 80s and 90s were the hedonistic heroin trip, the 21st century has been the come down
I would say the same thing until i ask the question "at what cost?" We know there are systems that causes riches for one group by leeching and causing poverty in another.
Wow I can't believe Fight Club was made 21 years ago... Looks as good as new
Fight Club was in many ways the first movie of the 21st century. When I saw it in cinemas I was blown away. Nothing even remotely similar came before it.
I'm getting old. I can vote now.
@@SerbAtheist Really! What about Clint Eastwood's "Every Which Way but Loose". I jest so don't blow a gasket.
David Fincher is pretty much a genius. That was a hard book to film, and he pulled it off really well
*cuts to Kevin Spacey* "The father is a borderline sexual predator"... oh the innocent 90s....
Kimmie Koneko the nineties seem so innocent. The public knew nothing of all the times Kevin spacey tried to rape other males.
Are you serious ? Hollywood being a hive of pedophilia is a well known secret for many decades.
@Thomas Headley Already was last week
@Thomas Headley a "secret" everyone knows about.
@@born2lol is this particular to hollywood?
Meanwhile in Eastern Europe, peace and stability were NOT the words to describe the 90s.
Exactly! Also, I'd say *most* of Europe was in chaos, the UK had the Troubles, Italy had the mafia killings of Andreotti's government...
Well he wasn't talking about eastern european movies.
@@MarioAtheonio Italy was pretty fine just after those killings. Somehow people reacted and from middle to the late '90 we had it good.
Greece was thriving in 1999 on the surface. In reality things were falling apart and were being covered up. Now we re paying
Zoran Jankov You mean the US effort to Slobodan Milsovicj. He was a scam. No crime by the US there but the US forgot that war even happened.That was the US's crime.
You missed one of the most obvious, here - 'Eyes Wide Shut' (1999), in which Tom Cruise, unsatisfied by what life has to offer, pulls back the veil to find it's seedy underbelly.
Kubrick shot the most 90s identity crisis film. I only wish we would see what he REALLY shot and not the censored version that Warner Brothers released… which had a lot of the masonic rituals being removed from that Orgy place.
@@alexanderskaarolsen4918 Yup. And most likely even more.
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 Masonic rituals? I thought they just clumsily censored the sex scenes at the naughty Hellfire Club
@@KRAFTWERK2K6 And then died. Take from that what you will
@@alexanderskaarolsen4918 it apparently had a scene with a child sacrifice. Was too graphic and would make the film NC-17 so it was removed
I would absolutely *love* seeing some more videos covering different eras or decades and their related motifs!
Believe it or not, CNN is doing that right now, with a mini series
I remember back in the day VH1 had a series that did that.
@@robchuk4136 Yea Tom Hanks created it.
I absolutely love horror movies and I have found different patterns in horror movies throughout the decades. In the 1890's through the early 20's, there were a lot of Faustian films. The 30's and 40's feature haunted house elements, the 50's was a time of the Atomic Bomb anxieties, alien invasions and mad scientists. The 60's and 70s featured many urban stories of terror, where bad things might happened even in your own homes. The 80's featured sci fi elements like The Thing and Alien. The majority of the 90's horror films were either parody films on cliched horror tropes or serious serial killer movies. The 2000's had the zombie apocalypse boom and found footage films in the later time of the decade. The 2010's are mostly family affairs centered around motherhood.
@@daveteves nice insights, Dave! I do remember seeing a video (maybe from Now You See It, but can't recall) about the shifting themes in horror films. Film history is so rich.
I wouldn't AT ALL mind more videos in the same format. I'm sure there are other years with specific trends.
Dude, I find your comments in the most unexpected places
Perhaps not specific years, but certainly decades or periods, as was mentioned at 0:42. Disaster movies in the 70s, and so on.
pokemon
@@ironcito1101 Disaster movies became a trend in the 90s as well.
The problem with Hollywood films is that they often reflect the exact opposite of reality. It comes with being in the Beverly Hills tinsle town bubble. Hollywood tends to create what their impression of the real world is.. and not always what it actually is. I was in college in the early 90s, and I never felt that the majority of people at these mundane jobs were unhappy. I was in NYC at the time and right before 9/11, it was probably one of the best decades for me.
Well said, I agree.
Rod Brett exactly !
Maybe the problem is with the audience who expect a film, a fictitious work of art, to reflect the world rather than show us a dramatized version of it. Why does a film have to obey anything other than the purpose it serves? The Matrix, for example, is a critique on the corporate world, so of course it's going to show a corporation as monster.
@@davidlean1060 Doesn't have to be anything, however, when a film is attempting to be sincere in its messaging and tone, it can often be somewhat propaganda-like. Sometimes, I feel like the film is trying to tell me something about a time and place that I know isn't true, or at the very least, highly skeptical.. especially if I lived through it. Maybe it's true for others, but it can even make a serious scene appear comical. Like Harvey Keitel playing the New York pimp in Taxi Driver. Even today, I notice Hollywood is often out of touch with reality. Which is fine, it's entertaining.. but also unintentionally funny.
I suspect the reason films depict people working in mundane jobs as being unhappy is because a lot of writers unhappily worked mundane jobs before they became writers. People who want to be film writers working in mundane jobs probably felt like they'd settled for the job and that it wasn't going anywhere - i.e. the job didn't help them fulfill their dream of being a writer.
I was one of those guys in 1999 in a cubicle trying to fix all the Y2K bugs. So many movies from that year I enjoyed, and I never made the connection between them all. And now it makes so much sense.
finding out the Y2K was a serious problem and the foretold disasters didn't occur only because thousands of people worked their asses off was a trip.
As a person born in 2000, I always wondered why many movies released in 1999 were so similar. I've tried Googling it and asking people I know who were alive during the 90s, but I never got a satisfying answer until I saw this video. Thank you.
I was born in 2000 too and my favourite movie is The Matrix from 1999. Your favourite? :)
Bro none of these movies are similar, by far. American Beauty, the Matrix, Fight Club ect ect. Go watch them, they're NOTHING alike regardless what this yt dweeb says. 1999 produced some great movies and this dude just tried to mash them all up which is just ridiculous if you've seen them.
@@WALLEsChannel1 I mentioned 3 movies made in 99 in which you could argue are similar in the "white guy tired of his life" category. But there are well over 20 really really good movies made that year and he titled this dumb ass video saying ALL 1999 movies are the same. All?? That's a stupid statement no matter how you look at it. What is it with this newer generation claiming ALL this or ALL that or he's the GOAT or she's the best ever? Lol Yall need to chill the hell out.
@@WALLEsChannel1 Couldn't have said it better myself. Plus, you're watching more good movies than I ever did at your age (I'm almost 30) so keep doing your thing :)
What does the year of birth has to do with it???
Zooms in on Kevin Spacey: "The father is a borderline sexual predator"
Some things age TOO WELL
lol yeah. perfect.
4:20
The timestamp is also too perfect. This was staged a year in advance confirmed
Then again, virtually everyone in Hollywood is a borderline sexual predator.
@@gabrielboorom6196 pretty much
"The father is a borderline sexual predator"
Well...well...well....look who we got here.
I read this as Bill Clinton was on screen Hahahaha
He crossed the border.
@@cachorro25 it works just as well
He's been cleared of all allegations not that long ago.
@@Serpico0 lmao thats like saying the supreme leader is good
Nowadays the "cubicle job" is actually a dream goal...
What a sad truth
fuck that, not for me it's not.
@@Jesse__H they're just pointing out that today's climate is too chaotic and fragile that actually having a stable, comfortable job would be a relief to some
There are so many opportunities today to have more control over your career and income. However, they are not as stable as a cubicle job. Something to be considered.
Not true. If you are commenting on the job market, it’s never been more competitive since WWII.
1:09 "the stable and uneventful world of the 90's" - me, watching as a former yugoslavian
Yeah, got to know a lot of people from FY when I was a teenager and they had quite different stories to tell me, a lot of them not PG-13. Boze moje...
You just made me realize that 80% of my favorite movies are from 1999.
Like IRON GIANT, TARZAN, TOY STORY 2, FIGHT CLUB, AND OFFICE SPACE
@[Psychonymphsia Ultravistous] LOVE SLEEPY HOLLOW AND THE GREEN MILE
Eyes Wide Shut
This seems to me to be a specific spin on the "hero's journey". Where the status quo that the hero experiences is the cubical and/or deadend job
@@FKnox123 that's a fantastic way to sum it up
But a lot of the stability was an illusion. The very term “downsizing” comes from the 90s.
NAFTA
But it wasn't until another decade or more later that people realized that jobs in the United States for certain industries really were gone or going fast. Certain government agencies insisting on U.S. workers, for example, is the only reason that I have any chance at all of employment.
The internet bubble and housing bubble started in the 90s too, and most people cant recognize that its the bubble thats the problem, not the crash.
House prices going up 100% while workers wages go up 10 due to cheap credit. So of course houses become unaffordable. And whats governments "cure"? Push interest rates down even further, pump more money into the system and not worry about the damage.
Id love to buy a cheap house, just as cheaper cars and electronics better my life. Central banks however. Well theyre only concerned about house sellers
@@nicosmind3 I don't remember housing prices skyrocketing in the 90's but I do remember that happening in the mid-2000's.
@@nicosmind3 Housing bubble was more of a 2002-2006 thing. Definitely Tech Bubble 1.0 was going on in the late 90s, though.
Anakin was bored of being a slave child, doing the same stuff day in, day out. Tatooine was his cubicle.
Then he left that cubicle and became Space Hitler... Kinda a weird lesson George
no
He doesn't like sand
@@pan-semitistcommunist4181 Galactic Domination is the greatest feat there is.
@@BigAl4244 i guess, but genocide is generally a No-no right?
No Eyes Wide Shut? I think it fits in really well with the theme
@farenheit041 And it was release in 1999 what's your point
While it never explicitly features any cubicles, I can see the connection. A man, bored by his bourgeoisie lifestyle and privileges, seeks deeper meaning and connection in the mystery of the "elite" sexual activities. Whence he seeks these mysteries he only finds more mystery and confusion, while also betraying the deeper human connection to his family that exists in his material reality. Ultimately, the adventure he seeks is only the phantasie of the so-called elite and a betrayal of his human connection to his family.
Yeah, I think it agrees with the theme of 1999 cubicle life.
@farenheit041 the video literally says it does not have to have an actual cubicle. The video is about themes my dude
@@EGFritz he story wasn't written in 1999
@@oweng6575 Not to be mean but films are of and informed by the time in which they are made regardless of the source material... Come on guys. (Fight Club wasn't written in 1999 either it's not really relevant.)
That Hollywood-perceived 90s stability also resulted in the revival of big budget disaster films: Twister, Independence Day, Daylight, Dante's Peak, Volcano, Titanic, Hard Rain, Deep Impact, Godzilla, Armageddon, etc...
I love that this generation (T/Millennials) get told we were handed everything, while Gen-X had enough money to make movies about being bored at their stability.
exactly, well said, you could even say they were privileged.......
the moral of the story is: Damned if you do, damned if you don't. Which, incidentally, is also very 90s :P
@@XylenRoberts no the moral of the story is boomers are the worst generation of all time, and gen x aint too far behind...
Gen-X'ers really piss me off. (Note that I, being born in 1980, am barely a Gen-X'er myself, so I think I have enough "n-word privileges" to slam them.) The fact that the '90s were such a horrible decade for me to live through was in a large part due to their asinine youth culture. They started out in 1990 as obnoxiously enthusiastic rebels talking like retarded surfers and thinking hair metal and "Hammer"-style rap were cool, and by the end of the decade they were smug cigar-smoking hipsters with hideously tattooed bodies. Now those punks are in their forties and many of them have become REALLY reactionary with age, slavishly supporting Trump and lecturing young people about "old-fashioned values" they never practiced themselves. At least when the Boomers turned conservative, it was LIBERTARIAN conservative.
@Stix N' Stones That might be true to some extent, but I'm focusing less on Trump himself and more on the stereotyped image of his supporters. When you think of a Ronald Reagan conservative, you imagine a young man with a mullet haircut, a suit, a tie, and suspenders. When you think of a Trump conservative, you imagine a fat middle-aged man in a baseball cap complaining about anyone different from him. Trump himself may not be that, but he certainly dresses the part.
Another year, another fresh take on Fight Club.
Seriously, there's one every year, that film has so many angles.
@@ElkiLG It's really a very stupid movie overall, but even stupider are the frat house fanboys that never get that the whole thing is satire.
Ryan Murphy it’s not a stupid movie lol
how is it a stupid movie?
@@RyanAcidhedzMurphy The frat house boys in question are stupid, but your comment is on the same level
But isn't it well established that it's a movie about toxic masculinity?
"Neo, yeah... I'm gonna need you to come in on Saturday to help Morpheus do those TPS reports."
Can you send me a memo about that?
@@williamfoy599
I'll have to fax you that memo because the printer jammed. Why does it say "paper jam" *when there IS NO PAPER JAM!?!??*
Great video. Two important movies from 1999 missing from this list are Eyes Wide Shut and Magnolia.
And they both perfectly fit in with the what he saying about wanting to escape the normal too.
Also Boiler Room it came out in 2000 but was shot at the same time as these.
I think the Sopranos would’ve been an honorable mention here aswell.
I'd rather go back to 1999 thanks.
Cringe
Sameee cuz i wasnt born lol
Aight An prim.
@@Dank_Dank you wish
Sam_All_in Let me tell you about Yahoo.com *cough I mean Bitcoin.
2019:
- super-heroes
- remakes
- biographies
Today's people wants the stability back, want things that are well know, and wants a saviour, someone who could bring the peace back again.
We see exactly that on the politics. .
Yes, we all want a Savior, someone who will redeem the world.
@@konroh2 there will be no savior unless God existe and Jesus comes down. Not a Christian btw.
Humans are corrupt, the coolest person would still let his goods fade away with power.
@@updod88 And doesn't this reality point to a Savior?
@@konroh2 No.
Human "saviors" all turned to shit
Up Dod Fred Rogers... change my mind
My favourite characteristic of movies is capturing the feeling of an era. This video is so amazing
coming in 20 years
"Why All Movies From 2019 Are The Same"
I hope you don't think you're joking.
Because all movies in 2019 are the same
Cause Disney likes making money off of nostalgia
2019 will be known as the year of the death of franchises because of feminazi sjw as*holes
The BEST movies of 2019 - Frozen 2 and White Snake
That Prince song was almost never played in 1999.
It wasn't really played much in 1989 let alone 1999.
80s music was extremely uncool in the 90s
@@nunyabusiness2785 80’s Music was also very uncool in the 2000’s as well. The 80’s was about fun and excess. The first 2 years of the 90’s was very identical to the 80’s, but musically and PoP culturally things then took a big change. In the 80’s music and pop culture was about fun, films like Back To The Future and Ghostbusters perfectly sum up the 80’s, and then bands like Motley Crue and Poison in the 80’s was about having fun and partying.
Things took a big change in both music and in movies in the 90’s, Nirvana and Grunge took over, and Tarantino was a rising director.
I think in the 90’s there was this uncertainty to where the future was heading, the blockbuster movies of the 90’s were disaster movies, films like Armageddon, Independence Day, Twister, Volcano, and Deep Impact. I think In the 90’s there was uncertainty about what the Millennium would bring, which then would lead into Y2K. People in the 90’s didn’t know what technology would bring in the future, hence technology fears being a big part of the story of The Matrix. The 90’s was also a time of nihilism, the 2 films of the 90’s that perfectly sum up that 90’s nihilism are Seven and Fight Club, Fight Clubs message was almost a don’t give a fuck attitude.
The 90’s was also a decade of being provocative, Porn was being shown on TV (though not for free obviously, free Porn wouldn’t become a thing until mid 2000’s Internet), for example over here in the UK, Television X which is a Porn TV station was founded in the 90’s, though the TV station wasn’t free, you had to pay obviously. Which brings to the second biggest movie trend in the 90’s, the erotic thriller, films like Basic Instinct, Crash from 1996, The Babysitter from 1995, Wild Things, and many more was the second biggest movie trend of the 90’s behind the disaster films.
In music after Grunge had died, there was a NU and heavier genre of music called Nu-Metal which was a genre about combining elements of Rap, Funk, Industrial, Grunge, and Metal all together. By 1999 the genre known as Nu-Metal was blowing up and by 1999 the biggest band on planet Earth was the Nu-Metal band Limp Bizkit. In the 90’s you also had TV shows like South Park and The Jerry Springer Show which was all about white trash TV and being provocative.
The 2000’s would continue riding the 90’s nihilism until around 2008, 2008 was the year Social Media blew up into mainstream culture and America got its first Black President, by 2008 society was changing again and would ditch the nihilist and provocative that was the 90’s and most of the 2000’s in favour of Political Correctness. 2008 was when Social Media blew up into mainstream culture and it gives people a huge platform to complain and moan about every little thing, though PC Culture wouldn’t show its face until 2016. The 2010’s was a decade marked by unoriginality and a decade when being provocative was no longer acceptable, so combine those 2 together and it makes sense that the 2010’s was a decade almost none existent of Hard Rock music in the mainstream, a form of music that’s supposed to be provocative.
But on the last day of 1999 a radio station in mn played the song all night long till it was 2000
Prince was desperately uncool by that time of the 90s.
On point. Being a non suburban middle class white person during this era, all these movies came off as being far more abstract and contrived than reactionary.
'And that's a good thing.'
Say what you want, but Office Space is a masterpiece
Absolutely true, but I don't think it really fits the theme of stability and prosperity. Working at Initech is boring, sure. But Michael and Samir and a number of their coworkers get fired, Milton gets humiliated all the time and after a while isn't payed anymore. The movie is a critic on America's corporate management, and not exactly a demonstration of stability and prosperity.
@@rschroev True, but I believe it's both. Criticizing corporate culture is a big theme in the movie for sure but the main character also voices a major dissatisfaction with his life and career and as much as getting fired sucks I think Michael and Samir were secretly excited by the sudden change in their life which helps motivate them to join Peter in stealing the money. I do agree though that suburban malaise and boredom is not as central to Office Space as it is with the other movies he mentions, but it's still a piece of it.
Nah, it’s just okay. I like it, but Fight Club and The Matrix and so many other 99 films are better
I thought Fight Club was an ode to the dangers of over-consumption culture and corporate America.
It was. This guy misses the point entirely.
It was, obviously. But why missing an opportunity to apply bias and invented problems of today to the films of the '90s?
Its both.
I'd totally relive the 90s it was a great time to be young.
"The peak of your civilization"
Maybe it was great to be young because of all the innovation in entertainment. Movies and videogames and music all skyrocketed in the 90s. So that's awesome as a kid.
However if you're spending all day every day in a gray box with a computer screen at work then it's not so great...
Amazing music, mind-blowing movies (my first movie at the cinema was Jurassic Park! Watched it twice!), shows, video games that made you WORK for it and could actually scare you. No mobiles, only time we were glued to a screen was when watching our favourite shows or played video games....and we played outdoors, making actual contact with people and developing interpersonal skills. Now most kids have "anxiety" and can't keep up with a conversation successfully unless it's behind a screen...
So glad I had an actual childhood, the 90s was AWESOME. 😊✌
@The Combat Sports Channel Eww. From your acne, I take it?
@The Combat Sports Channel Ah, the ever-so-mature "your mother" retort. From a man in his forties?!
You know it’s a good day when Now You See It posts! Keep up the great work 😚
I remember being so fixated on 1999. Anything that had to do with the year or the decade of the 90's at all. I remember feeling things were so much better than what the present had to offer. The present at the time being from mid 00's to early 2010's. I remember how I wanted to see every movie from 99 as well. Stability is one way of putting it, i guess. For me it was maybe just nostalgia. I was only four years old in 1999. So what the hell did I know? And I see how I'm not the only one in my age group that wishes they had been born in another era. Another time. Now a couple years have gone by. I still look at those years fondly . Only now I'm more interested in the present.
My wife and I still wish we'd been born boomer, not the children of boomers...
@@grantjohnson5785 Both you and OP are falling for Nostalgia. The past seems safe because you know what will happen while in the present all you seem is uncertainty.
Take boomers for example. Everyone remembers the good, which is cheaper houses, better jobs, etc. What people forget it the cold war and the draft. Not only were they at the very edge of nuclear annihilation (and their future seemed far from certain) but young men would randomly be drafted and sent to fight in Vietnam. That's on top of Jim Crow, normalized workplace sexual harassment, glass ceilings, etc.
@@hamobu Of course there was uncertainty back then, as there is today; I am quite well versed in history. I was referring more to the fact that music was actually good, everybody knew that a man was a man and a woman was a woman, and dressing in drag was just a joke (as evidenced by Bugs Bunny's penchant for it). In other words, despite some notable flaws, the culture was by far a healthier and more sane one.
@@grantjohnson5785 sounds to me that your problem is others making choices that you don't approve of.
Back then life was hard on women, minorities and LGBT folks. If a woman ended up with a loser and abuser, she was stuck with him since she had no other options. The fact that people have more options now is a good thing.
@@hamobu You can interpret what I said however you like - you have that freedom. That doesn't mean you're interpreting it correctly, of course.
Yes, life was SO hard on women... so hard that most of them still didn't have to work one job (let alone two) to feed their children.
Yes, life was SO hard on minorities... so hard that poverty rates among minorities were lower then than they are now, and fewer of them grew up in fatherless homes.
As for folks making bad choices with their sex life... well, my approval or disapproval has little to do with it. God's does.
American Psycho came out just a few months later, April of 2000.
My favorite movie
I was turning 5 lol
Well, the 1990s didn't really end until Spetember of 2001.
@daAnder71 "... and it's set in the mid-1980s, so it's even less a "90s movie"."
I think the time a period piece is made is more important than the period it's portraying as to which time a period piece belongs to.
Largely because %CURRENT_YEAR% tends to have a bit of an influence on the attitudes towards said period. Dr Zhivago was adapted in 1965. According to IMDB, Anna Kerenina has been adapted for TV in 1977, 2000, 2013 and 2017 and I'd imagine the different adaptations would be very different in character. Why keep adapting the same work if not for that?
@@GeoNeilUK Even then it still was 90s ish until the mid 2000s
Awesome. I was 17-18 that year. Some really good insight and helps explain our pitiful little bubble. We had it so good back then.
Funny how I've started re-watching "cubicle movies" after getting a cubicle job myself. Those movies are speaking to my soul, god damnit.
Yo bro go RUclips: are you a good person by Living Waters
It's actually incredible to see how many great movies came out in 1999. What a time to be alive...
The irony now being that nobody can get stable work and live precariously day to day.
The human condition is never satisfied.
Depends on what industry you work in. I work in HVAC. I have an office job. My job is protected because my company cannot find smart enough people to train for tech support. Other industries are different.
and a good thing too or wed still be just getting by in caves and shit instead of striving for comfort and effficiency
Naininijad it would be nice to have that kind of job security
.
A jobs good to have, but people need to figure out how to keep themselves satisfied no matter what
As someone that has lived through the mid-to-late-1990s, I would kill for at least a tenth of the stability there was back then in contrast to today. Sure, not everything back then was roses, but still a lot calmer than today's world.
Brace yourself, it'll get a lot worse
@@dzonbrodi514: Dude, it's getting worse as we speak!
Yes it was we did not realize what was to come it seems like ever since 9/11 2001 it's been a shitshow Imo
@@Loader2K1 yes it is
@@Loader2K1 we're stable here in Papua New Guinea
Americans in september 1999:
Life's too boring!
Americans in september 2001: ...
Added:
World in 2019:
Life's too boring
World in 2020:...
"Go back to boring! go back to boring!"
U mean when the government said to themselves, we need mkre money. Lets crash our planes into our buildings and blame it on people tht live in caves. Still waiting to see buildings being demolished by fire alone ( building 7) the twin towers were built to withstand airplanes flying into them.
IM JUST SAYING.
AND EPSTEIN Killed himself? Ha
Honestly as someone old enough to remember this time period, it really felt like the joy ended that day. Going into the millennium people were hopeful and then suddenly there was no hope. It's never really been the same since.
🤭
When the planes crashed into the office cubicles and ended the era of boring stability forever.
One of the best years ever for movies: Matrix, Fight Club, Magnolia, Amercan Beauty, etc. It's almost like 1999 was trying to tell us something about the next century.
American pie
@@HydraSpectre1138 TS2 yes. PM no
Yeah it's called predictive programming
American Beauty
Austin Powers Spy Shagged Me
Boondock Saints
Fight Club
Iron Giant
Matrix
Mummy
Office Space
Sixth Sense
Talented Mr. Ripley
Thomas Crown
Toy Story 2
Election, Eyes Wide Shut, Girl Interrupted, But I’m a Cheerleader, Cruel Intentions, Magnolia
the funniest thing about watching this is that 90s were the most insane and unstable period in my country and American movies from that era have a whole different vibe for us
Gen Xers: This steady 9-5 job with health insurance is soul crushing man
Millennials: Beats working as a barista at three different Starbucks so I can afford to rent a studio apartment with my 4 other roommates
EXTREME MEMES XXX Thank you 🙌🏿
For some reason, I prefer the Barista job to that steady one with health insurance. If I get a disease, well dying is cheap.
@@guccifer764 cause having multiple jobs equals a poor work ethic.
Say that to California and New York
Isn’t that almost an exclusive problem with expensive cities like LA and San Fran, etc.?
The chillhop in the background is on point
Lofi?
:/
edac, moonside, jordy, bastrd, onitram
@David Rea instantly recognised it but forgot the title, thnx man
Those 90s conflicts had no idea. I wish stability was the only complaint I had. Now us 80s babies have to deal with hidden terrors, collapse, recessions, widening inequality, growing instability and financial insecurities and social deterioration. All before we are 40, a major terrorist attack, the largest recession since the Depression and now a global pandemic.
1999: "I'm so safe, it's boring... I need more excitement"
2019: "hold my beer"
You can afford beer?! __
I don't find 2019 safe or boring. A lot of folks think there's going to be a huge housing crash next year. I was planning on selling my house, but it's very affordable. I might just hold off. I bought my house for 150k, I'll sell it for 150k. The market price for it is 180k at the moment.
@Cini minis I'm sorry you feel that way.
@@godzilladestroyscities1757 I was trying to say that it's ironic, when you compare the mentality of that era, being bored and looking to the future, to now and the problems we've been facing over the last decade. We're in the process of buying at the moment and I'm really glad we've got a 5yr fixed mortgage, because I think next year is going to be quite bad, financially. Some people are saying that the UK is expected to go into recession and interest rates will climb. Its scary stuff!
@@DadBod3000 Be more like the folks that survived the great depression. Don't borrow, just save. That mentality is heavily discouraged in our society, you can even see it with the low interest rates in your savings account.
"The 90's was a decade for stability"
The former Soviet Union and Yugoslavia: Am I a joke to you?
In the US
Yeah, don't be facetious, he literally specifies it was in the US. Since he is talking about Hollywood films, it figures
Look now... they have simps, communists and every other degeneracy that you could think of, brave America
@@hannah6034 chill, it was a benign joke.
@@Fredreegz a shit joke
I officially became old when I met a co-worker who was too young to remember the dreaded "Y2k Bug."
There are people born after 9/11 who are old enough to vote
@@LowestofheDead Scary thought
It's sad I am sure a lot of them forget about 9/11 especially if they're not from the East coast
I mean, I know what it was, especially thanks to that Documentary of the 2000’s on Netflix, but I don’t remember the event.
@[Psychonymphsia Ultravistous] "young enough to remember it as it happened," not that they didn't understand it
Great vid. Though at least wait a few seconds until the WWI footage of dying soldiers is at least off the screen before you plug a sponsor.
Yeah that was a little weird
I really doubt that it's actual combat footage. Must've been a scene from some WW1 movie, I guess
This is a wonderfully written and presented video with a cohesive thesis. It is excellently supported. Seriously, just excellent work.
I am so glad that someone pointed out the running motif.
4:20 whoever wrote that part of the essay chuckled with himself for a moment.
"Being John Malkovich" is probably the most unique story I have ever seen
Watch "Synecdoche, New York". It was written and directed by the guy who wrote "Being John Malkovich".
@@marianoclerici3986 also very quirky and unique but harder to get through that’s for sure.
@@gonegonethankyou2091 Yeah, part of the fun is figuring out what you just saw.
I was amazed at the first few times i watched it. and malkovich truely put a lot of work in it. imagine having to film all the shots where there's multiples of him, multiple times! But it'S a very metaphorical movie. unlike some movies that hide meaning in plot and polish the story to the max, it has always been weird to me why they land back next to the highway like out of thin air. I dont know but that part just hit different.
Pretentious art house bullshit is what I would like to say, but this business we call show is a big tent, that can hold every idea, well maybe a couple of decades ago anyway. It'll come back around you'll see.
whaaat, I just saw 4 movies from 1999 this week and thought some of the same things, what an coincidence
Give the titles please.
I watched american beauty for the first time last night and being John Malkovich the day before that and earlier this week i rewatched the matrix and fight club
@Grackle2012 you wane say the corrupt overlords told "now you see it" what to think and do this video cuz David watched some 1999 Movies. Mind Blown.
Grackle2012 or I am just a loyal subscriber with the notification bell on and coincidentally watched those movies out of interest, which happens to be the case ;)
Grackle2012 all of them on blu-ray
I’ve been looking to categorize films like Office Space, Fight Club, American Beauty, etc - low and behold it’s all in here
2:36 Notice the symbolism of the words on the screen appearing as if he's imprisoned by the computer.
i just watched office space for the first time the other day, BRILLIANT FILM
As much as I agree with your analysis of Fight Club, Streetbeefs was created to reduce gang violence/death from it by giving those already violent individuals a different somewhat safer outlet to quash their feuds.
I think the footage was just a placeholder because real life "fight clubs" that followed the movie formula were created.
Why not just put the troglodytes in therapy instead of having them fight on camera for the enjoyment of others?
1999 is the perfect mix of retro-futurism and post modern ideals. We were at the cusp of technology but not to the invasive point we're at now. Families were beginning to get home computers and the internet was vast unexplored territory
Brilliant hypothesis and great video!
In 1999, I saw Fight Club in theaters. I remember thinking, “there sure have been a lot of amazing movies this year,” but never understood why. Perhaps it was hard to see at the time, since the films reflected their time. Anyway congrats on cracking the code.
Nail on the head. I’ve long thought of this sentiment relating to the comfort of pre-9/11 pop music. Just re-watched Ghost World (2001) last night, which is extremely relevant to the crossing of this “Why2K” rubicon of malaise. Just like the Universe and computational power under Moore’s Law, historically significant events seem to be occurring at an ever-accelerating rate. Take me back to ‘99. I’m tired.
I didn't think it was only stability/ instability but more boredom / looking for excitement and meaning. I think the 80's in America was a big boom of business, 'gettin' em', creating offices, having a lucrative job, the hierarchy of work life, that whole vibe and the 90's were sort of this weird leftover of that and left a lot of people questioning the 'meaning' of it all. I guess in a way it is about destabilisation, but I don't think it was boredom for the sake of stability. You can have stability but have a vibrant, interesting meaningful work life every day that has something to do with who YOU are. It also calls to mind Chandler in Friends, who felt the same way and had all of his jokes and fun time, and actual personality in his spare time. Thanks for the great vid!
Ah, 1999, my birth year. I am such a 90's kid.
2004 gang
You are 2000 kid. 90's kid are born from 1985-1995 enough to experience and remember the scenes of 90's
@@jayfawn8478 woosh
ah yes 99' best 10 months of my life, 90s kid x
You youngin'! You were born in a great year...great (if sometimes very corny) pop culture. But you're not a 90s kid! I was born in 1989, and so I grew up on 90s movies, music, cartoons, etc. You grew up on 2000s stuff.
Wow, 1999 was a good year for movies, you have mentioned many of my favourite movies in this video.
It's ironic that back in the 90s stable jobs were seen as soul crushing and the draw of ire but nowadays there are many people who would kill for such employment.
Yeah, that's the irony of destiny:
Late 90s America: I have a good job, but I'm so bored (Weird Al's "First World Problems" rings in your ear).
Late 00s America: I lost my job and my house and became poor, I'm so depressed, wish I could go back in time.
In 1999 I was 7 and loved my tamagotchi 😭 but I only really remember the early 2000s lol
lol no one cares lol
@@danfred7127 seems like 15 people who liked his/her comment care....
@@ВладиславБулаев-л3э That's what you think caring is? Yikes.
@BRUTE You "tried" the internet at 4 years old? Jesus thats early... Nothing wrong with when anyone grew up but access to the internet at 4 is insane
gabriel perez Not really my guy lol I played video games at a very young age (like millions of other people) and started when I was about 2-3ish years old.
1999: Dang, live is so stable and boring
*2 years later:* Twin towers fall
"oh Sh*t go back! GO BACK!"
2019: Dang, live is so stable and boring
1 year later: Covid-19
"oh Sh*t go back! GO BACK!"
I’d add The Sixth Sense to this list too. There’s this calm and serenity on the surface with an undercurrent of anxiety and instability underneath the surface given the nature of the film’s themes.
The Historical Mirage - EVERY generation claims the preceding generation had it better.
The secret that "everyone knows" is called The Open Secret.
It's like the elephant in the room - everyone is aware but no one broaches the subject.
but i just wanna go back, back to 1999
Somebody needs to create a Time Machine for sure I want to Mary-louise Parker bum in Goodbye Lover this time on the set invisibly.
Me too. I'm 34 this year. I remember 1999 as a year when the future was bright and everything would be alright. 7 years later I joined Bush's war in Iraq. I loved the early 2000's also. I guess everyone loves their teens and early 20's. I've tried to explain to younger folks what it was like before the big 2008 crash. It seemed like every family could afford anything. There were always poor folks, but a lot of people seemed to be well off.
Even music changed after the late 90's. Music started getting darker. Now it's all the same corporate bs, not worth listening to.
@@godzilladestroyscities1757 thanks alot Al Gore you hated the music industry so you destroyed it by capsizing it.
@@ThespeedrapThank God George W Bush beat him in 2000 to and put us in two wars killing, wounding and displacing millions and crashing the economy. I'm so happy he saved us from that horrible monster Gore 🙄
@@VillemarMxO who knows how Gore would had handled the situation.Politics is just a crock of shit whoever wins or loses.I wish W.was still the president than Trump he's much worse.
The 90s, a decade of stability
2001: “Allow me to introduce myself”
The 90s RULED!
George W Bush: I'm gonna end this mans whole career
2001 an airspace Odyssey
2020: Here Come A New Challenger!
Decade of stupidity.
Interesting. I would describe this as Kafkaesque. There is an apparent prosperity yet one is oppressed because life is meaningless. That cog in the wheel feeling has taken hold of you by the throat and is sucking the air out of that cubicle. You start out as a young and vibrant careerist, and end up old and bitter at the end of each day.
We call it work for good reasons. It's not get out of bed, eat breakfast, shower, brush your teeth, dress, and go for a walk in the park or sit in the cafe and talk politics or philosophy. It's a Monday, sleep in, wake up, panic, dress for work, miss the connecting train or bus, clock in late, get in trouble with your boss, welcome to Hell life. This is lots of coffee and spreadsheets hell. This is the hell where you die slowly doing the same little soul crushing task again and again, as you occasionally catch your reflection in a monitor screen, and see the guy from Edvard Munch's "The Scream".
When we accomplish any state of affluencey, and have any time to spare then work gives way to introspection and that means philosophy of some kind. That is when you are in hell, seemingly. The truth is that you are only just waking up, like in the Matrix, or in the comedy Office Space.
My father went into culture shock when he retired. He couldn't adjust to having an entire day all to himself.
This was a good video.
@Thomas Headley I think you mean Freud.
@Thomas Headley ☺
My old man did something similar. He started rebuilding motorcycles. He's got about 8 or 9 now. Super pristine old motorcycles that he takes to shows. His entire life he was looking forward to retirement but he's not a guy that can be happy just fishing.
@@godzilladestroyscities1757 Yeah. My mother made my father look for a part time job. He got one in a hardware store. People need purpose. Otherwise they go crazy.
@@chopin65 Makes sense to me.
Wait, Kevin Spacey is actually a character actor?
99 was an amazing year for cinema. Many of those films influenced me greatly...
One of the best years ever for cinema.
In the same year we got Fight Club and The Matrix, two utterly defining and revolutionary movies of the 90s.
I mean The Matrix is one of the most influential movies ever made; it was a sensation and even 24 years later it has that aura and fascination about it for people who see for the 1st time.
It was groundbraking.
Fight Club has one of the best twists in history.
And let's not forget that in 1999, movies like The Mummy, American Pie, Office Space, Magnolia, The Green Mile came out...
4:20 - "The father is a borderline sexual predator"
Borderline?
Creep or not hes great in it
Life imitates art..
Funny in real life he is lol......
The foreshadowing is superb.
That's because hollywood has been trying to groom us into thinking it's ok to want your teenage daughter's best friend.
at 1:29 the Arabic newspaper in the matrix talks about something to do with opposition dialogue in Syria, at the time there was relatively nothing happening there, this scene always creeps me out.
could have been about taxes. or public transportation. in my experience, whenever a politician talks about anything, no matter how mundane, the opposing party stands up and says "hold on a minute"
@@LemmyKBrinkwood yeah, but why show this totally unrelated news that is in a different language in this movie
@@harsesishoktar9386 Yikes
@@harsesishoktar9386 wow , idk you sound like you're from 600 ad yourself.
@@boxingfrog "Yikes"
That is some biting commentary. What's next? "Who hurt you?"
Pretend like you're people and have an original thought.
I would say Terry Gilliam's Brazil also fits very well into this category. Although being from 1985, it feels a lot like a late 90s movie in all but visuals. It's also about a bored office worker wanting to break free from monotony and change the world he lives in.
Also Cronenberg did his best in the 90s and wasn't ever cited
Yup, no art is made in a vacuum!
edit - I'd definitely be interested in a sister video to this one: how do the films of _right now_ tackle the (very different) zeitgeist of 2019?
its easier to reflect on the past than comment on the present
To riff on this idea a bit, I would be curious in seeing videos on both the trends and attitudes of the 2000s and 2010s as reflected in the movies of the time. Off-hand, I would guess fears about terrorism, war, and government repression would be big in 2000s movies.
@@xFlRSTx Very true. The farther away something is, the more obvious it becomes.
(aka hindsight is 20/20)
@@Jesse__H Check out Sorry to Bother You. There's a lot it has to say about today. (It's also hilarious and gets very, very weird at the end.)
I have to disagree with you, Holes was *groundbreaking*
I enjoyed the hole movie.
Let’s try and keep the replies all holes puns, I would really dig that
I feel like it was a good idea, but poorly spade. A remake could save it
That’s a really good point, a remake could make the movie much crater
It was a terrible movie, would have to give it zero stars ;)
The fact that they had an issue with stability in the 90’s while my generation wants stability. Hell we have student loan debt, credit card debt, and can’t find a job for nothing even with a degree. I started an online business because I lost my last job and couldn’t find another. Nowadays they don’t pay much at regular jobs and you get treated like crap at your job before they fire you . In 2019, you either need a second job or need a side hustle. I don’t know about you but I would give anything for stability.
people in these movies are in their mid 30s so of course they have stability. you’re talking about people in the 20-30 range which is still fresh out of college so of course you won’t be as stable as a 37+ year old.
“ I seat in a cubicule” yeah, story of our lives.
We got our boi back!
1999: some of the best movies, nonstop. In 1999 many thought Y2K would be the end of the world. We got the “radically different future”. But most of the dystopian stories feel very hypothetical, and before 9/11 things actually felt pretty stable. American Beauty’s exterior normalcy really shows how little seems to be going on. Really should have partied like it’s 1999
Holy shit I was talking to my friend about how 1999 had some absolute bangers for movies! And here we are!
"People wanted more excitement in their life"
Oh if only they knew back then what would happen 2 years later they would regret those wishes...
Lol I know right?
I wish my life was as stable as some character in a 1999 movie
Actually the US bombarded my country to shit in 1999. And through the 90' my country fell apart in bloody wars. It was very unstable and troublesome time.
I want to visit 1999 so i can watch “Fight Club” in a nearest movie theater :(
Everyone was worried about kids seeing R rated movies because of Columbine.
Go quick Fight Club kind of bombed