Best movies that capture the 1990s
Films that were made in the 90s that capture the feel of that time and place perfectly. A better time when no one had smart phones, the internet was in its infancy, and music and book stores were everywhere.
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- DirectorHart BochnerStarsJeremy PivenChris YoungMegan WardA high school senior visits college for the weekend, and stays at the wildest house on campus.A great comedy that shows PC culture as it was in the 90s. Now it seems quaint when you see the level of craziness on campuses today. It's the cool, fun kids versus the stodgy, offended by everything, PC crowd. It also has the 60s in the 90s vibe that was so big back then. Look for the tie dyed wearing stoners playing frisbee. You'll see what I mean.
- DirectorCameron CroweStarsBridget FondaCampbell ScottKyra SedgwickA group of twenty-something friends search for love and success in grunge-era Seattle.Considered one of three decade defining films, it's take on dating in the 90s is spot on. Also great cameos by Pearl Jam, some Soundgarden members, and even Tim Burton.
- DirectorMichael LehmannStarsBrendan FraserSteve BuscemiAdam SandlerThree band members hoping for a big break head to a radio station to play their demo tape and wind up holding everyone hostage with plastic guns when the head D.J. refuses to play them.Rockers take over a radio station and take everyone hostage to get their tunes played. It has the iconic line, "Oh, man, you actually listen to that Seattle bullshit?" A bold line at a time as Kurt Cobain was still alive when it was being filmed. At that time the wave hadn't quite crested yet on the original grunge scene. When it was released in August of 1994, Kurt had been dead 4 months and that Seattle scene was in a death spiral it wasn't even aware of yet..
- DirectorJefery LevyStarsStephen DorffReese WitherspoonJake BuseyAn alienated and misanthropic teenager gains sudden and unwanted celebrity status after he's taken hostage by terrorists where his indifference to their threats to kill him makes news headlines.Considered one of three films that captured the 90s perfectly. I believe the others were Reality Bites and Singles. Lesser known, but powerfully effective in it's message on the danger of (unwanted) celebrity and those who worship them.
- DirectorBen StillerStarsWinona RyderEthan HawkeJaneane GarofaloA documentary filmmaker and her fellow Generation X graduates face life after college, looking for work and love in Houston.The third decade defining film of the 90s, this all star (and decidedly 90s) cast has Ethan Hawke, Wynona Ryder, and Ben Stiller.
- DirectorOndi TimonerStarsAnton NewcombeCourtney Taylor-TaylorJoel GionA documentary on the once-promising American rock bands The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols, and the friendship/rivalry between their respective founders, Anton Newcombe and Courtney Taylor.A documentary mostly filmed in the 90s that follows two bands, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and The Dandy Warhols. It always makes me wish I was in San Francisco in 1997 hanging out with Anton Newcombe and the BJM and Dandys.
- DirectorDoug PrayStars7 Year BitchValerie M. AgnewCarrie AkreDocumentary covering the growth and subsequent overexposure of the Seattle "grunge" music scene in the early 90sAnother documentary that was filmed in Seattle pre and post Kurt Cobains death. It captures the grunge scene and the people who made the music.
- DirectorAllan MoyleStarsAnthony LaPagliaDebi MazarMaxwell CaulfieldTwenty-four hours in the lives of the young employees at Empire Records when they all grow up and become young adults thanks to each other and the manager. They all face the store joining a chain store with strict rules.A great cast and a great soundtrack. Who didn't dream of working in a cool music store back then? The employees must save their cash strapped record store from being turned into a soulless corporate music chain. Plus you get to see Liv Tyler in her underwear. Also has an almost unrecognizable Renee Zellweger.
- DirectorQuentin TarantinoStarsJohn TravoltaUma ThurmanSamuel L. JacksonThe lives of two mob hitmen, a boxer, a gangster and his wife, and a pair of diner bandits intertwine in four tales of violence and redemption.Quentin Tarantino characters always feel like they have been plucked out of a cooler time and place. So this tends to feel like a time all it's own, but to me, this reminds.me just how good film were in the indie rich environment of the 90s.
- DirectorKevin SmithStarsBrian O'HalloranJeff AndersonMarilyn GhigliottiA day in the lives of two convenience clerks named Dante and Randal as they annoy customers, discuss movies, and play hockey on the store roof.The one that started it all. This films personifies the rich independent film movement that defines 90s cinema for me. Clerks will always hold a special place in my heart.
- DirectorNoah BaumbachStarsJosh HamiltonEric StoltzSamuel GouldA bunch of guys hang around their college for months after graduation, continuing a life much like the one before graduation.This movie captured the post college malaise perfectly. It follows a group of college grads who look for love and purpose after college. It's hilarious and has two 90s staples, Eric Stoltz and Josh Hamilton.
- DirectorPeter McCarthyStarsJames Le GrosShakaZander SchlossIn this scathing and subversive social comedy, life in post riot Los Angeles is dissected under the sardonic eye of John Boyz, an unemployed thirty nothing flounderer on Venice Beach who is trying to figure out what to do with his life. John can't be bothered with apathy, but no matter how much he wants to help people, he is too immobilized to do anything useful. Haunted by chronic insomnia and impending sense of doom, all he can do is watch, and John is an avid observer. Through his voyeuristic binoculars, he struggles to make sense of all the alienation and disaffection he sees in his neighborhood. In his journal he meticulously chronicles the mundane down to steadfast march of ants across his kitchen counter. John is desperately trying to keep one meaningless day from blending into next. He compulsively watches homemade videos of LA riots looking for a clue. But everywhere around him the city's social fabric is coming apart at the seams, and now it is John Boys's own threadbare life that's about to unravel.I can't tell you how much I could relate to the protagonist of this film when I first saw it...and sadly still do to some degree. He is looking for purpose in a post riots Los Angeles and runs into strange and surreal people and events along the way. Has great footage of the devastation in the city post Rodney King verdict riots.
- DirectorLes MayfieldStarsSean AstinBrendan FraserPauly ShoreWhen they find a frozen caveman in their back yard, two high school outcasts thaw him and introduce him to modern life while he in turn gets them to actually enjoy life.The fashion alone makes this a solo 90s representative. I believe it's also the first time Pauly Shore took "The Weasel" to the big screen. A then unknown Brendan Frasier began a great 90s career with this film.
- DirectorPaul TodiscoStarsSteve ZahnJosh HamiltonDavid KinneyTwo friends spend their days smoking pot and talking about sex.Also called Blowing Smoke, it's another aimless post college grad film. Josh Hamilton turns in a great performance as the lead who spends most of his time smoking dope with his friend Freak, played by Steve Zahn. This film captures perfectly the way you can get comfortable in an endless loop of doing nothing, yet things always change...friends move on or don't have time and you're forced to make those hard decisions. Another relatable film.
- DirectorTamra DavisStarsAdam SandlerDarren McGavinBridgette Wilson-SamprasIn order to inherit his fed up father's hotel empire, an immature and lazy man must repeat grades 1-12 all over again.Notable as the film that launched a persona that Adam Sandler would find huge success with in the 90s. It's also a very funny film if you like Sandler.
- DirectorFran Rubel KuzuiStarsKristy SwansonDonald SutherlandPaul ReubensFlighty teenage girl Buffy Summers learns that she is her generation's destined battler of vampires.The original, with Kristy Swanson as the title vampire slayer and the great Luke Perry as the cool loner. You have to watch this if you like the show.
- DirectorAmy HeckerlingStarsAlicia SilverstoneStacey DashBrittany MurphyShallow, rich and socially successful Cher is at the top of her Beverly Hills high school's pecking scale. Seeing herself as a matchmaker, Cher first coaxes two teachers into dating each other.The dialogue alone plants this film firmly in the 90s. That and the clothing. This films generated so many decade specific quotes that it probably deserves to be in the top 3 if I were ordering this list by some sort of scale.
- DirectorAlex ProyasStarsBrandon LeeMichael WincottRochelle DavisA man brutally murdered comes back to life as an undead avenger of his and his fiancée's murder.This film has the dark 90s in its DNA. Sadly, it was Brandon Lee's last performance.
- DirectorEric SchaefferDonal Lardner WardStarsEric SchaefferDonal Lardner WardDolores McDougalTwo Manhattan slacker dudes, best friends, want to make a movie about their lives. Splick drives a hack, Jason tends bar; each has a stuttering relationship with a down-to-earth woman. But neither has a clue how to make a movie. A friend in the industry sets up meetings for them with producers, which they blow. Things look up when Phoebe Cates and Martha Plimpton agree to star, but then they leave the city for other projects. Splick and Jason argue. Things look bleak. Will they repair their friendship? Will they reconnect to their lovers?This film personifies the independent film ethic of the 90s. A more fact than fiction take of two guys who set out to make a movie about their quest to make a movie. Along the way they try to find love and we fall in love with the two leads. A sequel, They're Out Of The Business, was made in 2011.
- DirectorDonal Lardner WardStarsDonal Lardner WardTony GumaCraig BierkoJennifer Love Hewitt and Will Ferrell star in this electrifying film about the reunion of a one-hitwonder new wave band from the eighties.From one half of My Life's In Turnaround, Donal Ward makes a heartfelt film about a one hit wonder 80s band that gets a second chance at the game in a 90s that's nostalgic for the past. Everyone is amazing and it has an early film appearance by Will Ferrell. A very good movie
- DirectorC.M. TalkingtonStarsGil BellowsRenée ZellwegerRory CochraneA small time crook flees to Mexico to evade the authorities, loan sharks, and his murderous ex-partner with only his fiancé and a trusted Colt .45.A lot of 90s films tried to have that Quentin Tarantino vibe, and Love and a .45 accomplishes this with a suit wearing Hitman named Dinosaur Bob, played to the hilt by Jeffrey Combs. It's about two lovers on the run from the law, the aforementioned killer, and psychotic ex partner played by Rory Cochrane. It has that Texas quirkiness that was captured the same year in Natural Born Killers.
- DirectorRichard LinklaterStarsRichard LinklaterRudy BasquezJean CaffeineA day in the life of Austin, Texas as the camera roams from place to place and provides a brief look at the overeducated, the social misfits, the outcasts and the oddballs.Slacker, a word synonymous with the 90s. This film probably helped cement it in the lexicon. It's a stream of consciousness trip through an Austin populated by hipsters, intellectuals, and philosophers. A movie that probably couldn't get made today it's so good. His later film, Waking Life, is a continuation of the urge to find the hidden truths in our mundane lives.
- DirectorOliver StoneStarsWoody HarrelsonJuliette LewisTom SizemoreTwo victims of traumatized childhoods become lovers and psychopathic serial murderers irresponsibly glorified by the mass media.A scathing look from Oliver Stone about the hero worship of two very evil people. It's also an indictment of a corrupt legal system and a media that puts ratings above morality. It has that ultra violence that was prevalent in the 90s, but if you get uncontrollable, that's the point.
- DirectorRoger NygardStarsJoe YannettyJake JohannsenDaniel BenzaliEver bought a used car from a dealer before? Want to know what REALLY happens behind the scenes? This movie offers some insight through the eyes of one of the dealers.Another independent film made by a comedian who worked at a car lot for some stability. Listening to the commentary you'll discover that even the most outrageous moments in this film are based on things he witnessed on the job. A hilarious look at what goes on at a typical car lot.
- DirectorDaniel MyrickEduardo SánchezStarsHeather DonahueMichael C. WilliamsJoshua LeonardThree film students vanish after traveling into a Maryland forest to film a documentary on the local Blair Witch legend, leaving only their footage behind.This has to be on this list just for the profound impact it had at the time. I remember hearing about these people disappearing at least two years before the movie. The viral marketing cemented this film and propelled it's creators and actors to careers in mainstream Hollywood.