Velocity Prime’s look at movies made between the end of the Cold War and 9/11 (and even further on either side if they engage with certain thematic point) that also pontificate about what the social, scientific, and economic shifts leading up to the turn of the century meant
In Which God is a Women, and she is Alanis Morissette. The tale of Kevin Smith is the story of arrested development, of an artist who’s success was so intrinsically tied to his personal musings and slacker persona that to … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 27: Dogma
In Which Everything Used to be Something Else The world of cyberpunk is absolutely rife with ideas about malleable identity, fluid sexuality, and body modification. So it’s no surprise that David Cronenberg, with his penchant for fleshy ports and sexually … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 26: eXistenZ
In Which the Only Action we Saw was on CNN The Gulf War is one of the odder chapters in the history of the last half of the 20th century. A punctuation to nearly a century of US military conflict … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 24: Three Kings
In Which it’s Time to Pick Flick An ongoing debate through these articles and the responses to them has been, “how much do movies about awful people endorse their awful actions?” This question becomes even more important as we go … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 24: Election
In Which the World is too Beautiful to Bear Why did American Beauty win Best Picture? It’s a question that has vexed many a movie fan when reflecting upon the 2000 Academy Awards. After a year suffused with so many … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 23: American Beauty
In Which Malkovich Malkovich Malkovich In the broad sweep of films that fall under the, “mainstream culture and work life sucks” banner, many try find the out to such ingrained office and suburban ennui. In a myriad of movies our … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 23: Being John Malkovich
In Which We’re the Middle Children of History I usually never approach these articles with trepidation or pause. They’re pieces to reflect on a specific era of filmmaking by reconsidering hits, highlighting underseen pictures, and looking at junk for purpose. … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 22: Fight Club
In Which I’m Not Lazy, I Just Don’t Care Way back in my piece about Reality Bites I took aim at the conceited antagonism that film had to the idea of selling out. That the existential horror of work life … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 21: Office Space
In Which I Finally Make Some Sort of Schedule. Hello! If you were expecting a regular article this week I’m sorry to disappoint you. My life got consumed in sudden business, but I should be back on track shortly. However, … Continue reading Millennial Malaise: An Announcement!
If You Give White Resentment a Gun… As noted in previous entries in this series, the end of the Cold War created a huge cultural shift in the US. The past 80 years of world history had included at least … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 20: Falling Down
In Which DuJour Means Crash Positions If I were a person to make broad and sweeping generalizations (which is definitely not a thing that writers on the internet do) I would say that the culture of the 90’s was defined … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 19: Josie and the Pussycats
In Which We Accept the Reality of the World We Are Presented Throughout this series we have come across movies about social alienation, the feeling of no control, angst at the post Cold War world order, and fear over how … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 18: The Truman Show
In Which the Cookie Stand is Not Part of the Food Court. For the chronically online you may have noticed an odd story/meme circulating through the social media sphere about the new Avengers movie. The long and short of the … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 17: Mallrats
In Which Discrimination is Down to a Science Out of all the sci-fi films covered in this series so far Gattaca stands out. Not for being the best of the bunch (I would still throw that honor to Strange Days … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 16: Gattaca
In Which We’re All Back From Hell The comic book films of the 90’s were incredibly reactionary. After the earth shattering success of 1989’s Batman the industry was put on high alert that a new genre of blockbusters were open … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 15: Spawn
In Which it Feels Good to Feel Again The influence of The Matrix is monumental. Nearly every action movie released in the last 20 years is in conversation with it in some way. Either aping its stylistic techniques directly or … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 14: Equilibrium
In Which it’s Turtles All the Way Down. With a few rare exceptions it’s a bad sign when a movie focuses so much on architecture. Now I’m not talking about the camera lingering on intricate production design or focussing in … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 13: The Thirteenth Floor
In Which We Go Down the Rabbit Hole This article won’t be about The Matrix. No, you don’t need another thousand words dissecting the filmmaking, the performance, the philosophy, or the themes. The past 20 years have provided a veritable … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 12: The Matrix
In Which the World is What We Make It Sci-fi in the late 20th century was obsessed with memory, or more specifically how memory impacts the basic concept of human nature. That a collection of experiences can build identity, are … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 11: Dark City
In which memory is not reality Talking about anime online is equivalent to walking into a field of anthills and wildly swinging a baseball bat about. You’re bound to hit on something while simultaneously upsetting large groups of people. For … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 10: Ghost in the Shell
In Which Keanu Needs to Get Online! Why is Johnny Mnemonic primarily set in Newark, New Jersey? Yes America’s 70th largest city is the hub of all cyber shenanigans in the far off future of 2021. Newark (or the Free … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 09: Johnny Mnemonic
