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 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
In Which We’ve Met Before There was a period in the late 90’s where the Internet seemed like it could be anything. The moment between the release of the first hypertext web browsers and the dot-com bubble bursting was a … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 08: You’ve Got Mail
In Which We’re On TV Deep in the recesses on 90s culture a monster was born. A cruel demander, who we all noticed, but refused to take seriously. A beast of unfathomable hunger and power, which could alter and shift … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 07: Natural Born Killers
In Which We’re California Dreaming As a place and cultural entity Hong Kong serves as a kind of inflection point for the other aspects of 90’s culture that we have yet to cover. The ideas of urban isolationism, receding colonialism, … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 06: Chungking Express
In Which Hawke’s the Last Real Thing You Got The culture of the United States in the 90s was one based around the inability to properly define conflict. For the past 80 years of American history there had always been … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 05: Reality Bites
In Which Cyber Christ Is Born Why was the culture at large obsessed with virtual reality in the 90s? It’s slightly befuddling, especially with the benefit of hindsight, that a technology that is just barely functional at a mass level … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 04: The Lawnmower Man
In which the planet is hacked. In its own way 1995’s Hackers serves as a kind of aesthetic and cultural apotheosis of the concept of the 90s. Here’s a movie that signifies so much of the look and ideology of … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 03: Hackers
In which information will control the world In Chuck Klosterman’s book But What if We’re Wrong? he recounts a bit of reading from a 1980 edition of the Book of Predictions. In it he’s confronted with the speculations of futurists … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 02: Sneakers
In Which the Future is Divined With MiniDiscs Science fiction has always served as a great predictor, with pieces speculating on things like cyberspace, mobile telecommunications, and AI with shocking prescience. The amusing thing about those speculations are the limits … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 01: Strange Days
Twenty years ago was 1999. Now, on balance the year itself was nothing too notable. Between the political bickering of the Clinton impeachment (he was acquitted in February of ’99), and events like the bursting of the dot-com bubble and … Continue reading Millennial Malaise 00: What It Is
