Do you see 1999 high school themed films as being more Gen X or Millennial?

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RealSinnSage@reddit

these are FIRMLY xennial movies. american pie was my junior year so i was their age, and cruel intentions played a big role in expanding my erotic awakening

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Unfortunate-Incident@reddit

Ikr. If you are a Xennial, these movies came out while you were in high school or very soon after. The target audience for these were the ages that ended up straddling the Gen X/Millennial line.

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AldusPrime@reddit

At the time, 10 Things I Hate About You, Cruel Intentions, and American Pie all seemed very Gen Y to me.

On the flip-side, Singles, Reality Bites, and Valley Girl were Gen X.

The Gen X highschool movies were from the 80s: The Breakfast Club, Heathers, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

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HarrietsDiary@reddit

Nailed it. I’d add Scream and Clueless to the Gen Y list.

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Each of these movies depends on when you were in high school too. Clueless came out my senior year and it continues to be my go to HS movie. But by 99 I was almost done with college and HS movies didn’t hit the same way.

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FestiveArtCollective@reddit

I think it also matters when you went to college. I did a few gap years to work and save up for college and didn't start university until '00, same with a lot of my friends. These movies still hit right for us.

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Iamthegreenheather@reddit

Yup, Clueless came out when I was 18. I had a poster of the slang from the movie and what it meant lol. I still say "As if!" Idc, make fun of me but it is relevant at times lol.

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BetterEveryDayYT@reddit

The age that we were when specific movies, musicians, or other things happened makes all the difference. Someone born two years before you might have been too old to love clueless, and maybe the person born two years after you was impacted differently. That's just one movie. We are all a product of what we've experienced and consumed.

Having a xennial group is helpful in that regard, because the generations are so wide (X and milleniul).. but even within the xennials, we didn't all get the same experiences from things.

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RealSinnSage@reddit

i was 12 when i saw clueless- but i have every line memorized and Cher was how i knew i was attracted to girls as well as boys

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On_my_last_spoon@reddit

Yeah, I think it works younger but not older. I’m on the older edge of xennial, so I can get into some of the 80s movies but not so much into the later 90s/early 00s

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nitrot150@reddit

Exactly, although I still liked the HS movies like American pie, it was close enough for me!

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RealSinnSage@reddit

i can tooootally see that. at ‘77, i’d consider that much closer to X. i think of xennial as 80-86 or maybe ‘87 at the latest

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Iamthegreenheather@reddit

Clueless came out in 95 though. I saw it when I was in 8th grade. Scream was the first movie I snuck into when I was 15. None of us were 17 so we bought tickets to Beverly Hills Ninja and snuck in to the other theater. I missed the Drew Barrymore scene though.

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0sqs@reddit

I was 11 years old when Clueless was released; 13 when Scream hit theaters. And I am a very old millennial. I would not say those movies were aimed for me at the time.

Whereas I was 15 for most of 1999, those movies were definitely for me as the target audience.

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flittingly1@reddit

Can't hardly wait is prime 99

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hail_to_the_beef@reddit

‘Can’t Hardly Wait’ and also ‘Go’ are both peak ‘99

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RandomRageNet@reddit

Go is great but it's about Xers since the characters are mostly in their early or mid 20's and it's not a high school movie (it is a stealth Christmas movie though)

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FestiveArtCollective@reddit

The main two stars of GO are Xennials, Sarah Pauley ('79) and Katie Holmes ('78). The guy who played Manny was born '77. The rest of the cast were supposed to be older than them, but not the focus.

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Iamthegreenheather@reddit

I still have the Can't Hardly Wait soundtrack. I bought it for the song Flashlight, specifically. 😂

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flittingly1@reddit

Excellent soundtrack oh em gee

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PeladoCollado@reddit

Sorry to be pedantic, but Can’t Hardly Wait was set in and released in ‘98 - my graduating year. Watched it fall of my freshman year in college.

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flittingly1@reddit

So you weren't in high school in '99... This movie epitomizes highschool parties in 99/00. Parties probably became even more like this after it was released!

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ominous_squirrel@reddit

gif

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VF-41@reddit

GenX- loved 10 Things. Can’t Hardly Wait transcend generations. I had those vibes- related so much to that movie.

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RealSinnSage@reddit

OMG YES!!! definitely belongs on this list

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whistleridge@reddit

Agreed.

Films like St. Elmo’s Fire, With Honors, and PCU were about the Gen X college experience.

Films like The Skulls, Road Trip, Legally Blonde, Drumline, and Van Wilder were about the Xennial college experience.

Films like The House Bunny, Accepted, and Pitch Perfect were about the Millennial college experience.

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MaxPowerrr85@reddit

I'll add Old School (2003) as another seminal Xennial college experience movie

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whistleridge@reddit

Old Skool was more about Gen X going back to play with Millennials though. There’s a few movies like that.

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BigDaddyUKW@reddit

Don’t get me started on PCU not being on a streaming platform.

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

Piven took a ho-hum script with an idiot director and through sheer force of will made an almost good movie out of it. I also miss "unhinged era" Favreau from this film, The Replacements, Swingers, Very Bad Things, et. al.

It ironically proved that Piven could be leading man material, whilst simultaneously dooming him to a career of not being one, due to its (deserved) shit performance at the box office. With a bit more polish and an entirely different director, it "could been" our generation's Animal House... but it wuddn't.

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5thStESt@reddit

Don’t be that guy

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BigDaddyUKW@reddit

So many people follow that rule to this day, and non believers think we’re idiots 😂🤷‍♂️🤘

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bigdickedbat@reddit

Still got my dvd copy!

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BigDaddyUKW@reddit

I actually have my VHS copy in my garage along with sports memorabilia 😂.

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Ok-Assistance4133@reddit

The Skulls! Haven't thought about that in a long time. Need to rewatch

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nola_mike@reddit

PCU, With Honors, Son in Law and other early 90s college movies really set me up for disappointment when I went to college in 2001. It was nothing like any of those movies at all.

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AldusPrime@reddit

Yes! Totally nailed it on the college movies.

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pennyflowerrose@reddit

My.genx high school movies are from the early 90s -- I think it depends on when you went to high school!

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555byte@reddit

I agree with this assignment, and I too was born in 1977 I also like all of the movies you listed

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tevamom99@reddit

Yeah though all the gen x movies were replayed on tv so in some ways xennials grew up with them too.

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desertdweller2011@reddit

yes, more accurately though all the gen x movies were taped off tv and replayed on random vhs tapes 😂

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tevamom99@reddit

John Hughes movies played practically 24/7 on channel 11 or tbs when I was a kid. I remember watching Reality Bites and Pump Up the Volume and Heathers on regular tv as well, as well as a bunch of the Coreys movies.

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TheGrapeSlushies@reddit

Now that we’re all old it’s Pump Up the Valium. 💪

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desertdweller2011@reddit

oh yea i wasn’t arguing with you they were on tv i’m just reflecting on how we all had a handful of random movies we’ve seen a thousand times only because someone decided to tape them one day

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tevamom99@reddit

Oh I wasn’t arguing either, just stating what movies were on tv. My taped off the tv vhs movies were Hocus Pocus and Robin Hood: Men in Tights

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MungoJennie@reddit

Say Anything was also on heavy rotation at our house. I had the biggest crush on John Cusack.

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BigDebbie4ever@reddit

This is a good take

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purefire@reddit

Reality bites screams genX

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lsutigerzfan@reddit

I don’t know what I am. But I would say I was the American Pie age group.

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Canesjags4life@reddit

Lol Gen Y = millennial.

American pie was the eldest millennial highschool experience lol.

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AldusPrime@reddit

In the 90s, Gen Y was used to describe the teenagers at the time, to describe teenagers at the time, then aged 13–19 (born 1974–1980), to distinguish them from Gen X.

It wasn't until the late 2000 and early 2010s that they started adding that age group into Gen X and calling people born after 1980 Millennials.

So, when I was a teenager, I was told I was Gen Y, and not Gen X.

Later I was told I was just barely Gen X.

Which is why I'm a Xennial =)

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Canesjags4life@reddit

Lol 74-76 is genX.

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

That range has been X more often than it hasn't, but it's had its time in other categories.

Your citation does more to back up the opposing (and correct) claim than it does your own.

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AldusPrime@reddit

I'm well aware that Strauss and Howe coined the term in 1984 and published it in their book in 1991.

I'm talking about popular usage.

Here's the Google Trend for millennial:

It starts to pick up around 2013.

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Canesjags4life@reddit

That's Internet searches and 2013 is about when Gen Z started accessing the Internet. Millennial got popular during the mid 2000s.

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AldusPrime@reddit

Millennial got popular during the mid 2000s

Which is why, in the 90s, everyone was saying Gen Y.

Advertising Age outlined Gen Y in 1993, setting the (then) age range at 1974–1980. Journalists and advertisers followed that for over decade.

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MungoJennie@reddit

I think they should have kept the division, frankly. I have cousins and an aunt and uncle who are early/“real” Gen X’ers (born 1965-1972), and their experiences growing up are so different from that of my siblings, my younger cousins, and me. We all had largely similar socio-economic backgrounds, family situations, and (except for the years my nuclear family lived abroad), we all grew up in the same area, but our cultural touchstones are so different.

Music, media, toys, technology, and major events just changed so quickly during those years. My older relatives remember the Bicentennial, Watergate, Elvis’s death, John Lennon’s death, and my uncle even vaguely remembers the moon landing. They listened to music on 8-tracks, and were into ABBA, the BeeGees, and Bon Jovi, KISS, etc

My oldest sister (‘74) remembers Reagan’s assassination attempt, and we all remember Challenger, Bud Dwyer (from PA), 9/11, Baby Jessica, etc. We listened to NKOTB (don’t judge), BSB, Nirvana. Soul Asylum, Spin Doctors, etc. I had a cell phone (my dad’s old brick, but still) from the time I got my license. It’s like we grew up in two different worlds.

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

They fiddle-fucked with the numbers a lot when we were young. GenX, if taken at an aggregate of the widest of the numerous ranges it has had before the current definition stuck, was from '60-'85.

Y was initially a "placeholder", as you said, before 'generationology' became a tool of marketing, rather than sociology.

Though I was born in '75 and am solidly "X", particularly because I had a Silent parent and an older ('69) brother, I have experienced the same re-categorization on several occasions as you have.

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theUtherSide@reddit

Spot on. i was born in ‘84 and learned I was Gen Y growing up. 10th grade when y2k bug hit, and I never heard the term “millennial” until college and i didn’t know what it was for the longest time until it started being used as a pejorative for the younger generation.

my younger siblings born in the 90s are millennials…I am Gen Y.

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Emdubs@reddit

Additionally, Mean Girls is peak Millennial

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CommonNative@reddit

Where would Pump Up The Volume sit?

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

As far and away Slater's best film.

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letstouchbuttholes@reddit

Any Christian Slater movie is firmly Gen X

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MungoJennie@reddit

I love him, but you’re spot on.

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fakeprofile111@reddit

Younger Gen X never got a proper teen movie era. But we got the tv shows

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1block@reddit

Does Clueless count? 1995. I graduated in 95, so maybe I was too old.

Dazed and Confused is probably the best for us.

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bump909@reddit

It’s more just set in the 70s and not so much about it.

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

Accurate assessment. Linklater was smart to make it that way. With time, it's become a generational coming-of-age story, rather than a paean to the era.

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bigdickedbat@reddit

Don’t besmirch Trojan War like that.

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Officialfish_hole@reddit

There was good stuff like Angus and Encino Man

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GutsAndBlackStufff@reddit

Don’t forget Kids

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AldusPrime@reddit

I think I blocked it out LOL.

Really well done movie; I'll never watch it again.

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aceshighsays@reddit

that movie, and the one filmed in coney island.. the name escapes me.

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GutsAndBlackStufff@reddit

I like to pretend Telly ended up as his character in The Wire

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kristospherein@reddit

Exactly.

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Easy_Independent_313@reddit

Yea. Heather's spoke to me as a teen. I was in middle school when I first saw it, and it spoke to my soul

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RealSinnSage@reddit

THIS

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Ok_Researcher_9796@reddit

I didn't watch any of those movies in the 80s. I was mostly outside riding my bike.

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EveningRequirement27@reddit

Spot on. And I can’t exactly say why. Guess that’s what they mean by “u had to be there”.

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nocabec@reddit

This is correct

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FestiveArtCollective@reddit

Definitely peak Xennial. I don't think that older Gen Xers cared about these movies at that point. But everyone born probably '76ish to '84ish were lining up at the theaters.

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Contemporary_Scribe@reddit

I am a millennial and very few things give me more nostalgia than 10 things I hate about you.

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echosrevenge@reddit

It was filmed at the high school down the street from where I lived, and it was chaos in my (different) high school while it was going on. Left such a bad taste in my mouth that ive still never seen it.

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weeponxing@reddit

Bummer you feel that way! I'm from the same area and had some friends who were extras in it. I love watching it and it really shows how pretty parts of Tacoma are.

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DontGrumpyStop@reddit

It’s on Netflix and I’ve been fighting the urge to watch it.

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TacosAreJustice@reddit

Why are you fighting to not watch it? It’s great. Holds up

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theUtherSide@reddit

give in! its Heath Ledger at his best and Julia Stiles…so hott!

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aceshighsays@reddit

what would have been with heath :(

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Inevitable_Pride1925@reddit

It’s amazing we watched over a girls night at the beach last year and it was amazing. Most of us hadn’t watched it since we were in school. We were all millennials so “in school” was very variable.

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Jo_MamaSo@reddit

It came out when I was a sophomore in high school and my friend and I saw it 3 times in the theater

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braxtel@reddit

I am a millennial who was a senior in high school in 1999, so I think that year is in the millennial column.

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Constantine28@reddit

You aren’t a millennial

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NoExam2412@reddit

Technically, they are. 1980 was the last GenX which was a 1998 graduation year.

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bascule@reddit

According to who? The U.S. Census Bureau defines Millennials as those born between 1982 and 2000

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NoExam2412@reddit

Not everyone is American.

Pew research is one example.

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bascule@reddit

And who else? They seem like an odd exception.

William Strauss and Neil Howe defined millennials as those born in 1982 when they coined the term in 1987, because they were set to graduate high school in 2000, the start of the new millennium

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bascule@reddit

And who else? They seem like an odd exception.

William Strauss and Neil Howe defined millennials as those born in 1982 when they coined the term in 1987

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tadamhicks@reddit

Born in 80, graduated 99. A lot of my friends did in fact. Interestingly I’ve always felt slightly more X than millennial. My wife graduated in 2000 and feels more millennial than X.

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KevDub81@reddit

Do you have older siblings?

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tadamhicks@reddit

No

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Constantine28@reddit

I’m class of 2001 (born in ‘82) and I am def not a millennial

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Zestyclose_Hand_8233@reddit

'82 and I don't consider myself x

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DontGrumpyStop@reddit

Also ‘01 and don’t consider myself a millennial.

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archliberal@reddit

Some of c/o 1999 were born in 1980

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warp16@reddit

That is literally millennial lol

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Constantine28@reddit

No, it isn’t

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tausdigger62@reddit

Y'all forget the sub we are on?

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Sufficient_Turn_9209@reddit

Right? X or millennial? Neither.

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BasketballButt@reddit

Hello fellow class of ‘99 person!

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RedShirtDecoy@reddit

100% Xennial/Gen Y/Oregon Trail generation.

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Addamall@reddit

I don’t see them at all

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rodw@reddit

Mainstream media only deliberately tried to target Gen-X as a demographic for roughly 5 years centered around 1993/94.

Even in the widest interpretation (and counting Gen-X oriented independent filmmakers like Spike Lee, Richard Linklater and Kevin Smith) it started no earlier than 1989 (Heathers, Do the Right Thing, Say Anything) or 1990 (Slacker, Edward Scissorhands) and was over before 1996 (Trainspotting maybe but movie adaptations of Beavis and Butthead and The Kids in the Hall and a short-lived X-Men based Fox TV show named Generation X shows they were out of ideas by then).

As someone more on the Gen-X side of the spectrum Swingers, Romeo + Juliet, Titanic and Scream (all 1996) all feel solidly Xennial/Millennial to me. The 1999 movies in the OP are as Millennial as Home Alone and Toy Story.

There were movies before and after this that Gen-X related to or connected with but Gen-X was only the intended target for that brief window. Office Space (1999) is the only compelling counter example I can think of.

The fact that this roughly coincides with the rise and fall of Grunge as a marketing phenomenon (esp. when you account for corporate inertia) is probably not a coincidence. For a minute there brands thought they'd figured out how to market to a notoriously cynical demographic, but it worked about as well as trying to shoehorn everyone from Smashing Pumpkins to the Cranberries into the grunge category did. Fuck those guys: there's a bigger market and more spend to be had elsewhere anyway.

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Illustrious-Lead-960@reddit

It doesn’t help that some of those movies targeted towards them like “SFW” aren’t particularly good or even well-known.

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rodw@reddit

The tricky thing about marketing to Gen-X at that time is that they were turned off by the slightest whiff of pandering.

Authenticity was their highest value. Yet they looked down on earnest engagement or ambition as embarrassingly, foolishly naive: "poseur", "try-hard" and "sell-out" were considered biting insults.

As soon as they thought you wanted them to like something they were no longer interested.

It's a little different now. Gen-X is starved enough of media attention that they'll flock to representation or validation if it seems organic or genuine enough. E.g. the 2022 Superbowl Halftime Show; the first season of Stranger Things; that one time on SNL when Keenan Thompson said "I’m Gen X. I just sit on the sidelines and watch the world burn"; a handful of modern shows and movies on streaming services that are quietly but unambiguously Gen-X; etc.

But old-people-crave-nostalgia human nature aside, they are still wary of overt attention and targeting. They take genuine delight in being left out of generational comparisons (but someone will usually take the opportunity to call note that they were left out and how they couldn't be more ok with it). And my guess is that if you position something as explicitly for Gen-X many will reject it out of spite

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thewayshesaidLA@reddit

I must have never looked at the Cruel Intentions poster that closely. SMG looks ridiculously hot.

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luxtabula@reddit (OP)

gif

my God you missed some awesome awakening moments

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ominous_squirrel@reddit

I’m sure I’ve seen Cruel Intentions but I don’t remember any of the plot. I think I black out at the kissing scene every time

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LionessOfAzzalle@reddit

It’s a remake of Les Liaisons Dangereuses.

Which was filmed as Dangerous Liaisons with an incredible all star cast.

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luxtabula@reddit (OP)

gif

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thewayshesaidLA@reddit

I saw the movie once a long time ago, but for some reason don’t remember the movie poster. I also worked a lot in high school and missed out in some things

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domigraygan@reddit

She is and was intensely hot. That movie is 90’s fantasy nonsense but in the best way. And has some genuinely great moments.

But she in particular is so fine that it hurts.

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AldusPrime@reddit

I bought it on VHS LOL

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KingdomOfFawg@reddit

10 Things I Hate About You was the biggest thing to hit Tacoma since crystal meth. What a time and place to be alive.

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grayandlizzie@reddit

My 1982 brother was one of the extras in 10 Things I hate About You. He's one of the kids playing in the marching band.

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Iamthegreenheather@reddit

Millennial. I'm the oldest Millennial and all these high school movies came out when I was a sophomore (Romeo + Juliet), Junior (Can't Hardly Wait) and Senior (10 Things I Hate About You, She's All That, Jawbreaker, Never Been Kissed) in high school. I loved it and feel like there's not another time in American movie history that made movies like this at the time, besides the brat pack movies in the 80s. Gen X has movies like Empire Records, Clueless and Dazed and Confused. I love those movies too.

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solissaa@reddit

1999 was peak Y2K vibes, so millennials probably feel that deep nostalgia more than Gen X

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DarkScorpion48@reddit

Actually that date is prime Xennial, because early Gen X would be too old and late Millennials would be too young

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Clockwork-Armadillo@reddit

Xennials and the rest of the Elder Millenials would of been the target audience so you're both right 🤷‍♂️

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bump909@reddit

Technically, it’s both young gen-x and elder millennial.. since that is what actually makes up the unofficial xennial generation.

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Calculusshitteru@reddit

I was born in 1986 and I went to the theater to see 10 Things I Hate About You on my 13th birthday. It's one of my favorite movies ever.

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beenthere7613@reddit

Aww you should see it! I didn't until long after it came out but it was pretty good.

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Irisversicolor@reddit

It's so good and it makes me so nostalgic, it takes me right back to that time. I might give it a rewatch this weekend.

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coffeecatmint@reddit

Yep- in 1999 I was in high school. Am xennial so there’s that.

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DarkBusy3818@reddit

Came to say "Xennial!"

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not-hardly@reddit

Fight Club (1999) had the literal "Generation Next" Pepsi commercial in it. It's all one big point in time.

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CantFindMyWallet@reddit

The intended audience for Fight Club is very obviously not the same intended audience as the one for 10 Things I Hate About You. There were also movies in 1999 that were clearly directed at boomers.

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TheMeIv@reddit

I loved Fight Club when it came out (HS) but obviously didn't personally relate to it as much as the HS comedies starring genx actors playing characters my age. I enjoyed FC way more than all those movies that I kind of dismissed at the time.

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DrButtgerms@reddit

Idk I think I was the audience for both

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NighthawkCP@reddit

Grumpy Old Men? Oh wait, that came out in 1993.

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altiuscitiusfortius@reddit

Gen x was 20 to 35 years old in 1999. Most of them had young kids ny that point. Very few of them would still relate to movies set in early high school.

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

I was 24, married with one kid and she was very pregnant with the second one when we went to see it. I am a big Shakespeare guy and I wanted to see what they did with Taming of the Shrew. It didn't disappoint. In fact, it was better than it had any right to be.

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-piso_mojado-@reddit

Pie fucker was Shakespeare? Who knew…

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potemkinrunner@reddit

They mean 10 Things I Hate About You. Not American Pie

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-piso_mojado-@reddit

Sarcasm is still a thing.

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CantFindMyWallet@reddit

That's not what sarcasm is

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rohm418@reddit

Yeah, man. I think you should just sit this one out.

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-piso_mojado-@reddit

Why? It was a joke.

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CorgiMonsoon@reddit

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-piso_mojado-@reddit

I say this almost daily.

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CorgiMonsoon@reddit

And, in additional defense of your sarcasm, Shakespeare probably would have been thrilled to include a pie fucking joke if he’d thought of it. His plays are filled with crude jokes and insults, even a “yo mamma” joke in Titus Andronicus

Chiron: Thou hast undone our mother.

Aaron: Villain, I have done thy mother.

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-piso_mojado-@reddit

Do you bite, Sir?

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LukeMayeshothand@reddit

Yeah I remember the excitement/craze/ over American Pie and it didn’t make sense to me. I graduated in ‘95 and it was obvious it wasn’t for me.

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Funwithfun14@reddit

That's a pure Xennial movie.

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stealthyliz@reddit

Grad 96, and I loved the movies.

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sdcasurf01@reddit

Well to be fair, all the actors were Gen X.

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Fabulous-South-9551@reddit

Not really! Julia Stiles, Larisa Oleynik and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were all born in 81. Solid xennials. Heath Ledger was 79, not sure what that year falls under.

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Odd-Scarcity5288@reddit

I was born in ‘77, I consider ‘77 ~ ‘83 Zennnials /Oregon Trail Generation.

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sdcasurf01@reddit

I mean it was meant to be tongue-in-cheek. There are also more movies than 10 Things.

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nochickflickmoments@reddit

I'm Gen X and I was 19 when it came out, and I was still watching High School themed movies.

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altiuscitiusfortius@reddit

That's what you like about high school movies... you keep getting older but they stay the same age

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theoneandonly6558@reddit

They'll never accept us, we are only xennials. They forget we exist, we are the Gen Xers of Gen X.

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EntertainmentOk6470@reddit

To old for Millenials to young for Gen X😔

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Dunnersstunner@reddit

We are, but I still feel the powerful urge to mutter "whatever".

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MungoJennie@reddit

“Whatever” is one of those expressions that is more of an attitude than a generation.

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Vintage_Xennial@reddit

💯 this! It’s 10 o’clock, do you know where your children are?!

gif

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nitrot150@reddit

Exactly!!

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Additional_Bus_5381@reddit

if time were a playlist gen x would shuffle us more than them

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TheThrivingest@reddit

10 things I hate about you is peak (elder)millennial. I was in grade 10 or 11 when it came out

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Potential-Celery-999@reddit

Always grouped Empire Records and Dazed and Confused together and thought that was more firmly Gen-X

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Apprehensive-Cat-111@reddit

Well the way I see it, I was in high school in 1999 and I’m an elder millenial so I see them as millenial. But younger millenials probably don’t. So xennial it is.

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Toph_a_loaf@reddit

Early 90s and before is Gen X

Mid to late 90s is Xennial

Anything after Y2K is Millennial

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trusteebill@reddit

Oregon Trail movies.

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sedatedforlife@reddit

I graduated in 1998. That was the year Can’t hardly wait caI know what you did last summer came out in 1997. I would say the target for these 3 movies and the two I mentioned were all xennials, neither true millennial nor gen X.

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

I don't necessarily agree with Empire Records, as I feel it was geared toward "Late X" early twenty-somethings. Much like St. Elmo's Fire was directed more toward Late Boomers than X.

Except every character in Empire Records were basically good people and pretty much every character in St. Elmo's Fire were absolute shit human beings.

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xjazz20x@reddit

Did no one watch Empire Records, Mallrats, the Faculty, Dangerous Minds, Pleasantville, Hackers?

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Irisversicolor@reddit

I worked at mall record stores when I was younger, it was my whole identity and is still one of my favourite jobs I've ever had. It's where I met my husband. Watching Empire Records hurts my heart and makes me want to be young again, it's sooo good.

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Allrojin@reddit

I mean I was the same age as the characters in these movies when they came out, and I'm definitely a millennial. A Xennial.

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

I was the same age as the actors, lol. Still enjoyed the films, but they didn't have that seminal impact on me.

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trilogyjab@reddit

100% Millenial. Gen-X has 16 Candles, Pretty in Pink, etc

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TouristPineapple6123@reddit

Yeah but those movies were coming of age for those born in the mid to late 60s. Arguably, Gen x coming of age could range from Saturday Night Fever, Flashdance and Footloose to Heathers (b. early 70s) and then Reality Bites and Singles. The last of Gen x and early Millennials came of age around Y2K and thus this entire debate or survey

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Hilsam_Adent@reddit

It's weird that there's a distinct divide, yet we (GenX) all lived enough shared experience that we are a cohesive cohort.

Life sped up a lot in the '70s, but then went to light speed in the '80s, so the Gulf between early and late X is relatively mild compared to that between X and Millennial. Both of those generations embraced Nihilism pretty heavily, but with very different interpretations.

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Similar_Sale_5136@reddit

Def not gen x. Like breakfast club gen x.

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CliffGif@reddit

As Gen X - totally Millennial

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ProfessorDull9594@reddit

I’m gen x, and I’d say it’s more millennial. As far as I’m concerned, peak gen x is mid eighties to mid 90’s. I’ve never seen this movie, but I thought American Pie was pretty good.

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wheres_the_revolt@reddit

Millennial.

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LFGhost@reddit

Xennial for sure.

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Kittypie75@reddit

Very Xennial. Gen X is more John Hughes & Reality Bites/Singles/Boyz in tte Hood sort of era.

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ODeasOfYore@reddit

Millennial without question

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eegopa@reddit

10 things I hate about you was filmed at my highschool and a lot of my classmates were extras. I graduated in 2000 (old millennial)

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aceshighsays@reddit

what's the school called?

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eegopa@reddit

Stadium high school

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Lughaidh_@reddit

It’s a beautiful school. I’ve been to Seattle twice, and always make the trip down to Tacoma to see it.

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JustaRoosterJunkie@reddit

Peak Xennial film.

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Cocoonsweater@reddit

I was a jr in 1999 and am peak elder millennial ('83), so I think of them as very millennial bc they were portraying people at the same point in life as I was when they came out.

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Flying-Half-a-Ship@reddit

I was in high school from 99-03 so def millennial

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NostalgicTX@reddit

I dunno. 83’ here and usually line up more with Gen X but definitely start cementing our xennial legacy with the wave of teen from Varsity Blues to Road Trip

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kmetcalf219@reddit

The last of gen x was graduating high school in 98 and 99 so for most of them it's probably too young. It is peak xennial time frame.

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statistacktic@reddit

Xennial, obviously.

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Pugilist12@reddit

These are quintessentially millennial movies.

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FoppyRETURNS@reddit

My wife watched them so, Millennial.

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Tsunamiis@reddit

This movie and the mummy were just huge bisexual duh moments for me.

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QuietNene@reddit

Gonna have to go Millenial on this one.

I was a few years out of high school in 1999, and so felt too cool adult to be all into high school movies when these came out.

Sure, I saw them. And American Pie remains a classic. But I think they were definitely for people a little younger than me.

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KeyEcho5594@reddit

Millennial

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Puffyfugu8@reddit

I would think that Gen X relates more to movies like The Breakfast Club, no?

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RobotVo1ce@reddit

What about the Gen X-ers that graduated around 95? I feel like we got shafted for high school movies, compared to the perceived abundance of them in the mid 80s and late 90s.

So I would say I related more with the late 90s high school movies than the 80s. And movies do tend to be a year or so behind in dialect, trends, etc so it makes sense.

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AdjectiveNoun111@reddit

These are millennial for sure.

I'd chuck in The Craft and Pump up the Volume too.

For me the quintessential Gen X teen vibes are Breakfast Club and basically every other John Hughes movie.

Gen X movies are angsty and self reflective, it's the classic "I don't know what to do with my life" stuff. It's a generational culture struggling to find itself in an emerging post-modern world.

Millennial teen films are much more brash and confident, there's the 90s optimism and a full embrace of the new, post modern is old hat by now and everyone knows how it works.

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owlthebeer97@reddit

Millennial for sure. Gen X would be John Hughes movies, Kevin Smith movies

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loquacious541@reddit

Well this is my gen alpha (15 yo) daughter’s favorite movie, so timeless?

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lexluthor_i_am@reddit

1999 is 100% Millennial. So it's more Xennial than Genx.

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One-Earth9294@reddit

Now that you mention it, I don't think I've ever seen a movie that really feels geared toward class of '98. But then again, I never really paid that much attention to the subgenre of high school films.

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belunos@reddit

We have the likes of Singles, I think we can let these go to your gen

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davwad2@reddit

Millennial over GenX for sure. GenX high school movies are Breakfast Club and Ferris Bueller.

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imcataclastic@reddit

The thing about this flick is it was a fantasy of Seattle that never existed … even when it came out. I mean suspension of disbelief and all and it was a perfectly decent flick but is clearly part of a class propaganda fantasy land ….

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wrathofthewhatever2@reddit

They were smack dab for us. No need to jam them into either bigger generation, they were perfect for us, there hasn’t been an era of movies like that since

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Marvinkmooneyoz@reddit

“10 things” doesn’t have much specific millennial vibes, it’s a gen x sensibility adaption of a Shakespeare. American Pi really had a more definitive 90s humor vibe, the sort that SOME Gen X were hip to, but many millennials were. Clueless is a bit different, while not everyone would get the feel of it, it’s just a story of people that are spoiled and young and think they are smarter/wiser than they are. Amy is a visionary, but that movie really should appeal to anyone willing to give it a few repeat viewings, if the specific slang and dress and soundtrack decisions throw them off.

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slowfocus2020@reddit

I was in high school when when these came out. So I guess, millenial?

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SilentDrapeRunner11@reddit

All those films came out when I was in high school and I'm an older millennial, so I'll say millennial.

Movies of that sort that I associate with Gen X are Heathers, Say Anything, Clerks, Pump Up The Volume, Reality Bites, SubUrbia, and even Empire Records.

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whateversiguess@reddit

millennial

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asanissimasa@reddit

Went to see this for my 15th birthday. Instant crush on Heath Ledger 💔

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AdComprehensive7939@reddit

My friends and I were obsessed with Dazed and Confused, which is probably more Gen X but that was one of our flicks. We were all pretty obsessed with the 60s-80s. Could xennials be the gen most influenced by prior gen media, due to the range of cable TV and video stores?

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Bratisme1121@reddit

The American Pie 2 soundtrack is still one of my top 5

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doorman666@reddit

Millennial

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CaptZombieHero@reddit

I see theme more as entertainment

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Big-Peak6191@reddit

1999 millennial

American Pie 100% millennial

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johnonymous1973@reddit

Millennial.

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Avg_Sun_Enjoyer69@reddit

Millennial wasn't a term in 1999.

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WhatTheCluck802@reddit

Millenial. Xers were out of high school by then.

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DirtRight9309@reddit

if you graduated in 1999, Dazed and Confused was the only High School movie you watched/quoted/emulated. Movies about our generation were for millennials.

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SteakJones@reddit

Yes.

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therealpopkiller@reddit

I graduated in 97 so they’ve always been millennial for me

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wickedwing@reddit

I was 25 in 1999 and enjoyed all of these.

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Happy-Shake-926@reddit

Xennial

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Sdog1981@reddit

Gen X was reality bites 1994. If you were in high school in 1999 you are a millennial.

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ketamineburner@reddit

Im an old millenial who thought I was X until very recently.

I graduated the year those movies came out.

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Bob-Dolemite@reddit

this was a xennial film. it has both millenial and gen x

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Joeva8me@reddit

Do me dirty all you want, I haven’t seen any of these movies as an ‘81. I was hyper focused on catching trim and didn’t have money to take gals to the cinema. We would make our own little romance novels, sometimes very pg-13.

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Asleep_Onion@reddit

Those movies are squarely in the xennial category.

Gen X had their own category of high school films. We know the all the ones... 16 candles, breakfast club, Heathers, and so on. We saw those movies too, but usually not until years after they came out.

Our movies were all those 1997-2000 high school flicks.

Then Not Another Teen Movie came out in 2001 and completely killed off the genre before younger Millennials ever got a chance have their own high school movies.

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snotparty@reddit

well millennials were the ones in high school in 1999, so Millennials? Gen X had their own teen movies earlier

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BigDaddyUKW@reddit

I graduated in 99, so most high school movies slapped. American Pie being the pinnacle of that for me for obvious reasons.

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dragonslippers34@reddit

Dangerous Liaisons > Cruel Intentions

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theoneandonly6558@reddit

The last Gen X class graduated high school in 1998 (born 1980). Solidly Xennial movies, but if I had to choose I'd say Millennial.

If we were going for the Gen X side of Xennial I'd go with Clueless, I know what you did last summer, and maybe Dazed and Confused? Even though it portrayed the 70s you would often hear in mid-nineties high school hallways "I keep getting older but they stay the same age". In retrospect one of the grosser lines in the movie.

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kristosnikos@reddit

Mostly millennials especially elder and core. But I’m sure the youngest of Gen X related to them.

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Easy_Independent_313@reddit

I graduated in 96. I feel like I was the last of the gen x to graduate. 99 high school would have been millennial. Or, xennial.

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Own-Balance-8133@reddit

Millennial for sure

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bangobot46@reddit

This is core xennial. I can't even place it elsewhere.

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gummi-demilo@reddit

They aren’t Gen X. I’m a millennial and I graduated in 2000. My solidly Gen X cousins are 7 and 9 years older respectively

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R0botDreamz@reddit

Didn't Millennials have cellphones in high school?

I think these movies hit more on the Gen-X side while the Judd Apatow movies like Super Bad are more Millennial.

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YogurtclosetDull2380@reddit

I didn't have enough in my trust fund to give a shit. American pie was funny though

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_Internet_Hugs_@reddit

I am a 1980 kid, so I am the oldest Millenial and I graduated in 1998. 10 Things I Hate About You was VERY similar to my high school experience. Can't Hardly Wait and Never Been Kissed are also high school nostalgic for me.

My husband was born in 1976 and he feels like the 80s movies were closer to his. He wasn't as social as I was though, so he never experienced the parties or sports stuff.

My cousin born in late 1977 doesn't identify with either. She loves the John Hughes movies, but she was young when they came out. So the nostalgia is more for childhood rather than reminding her of high school.

So I definitely think the high school movies from about 1995 (Clueless) to about 2004 (Napoleon Dynamite) are Millenial coded.

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most_triumphant_yeah@reddit

Recently rewatched Saved with Macaulay culkin and Mandy Moore, and it still holds up. Securely millennial.

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AMugOfPeppermintTea@reddit

I graduated 1999 so I see them as Millennial rather than Gen X. I feel like that they don't quite have the same overall attitude and outlook that Gen X films about highs schoolers did.

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macrocosm93@reddit

Xennial

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AdevilSboyU@reddit

Gen X for sure. We were just a little young.

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ames6254@reddit

I say X because 99% of the actors are Gen X.

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CanaryConsistent932@reddit

Xennial. Also, who knocked up your sister?

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MolassesConstant2256@reddit

I graduated in 1999 and I believe our high school flick was American Pie. Very early Millennial and very late Gen X combo.

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ames6254@reddit

She's All That, Varsity Blues, 10 Things I Hate About You, and Never Been Kissed all came out senior year (class of 99).

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nochumplovesucka__@reddit

Thats literally an xennial.

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MolassesConstant2256@reddit

Oh is it?

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Weird_Squirrel_8382@reddit

Millennial because it's on my niece's list of "romcoms from the auntie era"

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segacs2@reddit

I'd say it's more millennial. I graduated high school in 1997 so most of those movies landed while I was in college.

I think the distinction for me is also easy to see in the tone of the movie. I associate the really upbeat, oversaturated, everyone looks like a movie star and has the perfect quippy dialogue shows and movies with the early millennial era. Whereas our GenX/Xennial stuff felt less produced... The kids looked like awkward teenagers, they stumbled in their dialogue and said "um" and uhhh" a lot, the shows looked more grunge in tone and style, the colour saturation was lower. Think My So Called Life vs, say, Dawson's Creek or The OC or Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Or films like Reality Bites and Singles vs, say, American Pie. Even Clueless, which came out in 1995, felt like an over-the-top spoof rather than a relatable high school film. I could never relate to high school movies where everyone looked and sounded unrealistically self-possessed.

So while I absolutely loved 10 Things when it came out (and I had a giant crush on Heath Ledger when I was 19), it never felt like a high school film to me. Mostly because no high school in my experience was anything remotely like that. It was a fun movie, but it was more of a millennial cultural thing.

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Annhl8rX@reddit

I think it’s largely both. The movies were being made BY (and largely starred) Gen-X folk, and were made FOR millennials.

They probably appeal to the millennial (and xennial) crowd more, but a lot of them have a Gen-X tone.

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tomj1404@reddit

No, that’s why we’re all here

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desertdweller2011@reddit

elder millennial, but definitely millennial.

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NicolasNaranja@reddit

Those were Xennial movies. My older brothers and cousins were all 70s kids and they didn’t watch these. The 80s John Hughes movies es were their deal.

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three-one-seven@reddit

I'm a 1984 kid and I always identified more as a Millennial than Gen-X. To me these are all Millennial coming-of-age movies and I loved them all (and had it bad for Julia Stiles, Tara Reid, Shannon Elizabeth, Reese Witherspoon, and above all, Sarah Michelle Gellar).

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MardelMare@reddit

Gen Us!!!

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fakeprofile111@reddit

I was well out of high school and I’m in the tail end of gen x so I’d say more millennial

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this_knee@reddit

“Why so sssseriousss?”

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Norwester77@reddit

The beauty of this sub is that we don’t have to choose between those two!

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luxtabula@reddit (OP)

gif

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