Author: Peter Hanson Publisher: McFarland ISBN: 0786480785 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 232
Book Description
When Steven Soderbergh exploded onto movie screens with sex, lies, and videotape in 1989, it represented more than the arrival of an important new director--it heralded the arrival of an entire generation of important new directors. Quentin Tarantino (Pulp Fiction), Kevin Smith (Dogma), David Fincher (Fight Club), M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Ben Stiller (Reality Bites), Michael Bay (Pearl Harbor), and dozens of others are all members of Generation X, the much talked about but much misunderstood successors to baby boomers. This book is a critical study of the films directed by Gen Xers and how those directors have been influenced by their generational identity. While Generation X as a whole sometimes seems to lack direction, its filmmakers have devoted their careers to making powerful statements about contemporary society and their generation's role in it. Each section of the book deals with an aspect of Gen X filmmaking, including the influence of popular culture, postmodern narrative devices, "slackerdom" and the lack of direction, disenfranchisement and nihilism, the ever-evolving role of technology, gender issues and sexuality, the question of race, the influence of older filmmakers, and visions of the future.
Author: Dr Christina Lee Publisher: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. ISBN: 1409492176 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 248
Book Description
Screening Generation X: The Politics and Popular Memory of Youth in Contemporary Cinema examines popular representations of Generation X in American and British film. In arguing that the various constructions of youth are marked by major cultural shifts and societal inequalities, it analyzes the iconic 'Gen X' figures ranging from the slacker, the teenage time traveller, and third wave feminists, to the oeuvre of Molly Ringwald and Richard Linklater. This book explores the important cultural work performed by films that mediate the experiences of Generation X and critiques the ongoing marginalization of the youth who struggle to find their identity and a voice in increasingly unstable times. Specific analyses of such films as Pump Up the Volume, The Breakfast Club, Heathers, Donnie Darko and Waking Life are used to illustrate the research.
Author: John McAllister Ulrich Publisher: Popular Press ISBN: 9780879728625 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 324
Book Description
Resituating the term in its neglected (sub)cultural context, this work offers a critical assessment of the 'Generation X' phenomenon and its relation to the fashioning of different identities within and against the mainstream. Topics include punk subculture, the Internet, and alternative music.
Author: Christina Lee Publisher: Ashgate Publishing Company ISBN: 9780754649731 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 184
Book Description
Screening Generation X: The Politics and Popular Memory of Youth in Contemporary Cinema examines popular representations of Generation X in American and British film. In arguing that the various constructions of youth are marked by major cultural shifts and societal inequalities, it analyzes the iconic 'Gen X' figures ranging from the slacker, the teenage time traveller, and third wave feminists, to the oeuvre of Molly Ringwald and Richard Linklater. This book explores the important cultural work performed by films that mediate the experiences of Generation X and critiques the ongoing marginalization of the youth who struggle to find their identity and a voice in increasingly unstable times.
Author: Melissa Vosen Callens Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi ISBN: 1496832434 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 110
Book Description
Even for the casual viewer, the Netflix series Stranger Things will likely feel familiar, reminiscent of popular 1980s coming-of-age movies such as The Goonies, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, and Stand by Me. Throughout the series, nods to each movie are abundant. While Stranger Things and these classic 1980s films are all tales of childhood friendship and shared adventures, they are also narratives that reflect and shape the burgeoning cynicism of the 1980s. In Ode to Gen X: Institutional Cynicism in "Stranger Things" and 1980s Film, author Melissa Vosen Callens explores the parallels between iconic films featuring children and teenagers and the first three seasons of Stranger Things, a series about a group of young friends set in 1980s Indiana. The text moves beyond the (at times) non-sequitur 1980s Easter eggs to a common underlying narrative: Generation X’s growing distrust in American institutions. Despite Gen X’s cynicism toward both informal and formal institutions, viewers also see a more positive characteristic of Gen X in these films and series: Gen X’s fierce independence and ability to rebuild and redefine the family unit despite continued economic hardships. Vosen Callens demonstrates how Stranger Things draws on popular 1980s popular culture to pay tribute to Gen X’s evolving outlook on three key and interwoven American institutions: family, economy, and government.
Author: Timothy Shary Publisher: University of Texas Press ISBN: 9780292774902 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 352
Book Description
When teenagers began hanging out at the mall in the early 1980s, the movies followed. Multiplex theaters offered teens a wide array of perspectives on the coming-of-age experience, as well as an escape into the alternative worlds of science fiction and horror. Youth films remained a popular and profitable genre through the 1990s, offering teens a place to reflect on their evolving identities from adolescence to adulthood while simultaneously shaping and maintaining those identities. Drawing examples from hundreds of popular and lesser-known youth-themed films, Timothy Shary here offers a comprehensive examination of the representation of teenagers in American cinema in the 1980s and 1990s. He focuses on five subgenres—school, delinquency, horror, science, and romance/sexuality—to explore how they represent teens and their concerns, how these representations change over time, and how youth movies both mirror and shape societal expectations and fears about teen identities and roles. He concludes that while some teen films continue to exploit various notions of youth sexuality and violence, most teen films of the past generation have shown an increasing diversity of adolescent experiences and have been sympathetic to the particular challenges that teens face.
Author: Mark O'Connell Publisher: The History Press ISBN: 0750986158 Category : Biography & Autobiography Languages : en Pages : 375
Book Description
Mark O'Connell didn't want to be Luke Skywalker, He wanted to be one of the mop-haired kids on the Star Wars toy commercials. And he would have done it had his parents had better pine furniture and a condo in California. Star Wars, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Superman didn't just change cinema – they made lasting highways into our childhoods, toy boxes and video stores like never before. In Watching Skies, O'Connell pilots a gilded X-Wing flight through that shared universe of bedroom remakes of Return of the Jedi, close encounters with Christopher Reeve, sticker album swaps, the trauma of losing an entire Stars Wars figure collection and honeymooning on Amity Island. From the author of Catching Bullets – Memoirs of a Bond Fan, Watching Skies is a timely hologram from all our memory systems. It is about how George Lucas, Steven Spielberg, a shark, two motherships, some gremlins, ghostbusters and a man of steel jumper a whole generation to hyperspace.
Author: Paul W. Kahn Publisher: Columbia University Press ISBN: 023153602X Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 254
Book Description
Academic philosophy may have lost its audience, but the traditional subjects of philosophy—love, death, justice, knowledge, and faith—remain as compelling as ever. To reach a new generation, Paul W. Kahn argues that philosophy must take up these fundamental concerns as we find them in contemporary culture. He demonstrates how this can be achieved through a turn to popular film. Discussing such well-known movies as Forrest Gump (1994), The American President (1995), The Matrix (1999), Memento (2000), The History of Violence (2005), Gran Torino (2008), The Dark Knight (2008), The Road (2009), and Avatar (2009), Kahn explores powerful archetypes and their hold on us. His inquiry proceeds in two parts. First, he uses film to explore the nature of action and interpretation, arguing that narrative is the critical concept for understanding both. Second, he explores the narratives of politics, family, and faith as they appear in popular films. Engaging with genres as diverse as romantic comedy, slasher film, and pornography, Kahn explores the social imaginary through which we create and maintain a meaningful world. He finds in popular films a new setting for a philosophical inquiry into the timeless themes of sacrifice, innocence, rebirth, law, and love.
Author: Richard Linklater Publisher: Macmillan ISBN: 9780312077976 Category : Performing Arts Languages : en Pages : 164
Book Description
The movie Slacker unfolds during a 24-hour period in Austin, Texas, in which hundreds of characters wander about in a timeless entropy, working hard at doing nothing. Now, to coincide with the national video release of this cult classic, a book that is a ricochet of the movie and the phenomenon. Includes a foreword by bestselling author Douglas Coupland. Illustrated.
Author: Peter Hanson
Author: Dr Christina Lee
Author: John McAllister Ulrich
Author: Christina Lee
Author: Melissa Vosen Callens
Author: Douglas Coupland
Author: Timothy Shary
Author: Mark O'Connell
Author: Paul W. Kahn
Author: Richard Linklater