What is the iconic movie of the '00s?

I don't mean a movie that is merely "of its time" but one that embodies -- in a necessarily reductive way -- what the first decade of the 21st century connotes in the popular imagination.

For example, for previous decades, I'd posit Saturday Night Fever (70s), The Breakfast Club (80s), and Reality Bites (90s). (It occurs to me that youth culture/music is a key element in all of these.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbwjfe5BbGc

The Departed makes use of the Patriot Act and texting, but I don't know.

I thought 27th Hour was really early 00s when I saw it a few years ago, and not just because of all the Ground Zero references.

The Departed makes use of the Patriot Act and texting, but I don't know.

See, I feel like this makes it a movie "of its time," but not one that screams "lol '00s."

The one I keep coming back to is Juno.

Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle

Snakes on a Train!

if ever a thread needed imagebombing

the matrix? all the stars are from the 80s and 90s, but bullet time is forever 00s.

The Social Network could be remembered as such, despite the 2010 problem.

transformers :(

I'd wanna say something along the lines of Ghost World or Eternal Sunshine or Lost In Translation, but none of those seem quite right in terms of capturing anything particularly zeitgeist-y. I looked through the list of highest grossing movies of the '00s for something resembling a pivotal shared film experience and there's almost nothing that isn't sci-fi/action/fantasy.

So I'll just go with Crash.

Reality Bites is more 'lol 90s' than 'iconic 90s movie,' it's 00s equivalent is probably Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist

a lot of stuff iconically 90s seems 'lol 90s' Hackers, Singles, Swingers...

actually Pulp Fiction may be the ultimate 90s movie

re: pulp fiction, it's telling that its star and soundtrack are iconic some other decade.

if you follow the trail of nostalgia, the extrapolated iconic 00s movie would be Breakfast Club: Special Edition with CGI Jar Jar Binks, with Joy Division doing the title theme.

I have a feeling like the social network will be pretty hard to follow for a 15 y/o kid watching it in 2030

as far as 00s... depends if it should reflect a wider experience or just 00s hip

for the latter I'd probably go with a Wes Anderson flick?... as kind of the blueprint for the aesthetic of 00s 'indie genre films', as well as really nailing the aesthetic of 00s indie/hip in general. Royal Tenenbaums maybe. Where the Wild Things Are failed as a film, but I think it really summed up the aesthetic/zeitgeist of mid-late-aughts indie as well - somewhere between Arcade Fire and AC

Philip - true, and that's very 90s (and maybe even more 00s, which is partly why I went with the very retro-looking Royal Tenenbaums)

a lot of stuff iconically 90s seems 'lol 90s' Hackers, Singles, Swingers...

actually Pulp Fiction may be the ultimate 90s movie

― Chris S, Saturday, April 21, 2012 2:38 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark

i'd say Clueless is a better fit for 'has the stench of 90s all over it but we're laughing with it, not at it' as opposed to Hackers or Reality Bites

Yeah, I was thinking maybe Royal Tenenbaums, except that it's so hermetically sealed off from any particular reference to the popular culture of its decade that it's almost the opposite of what I'd consider an iconic '00s movie.

There's also Mean Girls. Concerns youth culture, is still heavily quoted... maybe lacks defining scenes.

I can answer that question for the '70s, but not for the '00s, other than to say it would probably be a film with some connection to Bush II and/or CGI.

wall-e

Superbad maybe?

I dunno. I realized recently that I have no real concept of the '00s as a decade in the way that I have pretty firm concept of pretty much every decade of the 20th Century. I don't know if it's just that we're too close to it still to have any real perspective on it or if there really was less of a unifying cultural thread than in decades past. I mean, yeah, Dubya and 9/11 are kinda the looming spectre of the decade in America, but I don't have a firm grasp on how that figures into pop culture. It isn't as clear to me as Reagan and Thatcher's influence on '80s pop culture, f'rinstance.

yeah, was just going to mention that. is there anything that could be said to be capturing a post-911 feeling, or can be said to be a product of it?

and yeah, defining the mass-culture vibe music-wise is tricky... there's post-Britney pop, rnb, crunk, post-grunge, emo

Donnie Darko kind of tapped into the emo/Hot Topic zeitgeist I guess - although again - and maybe it's fitting (not for emo but for the 00s) - it refers back to another era

I thought No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood closed out the Bush years perfectly--not sure I can explain why without sounding corny--but I don't know if they speak to the decade in any larger sense.

One of the Fast and the Furious films. Probably the first one.

I can answer that question for the '70s, but not for the '00s, other than to say it would probably be a film with some connection to Bush II and/or CGI.

I hear what you're saying, and I'd be perfectly fine with Harold & Kumar Escape from Gauntanamo as well.

how about just a movie that gives a sense of a bloated, out-of-control capitalism heading over a cliff? just looking at the production value of something like Transformers (which someone mentioned already I think), or even its imagery... these massive, idiotic, grossly over-budgeted, catch-phrase spouting, shifting, industrial war machine abominations smashing into each other and crushing cities. I mean, films like that are still being made but there's kind of this sense now of it being made by and for people living in denial of the state of things maybe

as food for thought, here are the highest grossing movies/franchises of 2000-2009 that were not sequels or adaptations of something already well known by the end of the 20th century: Avatar, the Shrek movies, the Harry Potter movies, Finding Nemo, Up, the Twilight movies, Inception, the Meet The Parents/Fockers movies, The Hangover, The Incredibles, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Cast Away, Signs, Hancock, the Bourne movies, Wall-E, the National Treasure movies, How To Train Your Dragon, The Da Vinci Code, Kung Fu Panda, 300, The Fast And The Furious movies, Wedding Crashers, Ratatouille, The Mummy movies....

some of those debatable as far as the 20th century caveat goes, but whatever, you get the idea

lol what a decade

As far as America's collective dream-life in the 2000s, Hostel and Hostel: Part II.

It goes w/out saying we're talking American, mainstream and mersh, right?

War of the Worlds

or Munich

if not, what would it be? Cache?

War of the Worlds. I like the Transformers argument as well.

though if we're totally honest, it would probably be Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.

War Of The Worlds isn't even as iconic as its promotional junket

Yeah, Harry Potter not entirely unknown in 1999. Bourne as well, but that is more of a niche.

Also there is to be a fair a distinction between "reflects the times" and "reflects what people went to see" - Reality Bites did well, but got about 5% of The Lion King's gross in 1994.

actually Bourne films probably pretty good.

I think this question would best be answered by somebody in his/her 20s or 30s. When I thought about my No Country/There Will Be Blood answer, I realized that that's exactly the kind of answer you'd expect from a 50-year-old whose frame of reference is Nashville-era films. The people who are suggesting the likes of Harold & Kumar, The Hangover, Wall-E, etc. are undoubtedly in sync with the past decade in ways that go right past me. (Not meant as a Morbius-like dismissal, just an acknowledgement that I have only an intermittent connection with the zeitgeist or whatever you want to call it these days.)

How is Transformers different from Armageddon or Independence Day? Also in what way would it not work if it was set in, say, 1986?

Haha Christ is it Cloverfield?

I think there is a difference between 'iconic' in a 'wow that's a really good representation of life in that era*' and iconic as 'that film was thematically on board w/ bigger issues of that period'. like breakfast club vs wall street.

*for young white people

so 8 Mile in both cases

I'm sort taking it as "Lazy sitcoms of 2030 will use 'you look like you stepped off the set of _______' as a way to signify 'you look very 00s'"

Also yeah iatee completely otm regarding we are being asked to guess who will have 'won' the 00s, there were lots of other 70s/80s/90s.

trying to get a grasp on the 00s... so maybe 911, Paris Hilton, Reality TV, Internet 2.0, mega-Capitalism/pre-recession/bubble, Crunk, Post-Grunge, autotune, Emo/Scene/Mall-__, meme culture, Napster/file-sharing, digitalization, movie/tv remakes, teenpop, RnB, country, American Idol, and a growing awareness of/argument around hipsters/'indie' culture...

oh yeah, and 'metrosexual'

there's probably a Scary Movie sequel that covers most of those bases for you

Lil Jon sticks head out of Paris Hilton's vagina, screams YEAH

No, hold up, I got this:

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTc5NjA0MjM3Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTIwOTkwNQ@@._V1._SY317_CR5,0,214,317_.jpg

Bah

http://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV5BMTc5NjA0MjM3Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTcwMTIwOTkwNQ@@._V1._SY317_CR5%2C0%2C214%2C317_.jpg

What sprang to my mind on reading the title befor I'd got the thread open was Avatar.

Knocked Up maybe. Or Remember Me (though it's 2010).

Oh, who are we kidding. It's Twilight.

Lil Jon sticks head out of Paris Hilton's vagina, screams YEAH

― some dude, Saturday, April 21, 2012 12:48 PM (20 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

think we have a winner

wall-e

― iatee, Saturday, April 21, 2012 11:56 AM (52 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Upon reflection, I think it might be really telling that the task of ferreting out a clearly iconic, low-key iconic comedy/drama film of the '00s is nigh-insurmountable given the huge number of big, dumb, and loud action movies that infiltrated the popular consciousness of the decade.

Avatar is interesting to me because despite being THE BIGGEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME it feels like kind of a lower-mid sized on the pop culture icon radar, like everyone vaguely remembers there were big blue people hahaha but it doesn't actually come up as a reference much since like 3 months after it left theaters

Team America?

Paul Haggis is reading this thread and crying.

apparently there was a movie called Remember Me, which was not aptly named

If you want to know why Transformers wouldn't work in 1986, watch Super 8.

Visually the Transformers films are basically impressive feats in CGI (and, to give Bay credit, shot composition) but have no understanding of editing, sense, or narrative cohesion. The encapsulation of Chaos Cinema, which is much more advanced than even Armageddon's nonsensical style and far more Head-Crushing than Independence Day (which relied a lot on models, which seems so quaint now).

It's also an update of that Spielbergian/80s boy-and-his-alien/robot story, only now the boy is an entitled, annoying late-teenager who complains about the car his father buys for him, and finds something to complain about constantly from there on out (there's a scene where he's riding a bike and its played for lols). Instead of using his alien/robot to understand something about himself, he just defines all of his importance by his association with those aliens (it's also how he wins the girl). Speaking of girls, every female is presented as though she were on a Maxim shoot - all fetishized hotness and cold, sleek machines.

Also you have the gung-ho, hoor-ah military-industrial complex glorifying, and the first two films feature bad-ass but NOBLE American Soldiers kicking ass in the Middle East while making nice with the locals, who love them and the fact that they are there.

So soulless consumerism replaces more traditional heroic virtues, all of which is wholly inconsequential because the entire purpose of these films is bash the audience over the head with SPECTACLE and OH SHIT AWESOMENESS.

Not to mention that this is based on a toy, and its sequel was basically rushed into production and filmed without a finished script. 00s was defined by sequels and genreal studio cowardice when it came to backing original properties.

As far as America's collective dream-life in the 2000s, Hostel and Hostel: Part II.

― caro's johnson (Eazy), Saturday, April 21, 2012 2:18 PM (34 minutes ago)

^^^ One of the Saw or Hostel movies was my first thought.

Looking back in a decade or so, Idiocracy may stand out as iconic of the decade. Although obviously not exactly part of the popular consciousness of the time.

'gerry' or 'brand upon the brain!'

In a decade or so, even Mike Judge isn't going to be able to remember Idiocracy.

Harold and Kumar Go to Whitecastle

this is the correct answer.

'borne movies' is also the correct answer.

is there any '00s movie star who's as iconic of their decade as Travolta for the 70s or, like, Brad Pitt for the '90s? Mean Girls prob gets points for being a time capsule of Lohan as star-not-trainwreck

Double bill of Traffic / Ocean's Eleven?

The iconic movie of the popular imagination isn't going to be one whose crappiness reflects the currently perceived crappiness of the decade - it's going to be one that we nostalgize over, which is why it's connected with youth.

The iconic movie of the popular imagination isn't going to be one whose crappiness reflects the currently perceived crappiness of the decade - it's going to be one that we nostalgize over, which is why it's connected with youth.

― Träumerei, Saturday, April 21, 2012 1:01 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

then... LOTR or Spirited Away?

Oh Bring It On then.

Actually yeah, the question's wrong, and the answer's Buffy.

i dunno. lots of 'iconic' movies of the 80s feature some lol80s aesthetics that i think people define with the decade more than the quality of the film. xpost

the question is wrong and the answer is the youtube clip 'the evolution of dance'

also surely 00s is the decade that saw the death of the Big Star who can carry any movie. Ocean's films feel like a throwback because of their starpower.

http://www.entertainmentwallpaper.com/images/desktops/movie/448.jpg

what are like the 00s equivalents of Labyrinth, Princess Bride, Goonies, Ferris Bueler etc, nostalgia/cult-wise

I'm sort taking it as "Lazy sitcoms of 2030 will use 'you look like you stepped off the set of _______' as a way to signify 'you look very 00s'"

So, Napoleon Dynamite.

in 2030 we'll always be watching a 4 minute video out of the corner of our google glasses and we'll be asking "wtf is a moovee?"

that fits the pattern jaymc set more than most itt xp

The Hangover kinda feels like it could fit the bill.

I'm finding it way easier to think of iconic '00s TV shows (Lost, The Wire, The Sopranos, 24, any number or reality shows (ugh)) than movies.

I'm sort taking it as "Lazy sitcoms of 2030 will use 'you look like you stepped off the set of _______' as a way to signify 'you look very 00s'"

So, Napoleon Dynamite.

― Andrew Farrell, Saturday, April 21, 2012 1:11 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yeah, I'm kind of thinking that 00s mass culture was so generic that people are more likely going to look to hipster culture for 00s cues - so yeah Napoleon Dynamite and Royal Tenenbaums

for the time being I'm still thinking my answer would probably be Transformers on one pole, Royal Tenenbaums on the other

I'm finding it way easier to think of iconic '00s TV shows (Lost, The Wire, The Sopranos, 24, any number or reality shows (ugh)) than movies.

surely because of content and production methods this would be the case for any decade?

would it be cheating to say Hannah Montana The Movie or The Lizzie McGuire Movie?

Can we not just settle on this question meaning "what is the lol 00s movie?"?

Prolly something with dancing like Step Up or Stomp The Yard or Stick It or Come At Me, Bro.

'lol 00s': 300

Allowing for historical movies. Actually, I withdraw it.

doesn't fit the criteria of this thread, but Children of Men was a very 00s movie from a gloomy perspective

little miss sunshine might be aiming for this, idk

but looking at youth culture, yeah juno or superbad or maybe scott pilgrim

The most iconic movie of the '00s is probably whichever remake was the most unnecessary and perfunctory and yet still hugely popular. Actually, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies kinda fit that bill in a way, inasmuch as it marked the point when the remake/adaptation virus devolved to the point of adapting amusement park rides (a devolution which continues with the upcoming slew of films based on Milton Bradley board games and then, one assumes, different varieties of soft drinks).

inception, the dark knight?

The Hostels have both lolbros and lol-technology and the big xenophobia.

but looking at youth culture, yeah juno or superbad or maybe scott pilgrim

― diafiyhm (darraghmac), Saturday, April 21, 2012 4:40 PM (9 minutes ago) Bookmark

or youth in revolt, or year one, or paper heart

Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants will surely be a campus staple in the late 2010s.

Superbad/Hangover/Knocked Up

I think comedies have a larger effect on mass culture than other genres

Anchorman kinda fits. Although, again, it pretty heavily references a different time period. Nostalgia is fairly prevalent in '00s (and '10s) culture, though.

My personal answer for this is STEALTH because the ridic intelligent plane is suddenly "downloading all the music on the entire net!" Or maybe Fast & The Furious first for similar reasons, remember the VW dude was famed for being able to "find out anything about anyone on the internet."

At least we have the '10s one settled early:

http://youtu.be/gdamC7jUrjs

Fast and the Furious probably represents a specific 00s culture better than anything else. Also its very racially progressive.

Thought Mean Girls was a good suggestion, too.

'10s is surely FRED: THE MOVIE

Dammit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdamC7jUrjs

Taken features an American shooting a bunch of foreigners to save the virtue of a white woman. but maybe that's timeless.

I really love all the Fast & the Furious movies! I was defs having some p disgusting 10 years ago nostalgia the other night after too much wine, watching Missy and Luda clips on vid, wishing I had a copy of 2 Fast 2 Furious.

yeah was thinking Fast & The Furious would be a good one too, esp for the first half of the decade xxxp

ohmigod that step up trailer

They missed a trick by calling it Step Up Revolution instead of Occupy Step Up.

that trailer is sooo cheeeesy

so bascially 00s was performance art and 10s is protest art.

or Dance Dance Revolution: The Movie xxp

Brokeback Mountain

http://www.filmcheck.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/southland-tales-movie.jpg

otm

Scott Pilgrim is a good suggestion, pop zeitgeist wise. After all, this was the decade video gaming really became a big, mainstream thing and it kinda reflects that.

well, not in box office but yeah

So actually in that line of thinking perhaps the answer should be some Uwe Boll POS. ha.

i accidentally domed your son, of course

The most iconic movie of the '00s is probably whichever remake was the most unnecessary and perfunctory and yet still hugely popular. Actually, the Pirates of the Caribbean movies kinda fit that bill in a way, inasmuch as it marked the point when the remake/adaptation virus devolved to the point of adapting amusement park rides (a devolution which continues with the upcoming slew of films based on Milton Bradley board games and then, one assumes, different varieties of soft drinks).

Now hold on just a dad-blamed minute there. Are you really suggesting in good conscience that a film based around AriZona Iced Teas is a bad thing?

*starts work on four loko: the movie*

haha

basically the '00's for me are one huge blur of Paris Hilton, electroclash and four loko

obv answer that fits jaymc's first post is Napoleon Dynamite

Yeah, but there's nothing very musically zeitgeist-y about Napoleon Dynamite. Although I have trouble thinking of a single movie from the '00s with a soundtrack that stands out in the iconic way that, say, easily a dozen '80s movie soundtracks did.

(Witness a flood of examples of iconic '00s soundtracks in 3...2...)

napolean dynamite is super musically zeitgeisty, the biggest band of the 00s stole their look from the movie

arctic monkeys?

Oh my gosh, that's who Chris Martin looks like! I can't believe I never saw it before!

It's like a Magic Eye picture. Totally kicking myself now.

Although I have trouble thinking of a single movie from the '00s with a soundtrack that stands out in the iconic way that, say, easily a dozen '80s movie soundtracks did.

See this is where Philip Nunez's suggestion of sneaking in The Matrix works...

Zeitgeisty by fiat: High School Musical.

But yeah I don't think music in film works the same way as it used to, though I couldn't say why right now.

hmpf u know the right answer 2 this is prob Borat

But yeah I don't think music in film works the same way as it used to, though I couldn't say why right now.

As with so much else, the short answer is "the internet."

I hate to say it. Garden state.

yeah trying to think of a movie that was known for its soundtrack or a particular (new) song, and all I can think of is maybe Garden State with that Shins song

as far as something more pop, eh maybe Fast and the Furious w a Ludacris song or something?

I dunno, maybe the 00s are an unusual case, because as open-minded as you want to be, pop culture from the Hilton/reality tv era may have been so lame/embarassing/insubstantial/moronic/derivative that what mattered really wasn't at the center, and looking there could be missing the point... (I like Ludacris, but the bloated crossover dreck the film industry produced for the pop audience in the 00s seems to be the kind of bloated trash you can only enjoy in the way that you might enjoy a big budget Nic Cage flick. hard to say still, but I think that the 80s were maybe just objectively better at making loveable pop movies)

Less Than Zero (80s)
Fear (90s)
Havoc (00s)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Souw6eHCruU

hmpf u know the right answer 2 this is prob Borat

― johnny crunch, Saturday, April 21, 2012 6:35 PM (2 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

oh man Havoc is terrible

Is Havoc JGL?

OK wait Barbara Kopple of Harlan County USA fame directed a remake of Thirteen starring Anne Hathaway as Evan Rachel Wood?

By the screenwriter of Traffic??

Channing Tatum AND Laura San Giacomo? What?

Does Havoc get all Crazy/Beautiful at any point?

I think this question is difficult because there are a shitload of movies from the 00s that are actually consciously reaching for iconic status, if not in a Saturday Night Fever way then certainly in a Breakfast Club/Ferris Bueller's day off way. Donnie Darko being probably the most obvious example. There are also films like Superbad that have an iconic character but aren't necessarily iconic in their own right.

This is excluding the massive blockbuster action adventure films because it clearly isn't one of those.

Napoleon Dynamite is a pretty good call actually. If there's any one cinematic or socio-cultural narrative I'd use to sum up the 00s it's 'geeks inherit the earth'.

Juno is a good nom for 'modern zeitgeisty soundtrack. I went to see my friend's high school students perform music and short plays at a downtown street fair on Friday. That anemic little Moldy Peaches song from Juno came on between plays and EVERY SINGLE KID sang along with it really loudly. I thought, oh shit, it's a generation anthem (surprising to me since the song sounds like it's embarrassed to exist, but these kids were BELTING IT).

Yeah, I feel like we should probably be deferring to teenagers on this one. I doubt somewhat that the olds in the '80s were suggesting The Breakfast Club as an iconic movie of that decade ("Well, clearly, the correct answer is Hannah and Her Sisters.")

the scene in havoc where anne hathaway and bijou phillips sing along to "can i get a..." is definitely emblematic of *something* about the 00s.

we should probably be deferring to teenagers on this one.

Yeah. They have more of a tribal identity thing going, so they are more likely to even have an answer to this question. For contrast, would any of us be able to pick an 'iconic movie' for the decade of the 1930s? And if we did name one, would anyone who was alive then agree with us?

My own sense of the 00s is completely disengaged from the few movies I saw in theaters. To me they were just a means of spending 100 to 130 minutes being entertained. I never expected to be given a dose of the zeitgeist for the price of my ticket.

I suggested people in their 20s/30s--I think you need some historical perspective for a question like this.

ask generation spongebob, the answer will be spongebob.

isn't it more comforting to find that there is no longer a single movie to speak to a generational audience, though? i'd feel really bad if any of sat night fever, breakfast club, or reality bites encapsulated anything about me or my peers.

http://allthatcomeswithit.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/8003-262282.jpeg

This is a really puzzling question. All of the biggest grossing films tend to be pulp exercises. In that Roger Corman documentary by the end of it they say that Hollywood has focused on previously cult-level exploitation pop films.

King of Kong

My personal answer for this is STEALTH because the ridic intelligent plane is suddenly "downloading all the music on the entire net!" Or maybe Fast & The Furious first for similar reasons, remember the VW dude was famed for being able to "find out anything about anyone on the internet."

Based on this, I would say that the most "LOL 00s" movie is Live Free or Die Hard, where the bad guys are able to manipulate to entire American infrastructure, including every traffic light and some random lights in a traffic tunnel, via hacking them through the internet. Also, it's a sequel that turns a late 80s/90s action hero who was defined as an everyman character into a cool, badass übermensch, which seems apt for 00s blockbusters.

Batman!

Anyway, Reality Bites might've been the 90s movie for Americans, but for Europeans it was surely Trainspotting, right? I can't remember any other movie whose themes, style, soundtrack, etc were so iconic of its era.

otm

So true. CF every student's bedroom wall.

(Reality Bites was a tongue in cheek suggestion though right? Like, even back then wasn't it seen as try-hard..?)