Alicia Silverstone (left) and Stacey Dash in "Clueless."

 Alicia Silverstone (left) and Stacey Dash in "Clueless." Credit: Paramount/ Everett Collection

Skullcaps and goatees and ironic detachment — if these are a few of your favorite things, chances are you’re a card-carrying member of Generation X. That means you spent your extended adolescence in the 1990s, struggling with underemployment, drinking microbrew and trying to define a coherent notion of cool (yes to Nirvana, no to the music industry). It was also a great time for the movies, which still felt larger than life and — though you’d never admit it — had the power to capture your youthful disaffection on screen.

As confusing as they were, the 90s can seem carefree compared to what’s going on at the moment. If you’re feeling a little nostalgic during the quarantine, here are 13 Gen-X favorites worth revisiting.

BEFORE SUNRISE (1995) Ever backpack through Europe while reading literature and flirting with French girls? And you thought you were so original. As he would throughout the decade, Richard Linklater turned your life into a movie — this one with Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy as travelers who make a connection. (Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

CLUELESS (1995) Writer-director Amy Heckerling (“Fast Times at Ridgemont High”) put a Beverly Hills spin on Jane Austen’s “Emma” and came up with teen-movie gold. Starring a sexy-but-sweet Alicia Silverstone and newcomer Paul Rudd, the movie brims with charm and good-hearted humor. Alas, a May rerelease to celebrate the film’s 25th anniversary has been postponed. (iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

DAZED AND CONFUSED (1993) This coming-of-age comedy set during 1976 is really a hard-rock “American Graffiti,” drenched in nostalgia for a simpler time. Writer-director Linklater  assembled an impressive cast of future stars, including Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey and Matthew McConaughey, uttering his very first “Alright, alright, alright.” (iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990) In sunny suburbia, a blade-fingered Pinocchio (Johnny Depp) yearns for the love of a local girl (Winona Ryder). Tim Burton’s dark fairy-tale — his most personal film — helped push Goth culture into the mainstream and cemented the alt-culture cred of its two stars. (Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

FIGHT CLUB (1999) In David Fincher’s sleazy-weird satire the last 20 years of countercultural cool boils down to this: a desire to get socked in the face. Some accused the film of peddling toxic machismo, but “Fight Club” found its tribe, thanks largely to Brad Pitt’s pugilistic, nihilistic performance as Tyler Durden. Released at the tail end of ‘99, it may be the decade’s defining film. (iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

FRIDAY (1995) Black movies of the ‘90s largely took their cues from gangsta rap, presenting inner-city life as violent and tragic. Ice Cube’s self-penned stoner comedy, however – directed by F. Gary Gray, later of “Straight Outta Compton” – gave audiences an upbeat alternative. The movie turned Cube into a box-office draw, put co-star Chris Tucker on the map and spawned a franchise. (iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

RUSHMORE (1998) A high school student (Jason Schwarztman) and a wealthy businessman (Bill Murray) compete for the affections of a schoolteacher (Olivia Williams). Wes Anderson established himself as the indie-rock J.D. Salinger with this bittersweet comedy and also turned Murray into the hipster favorite he still is today. (Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

SINGLES (1992) Cameron Crowe’s grungy rom-com focused on young Seattleites (Matt Dillon, Bridget Fonda, Kyra Sedgwick) hanging out at a hip coffee shop. Sound familiar? Warner Bros. Television tried to turn it into a series – Crowe declined – but then created “Friends,” which premiered in 1994. (Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

SLACKER (1991) Richard Linklater’s (again!) breakout film, shot in his Austin hometown for $23,000, is a plotless series of vignettes in which various bohemians expound on cynical theories, yet achieve nothing. A zeitgeist defined. (Amazon, YouTube, Google Play)

SWINGERS (1996) Director Doug Liman and writer-star Jon Favreau created this endearing comedy about Los Angeles hipsters at the height of the swing-music craze. Aside from turning Vince Vaughn into a star, it popularized the adjective “money” and the party-hearty catchphrase, “Vegas, baby!” (iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

TRAINSPOTTING (1996) As grunge waned in the U.S., Britpop and electronica began to rise in the U.K. Danny Boyle’s darkly funny comedy about Edinburgh heroin addicts (played by Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and a breakout Ewan McGregor) not only captured a moment, it spawned a decade-defining soundtrack, on a par with “Saturday Night Fever” and “The Graduate.” (iTunes, YouTube, Google Play)

TRUE ROMANCE (1993) Patricia Arquette and Christian Slater play a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde in this early film written by a pre-“Pulp Fiction” Quentin Tarantino and directed by Tony Scott. Bloody, funny, shocking and sleazy, it set the template for a brand of outlaw chic that would appear in scores of other movies, from “Natural Born Killers” to “Love and a .45.” (iTunes, Google Play, Vudu)

WAYNE’S WORLD (1992) This big-screen version of a “Saturday Night Live” skit, starring Mike Myers and Dana Carvey as young metal-heads, was the perfect Gen-X comedy. Why? The stars were way too old to be playing teenagers — kind of like you at the time. (Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Google Play, Vudu)

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