Iconoclastic Gen X films fill OKC theaters in August

OKLAHOMA CITY — If the 1970s were the Golden Age of filmmaking and the early 80s were the birthing grounds for the big-budget Hollywood blockbuster and franchise systems, then the late 80s and 90s film scene was something else entirely.

Independent film saw its first legitimate push into the public consciousness and boundary-pushing, experimental filmmakers started skirting all the rules of cinema in favor of capturing the grit, energy, and aimlessness at the heart of the Generation X experience. 

That meant a wealth of deeply rooted cult classics from unapologetic iconoclasts, each kicking in the doors and setting fire to the rules of structure, photography, storytelling, and even taste.

Throughout August, some of OKC’s art houses are presenting a handful of the cult classic offerings of the time, from the most influential and undying to some largely forgotten, but no less exciting now.

‘Wings of Desire’ – 1987 – Rodeo Cinema Stockyards – Wednesday, August 7th 

While German writer/director Wim Wenders is not himself a member of Gen X, it’s hard to think of another film that so perfectly captured the loneliness, isolation, and metaphysical longing of the late 80s, just as the new generation of filmmaking was getting underway.

Following a handful of simplistically human-like angels as they wander through 80s Berlin, invisible to the human eye, “Wings of Desire” crashed onto the indie film scene with a bang and a spot-on deconstruction of the era’s communal sadness and politically enforced separations.

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Wings of Desire

Everything in “Wings of Desire” is about the walls between people, from the emotional walls built by secrets – which the angels can hear in human thoughts – to the very physical and omnipresent Berlin Wall – which the angels can pass through and above with ease.

Wenders’ film is one of the most gorgeously poetic and affecting films perhaps ever put to screen, and it surely helped to kick off the new styles of genre-bending, limit-breaking filmmaking that would define the following decade.

And yes, it was the inspiration for the Nic Cage/Meg Ryan melodrama “City of Angels,” but we don’t need to talk about that.

“Wings of Desire” screens at Rodeo Cinema Wednesday, August 7th presented by the Edmond Film Society. For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit rodeocinema.org.

‘La Haine’ – 1995 – Rodeo Cinema Stockyards – Thursday, August 15th 

With all eyes currently on Paris for the Olympics, now’s as good a time as any to revisit the Paris of the early 90s and the turmoil and tension that was coursing through Europe at the time.

Mathieu Kassovitz’s “La Haine” rewrote the rules of French cinema, taking it far from the stylistic coolness of Goddard and the New Wave and into the gritty hyper-realism of bristling youth and immigrant marginalization.

With a plot that could just as easily be ripped from current headlines, a group of disaffected young men course through the veins of Paris in the wake of a riot that saw their friend (an Arab immigrant) severely beaten by police.

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Vincent Cassel in La Haine

The friends – led by a young Vincent Cassel in the role that helped propel him to the top of French performers – spend a frenetic day clashing with the law, waxing cynically on their lives and disenfranchisement, and planning for dire consequences if their beaten friend dies.

Kassovitz shoots it all in grainy black-and-white, framing the events of the day almost as an artistic and historical document of wartime.

“La Haine” is one of the greatest examples of European Gen X cinema, and helped to create a new language of gritty, passionate French film.

“La Haine” screens at Rodeo Cinema Thursday, August 15th presented by the Oklahoma Film Society. For showtimes, tickets, and more, visit rodeocinema.org.

‘Six String Samurai’ – 1998 – Rodeo Cinema Film Row – Thursday, August 15th 

Not all Gen X moviemaking was bleak and despondent. Sometimes it was fun, weird, and wildly imaginative, with just a heavy backdrop of bleakness and despondency.

Such is the case with the criminally overlooked “Six String Samurai,” a post-apocalyptic fever dream marrying nuclear paranoia with rockabilly nostalgia in a crazed kung-fu cacophony of sword fights and guitar solos.

Following a nameless sword-slinger and guitar-swinger (who looks remarkably like the great Buddy Holly) we’re introduced to a barren American wasteland that turned to rock-n-roll royalty in the wake of all-out nuclear war.

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Six String Samurai

The resulting world sees lines blurred between kung-fu swordfighters and rock stars, with every guitar-wielding samurai battling for their shot at becoming the new king in the fabled city of Las Vegas.

Oh, and Death himself is stalking our hero throughout, armed with his own hellish blade and his own Hendrix-style Olympic White Stratocaster.

It’s as unwaveringly cool as it is ridiculous, and it remains a perfect example of the often-forgotten imagination at play in a lot of left-field Gen X cult filmmaking.

“Six String Samurai” screens at Rodeo Cinema in Film Row Thursday, August 15th in a special FREE showing on VHS presented by pop-up screeners VHS & Chill.

‘Run Lola Run’ – 1998 – Oklahoma City Museum of Art – Thursday, August 22nd through Saturday, August 24th 

Another generationally seismic example of Gen X street life in 90s Europe, Germany’s “Run Lola Run” imbues the danger and anxiety of the era’s criminal culture with a healthy dose of frantic energy, temporal surrealism, and straight-up fun.

Writer/director Tom Tykwer burst onto the international scene with this pulse-pounding feedback loop that sees the titular Lola (Franka Potente) given only twenty minutes to save her boyfriend after he loses $20,000 belonging to his mobster boss.

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Run Lola Run

With the pace never letting up, Lola runs (literally) through multiple possible scenarios for how to recover the money and save her love’s life, with some more outlandish and action-packed than others.

Is it a study of Gen X indecisiveness? Maybe. Is it an examination of the era’s dangerous and debilitating drug culture? Arguably. Is it fun as hell and more rousingly exhilarating than perhaps any other film of the decade? Definitely.

“Run Lola Run” screens at OKCMOA Thursday, August 22nd through Saturday, August 24th in a newly restored 4K print for its 25th anniversary. For showtimes, tickets, and more visit okcmoa.com.


Catch Brett Fieldcamp’s film column weekly for information and insights into the world of film in the Oklahoma City metro and Oklahoma. | Brought to you by the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.


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Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.