Grunge music. That low, heavy, sludgy sound born from the largely isolated Pacific Northwest in the late 1980s and early 1990s—the sound that brought people like Kurt Cobain, Chris Cornell, and Eddie Vedder to the public.
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Now that the grunge phenomenon is behind us, how can we remember it? That question can be answered in these three movies below. Films that capture the feelings, the look, the sounds, and the ethos of the genre.
[RELATED: 3 Movies Every Kurt Cobain Fan Should Watch]
Let’s check out three movies that every grunge fan should see.
1. Singles (1992)
Written and directed by Cameron Crowe, the former husband of Seattle rock icon Nancy Wilson of Heart, Singles takes place in Seattle and showcases all of the local haunts of the grunge era in the Pacific Northwest’s Emerald City. It also features many of the grunge icons of the day like Eddie Vedder and Stone Gossard of Pearl Jam, along with members of Alice in Chains and Soundgarden. The movie also includes live footage of grunge artists onstage. It’s a wonderful time capsule of the city as it was in the middle of exploding on the global scene.
2. Reality Bites (1994)
Directed by Ben Stiller, Reality Bites is about the general malaise felt by so many Generation X people. Just graduated college? Don’t want to be like your Ronald Regan-loving parents? Okay. So, what now? The movie also includes an MTV-esque channel, which, of course, is in line with how prevalent the music television station was in the 1990s. While music plays a role in the film (its main character, played by Ethan Hawke, is in a band called Hey, That’s My Bike), it’s more about the aesthetic of the moment—dark, baggy, and full of rips.
3. The Gits (2005)
The Gits follows some of the tragedy that befell the Seattle area in the wake of the grunge explosion. The Gits was a band fronted by Mia Zapata, who was sadly murdered in 1993 at just 27 years old while walking home from a bar in Seattle. Directed by Kerri O’Kane, the film shows one of many lost lives in the Seattle area from the time. While Zapata’s band, The Gits, was one part grunge and one-part riot grrrl, the group identified as something else entirely. And they were just getting ready to blow up on a national scale. Yet in this film, viewers see what Seattle and PNW were like at the time, as well as a bit of the aftermath of the sonic phenomenon. It’s a window into sadness, pain, and the very real world.
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