- 7 hours ago
Bu video Dailymotion Python SDK ile yüklendi.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:00Millennials in the real world are full-fledged adults now.
00:03Where are my millennials at?
00:04Many of them are parents, homeowners, and leaders in the workforce,
00:07running our companies and even making our films and television.
00:11So why does millennial representation on screen often feel like a caricature rather than the real
00:16thing?
00:17First, I'd like to not thank you for hiring me because I just expect good things to happen to
00:21me without working for them. Second, I'd like to give you all a list of my trigger warnings.
00:26Millennials in TV and movies often seem to be in a state of arrested development,
00:30taking longer to settle down into a career or relationship.
00:33And while this isn't so far from the truth, as millennials are getting married at older
00:37ages than their previous generations, 44% of them are married and the millennial divorce
00:41rate is the lowest it's been in years. Thanks to their careful partner selection process,
00:46which on-screen representations may present as unlucky in love,
00:49is actually helping millennials find the right one in reality.
00:52This is your big rom-com moment, okay? You got to do something big, something stupid.
00:57I love you.
00:57Oh, no, too big, too stupid. Dial it back.
01:00Our on-screen millennials also struggle to find purpose,
01:04in part because they believe they should be doing something big and important.
01:07They believe their generation is going to be the one that changes the world.
01:10Do you think people can still get jobs by being precocious to some bigwig who says,
01:15I'm taking a chance on you, kid?
01:17And of course, on-screen and in real life, millennials and technology are never far apart.
01:22They were the first generation of digital natives and the first generation on social media.
01:26It's no wonder it sometimes feels like millennials own the internet.
01:30But now that a new generation of digital natives has emerged,
01:33how well does that depiction of millennials hold up?
01:35Can I just stream it later and spare myself?
01:38Here's our take on the on-screen millennial — what it gets right,
01:41what it gets wrong, and whether it holds a mirror up to real life or is more of a hall of mirrors.
01:46One of the most iconic millennial tropes is the quarter-life crisis.
01:53The concept of a quarter-life crisis goes back generations.
01:57But while Gen X slackers were depicted as happy to do nothing,
02:00the millennial quarter-life crisis is often spurred by a great anxiety that they should be doing
02:05something.
02:06I think I just feel how everyone feels, which is I have three or four really great folk albums in me.
02:10Search Party satirizes this millennial quarter-life crisis when its main character,
02:13Dory C., decides to lead the search for Chantal, her former college classmate who has gone missing.
02:18Despite the fact that Dory and Chantal weren't really that close,
02:21she uses the disappearance as a way to give her life meaning and direction.
02:25When she finds out that Chantal was actually fine and not really in danger at all,
02:28her world comes crumbling down.
02:31Isn't this hilarious, you guys? We, like, nothing happened.
02:35Like, we literally — we thought it was, like, all these crazy bad things, and literally nothing happened.
02:39Dory was never actually trying to find Chantal.
02:42She was just trying to do something worthwhile.
02:45And Search Party offers another perspective on the millennial quarter-life crisis through Dory's
02:49friend Elliot. Elliot's life story is built around the lie that he's a cancer survivor.
02:53Elliot is thrown into crisis when Dory's friend Julian reveals the truth in an article.
02:58Much like Dory's, Elliot's quarter-life crisis represents the millennial desire to be extraordinary,
03:03or maybe more accurately, the fear of being just plain ordinary.
03:07I'm gonna be an author.
03:09My agent's selling a memoir about my life as a liar.
03:11Similarly in While We're Young, Jamie lies about his connection to the subject of his documentary.
03:16He admires the older filmmaker Josh, played by Ben Stiller, and wants to be an important artist like
03:20him. But when his lie comes to light, it's clear that there's a hollowness and an entitlement at
03:25the center of his desire.
03:26It's all a pose. It's like he once saw a sincere person and he's been imitating him ever since.
03:32This same ungrounded quest for purpose is represented in Fleabag's Guinea Pig Cafe,
03:36Hannah Horvath's Dream of Being a Great Writer, Lady Bird's Youthful Activism,
03:40and Mabel's Murder Mystery podcast she makes with two people she just met.
03:44In all these representations of millennials, their big, unachieved dreams and their unfulfilled
03:48desire for purpose leave them seeming aimless. They have so much potential,
03:53but their own indecision about what avenue to go down leaves them stuck treading water in place.
04:02And this aimlessness does reflect a real truth about the millennial generation.
04:06Writing for Bustle, Iris Komunev theorizes why millennials are perceived as a lost generation.
04:12She attributes it in part to the decision fatigue that comes from having more options than any
04:17generation before. With all of the impossible choices that we have to make, isn't it only natural
04:21that we want to put them off for as long as possible? Cal Newport also points out in the
04:26Harvard Business Review that millennials have experienced a unique pressure to follow their
04:30passion, which has created unrealistic expectations about what a fulfilling career looks like. With all of
04:35these options and so much pressure to find the best one, is it any wonder millennials are struggling for
04:41direction?
04:41I just feel a little lost.
04:44Don't let dinner be your quarter-life crisis. Achieve your 2023 goals and fuel up fast with
04:49ready-to-eat nutritious meals delivered straight to your door with Factor.
04:53America's number one ready-to-eat meal kit can save you time, money, and help you live your best year yet.
04:58Factor's fresh, never-frozen meals are ready in just two minutes, so all you have to do is heat and enjoy.
05:04Skip the trip to the grocery store and the mess. Factor saves you all the chopping,
05:08prep work, and cleanup of cooking. Trying to save money by kicking that takeout addiction?
05:13Factor's got you covered there, too.
05:14Sticking to healthy habits for 2023 has never been easier, since Factor has meals prepared
05:20by chefs and approved by dieticians. So each meal has all of the ingredients you need to
05:24feel satisfied all day long. And trying out new lifestyles like going vegan, vegetarian,
05:29or keto is a snap with Factor. With 34 delicious weekly options, there's always something new to try.
05:35Plus, you can round out your meal and replenish your snack supply with an assortment of over 36
05:40quick bites, smoothies, juices, and more satisfying add-ons. Give yourself the time
05:45and energy to tackle everything on your to-do list, and live your best new you with Factor.
05:50Head to factormeals.com slash thetake50 and use the code thetake50 to get 50% off your first box.
05:57That's code thetake50 at factormeals.com slash thetake50 to get 50% off your first box.
06:07Millennials are often depicted as going through it together. Many of our movies and TV shows feature
06:12groups of millennial friends navigating their lives and coming of age together,
06:15and supporting each other while they try to overcome the same obstacles.
06:18We're all doing great things. Look at Kelly. Look at you getting fit. Look at Molly taking names.
06:23Look at Isa. You got it. You're almost there. You got it.
06:27One of the most common tropes of millennial friendship is the apartment share.
06:30Often the roommates in these stories live together out of necessity because of their
06:34generation's financial precarity, which isn't so far from reality.
06:37One in four millennials say they plan on being forever renters,
06:40giving up on the American dream of homeownership. And more millennials are sharing that rent with
06:45roommates than the generation before them. At the start of New Girl, for example,
06:49none of the characters can afford to rent by themselves or afford to leave a room in their
06:53loft vacant, so an unlikely friend group is pushed together by their material circumstances.
06:58I want to live here.
06:59Actually, I still have some questions. I mean, like, no offense, but we barely know you.
07:03And this is even true when the characters are already friends. In Everything I Know About Love,
07:07Maggie and Birdie are old friends who met Nell and Amara at university, but their friendship blossoms
07:12when none of them can afford living in the city alone, forcing them to share an apartment.
07:16There's an intimacy and an energy to these shared apartments that goes beyond the classic
07:20apartments of 90s multicam sitcoms like Friends. In that show, even low-earning and unemployed
07:25characters like Joey and Rachel never lived with more than one roommate. But in these more modern
07:29millennial apartments, everyone lives together, and their shared home becomes the center of their
07:34social lives.
07:35To the first Friday night in our first London house.
07:38But while these shows often imply that millennial friendship is an inevitable fact of life,
07:42in reality, millennials self-report being the loneliest generation.
07:46Although 49% of millennials do have one-to-four close friends, these shows about easy millennial
07:51friendships rarely represent the other half of the generation. And for millennials who do have
07:56thriving friend groups, the way these groups come together on screen can often feel inauthentic.
08:01According to a study done by Connect, a quarter of millennials make all their friends online.
08:05So why are these shows about millennial friendships so committed to old-fashioned,
08:09offline ways of making friends?
08:11I have to know her.
08:13Let me just pick my bearings for a second, okay?
08:15In We Are Lady Parts, the friend group comes together not through an apartment,
08:19but through a band that recruits its guitarist by posting paper flyers around town,
08:22which feels even more like something from a previous generation.
08:26The characters and their friendships do feel very accurate to the millennial experience.
08:30They deal with the uncertainty of their future and the desire to play at living a kind of life
08:34they can't possibly yet afford. But the way they come together feels like something that's
08:38happening less and less in real life.
08:40You are a guitarist.
08:41She's a guitarist.
08:42Fuck off. She's a guitarist.
08:44Play something.
08:44Not all representations of millennial friendship miss the mark. In Sally Rooney's work, for example,
08:49online communication is crucial in forming relationships. In conversations with friends,
08:53many of the titular conversations are digital, with people sending and receiving text messages
08:57and filling in the gaps with real-world interactions. In Normal People, Connell and Marianne's
09:01relationship is able to grow because of the digital connections available in the modern world.
09:05Even when far away from each other, their devices keep them close. And so items like phones and
09:08laptops become imbued with this romantic charge because of the moments they're able to facilitate.
09:13I miss you.
09:15I miss you too. Come.
09:17These depictions feel more representative of the world millennials live in,
09:20where relationships are shaped by the forms of communication that generation has grown up with.
09:28Underpinning a lot of millennial depictions is the idea that they are a uniquely progressive,
09:32forward-thinking generation who are reshaping the world for the better. Whether it's played for
09:36laughs or not, they are more often than not viewed as socially aware, politically correct,
09:40and overwhelmingly liberal.
09:41Climate change. We are living in the middle of its disastrous effects.
09:45There is some truth to this. Millennials are more democratic-leading than older generations,
09:48and those generational differences are only growing. But this generational divide is often
09:53over-exaggerated with the uber-woke millennial stereotype. And sometimes that exaggerated stereotype can
09:58be used to dress up genuine obstacles the millennial generation is facing as a matter of progressive
10:02political choice. For example, it's well-known that millennials aren't having kids at the same
10:06rate as previous generations, with the cost of starting a family one of the primary reasons.
10:11However, when we see child-free women on screen, it's rarely shown as a financial decision.
10:15Instead, it's written off as evidence of the shifting values and increased freedoms afforded to
10:19women in this generation.
10:20You'll see when you have kids.
10:22Yeah, if.
10:23Similarly, as Kate Taylor points out in Business Insider, the notion that anti-capitalist millennials
10:28killed certain industries is often cast as millennials making conscious choices about
10:32where and when to spend their money, rather than the more prosaic reality that they simply don't
10:36have as much money to support those industries in the first place.
10:39But there are some shows that get closer to the real thing rather than making light of millennials
10:44as politically idealistic. Shows like Broad City emphasize the financial reality behind
10:48those political views. Abby and Alana live a less-than-glamorous hand-to-mouth existence that is
10:52unfortunately all too familiar to many millennials.
10:56That's your total equity? $374? Are you kidding me?
10:59You gotta keep more money in your bank account than that!
11:02They're precariously employed and often try to game the system to make ends meet,
11:05doing everything from using coupons, to selling stolen goods,
11:08to returning items they no longer have a need for.
11:10Jessie in Starstruck also feels like a more accurate depiction of what millennial living is like.
11:15She works two jobs, neither of which get her any closer to what she actually wants to do.
11:19Often on screen, big cities are seen as these exciting places full of opportunities. But for
11:23Jessie, the city is a drain and a constant reminder of how hard she has to fight just to get by.
11:28I don't have anything to show for my time here. I work at a cinema for pretty much no money.
11:36I haven't done anything.
11:39We're now starting to see these sometimes inaccurate tropes about millennials get transplanted onto Gen Z,
11:44and the two groups are being conflated with one another,
11:46bundled as generic young people who talk, think, and act in the same way.
11:50What are they calling them millennials?
11:51And while these generations do share some struggles,
11:54they've been shaped by completely different circumstances.
11:57Millennials are the generation that came of age in the post-911 era,
12:01and now Gen Z is coming of age in the aftermath of a totally different tragedy, the COVID-19 pandemic.
12:06These generations are more than cliches and two-dimensional depictions,
12:10and they deserve to be represented with more nuance than under the broad umbrella of young people.
12:14Millennials get a job.
12:16In any case, some millennials are now pushing 40,
12:20and they're starting to tell stories about characters who are not so young anymore.
12:24So maybe the era of truly accurate, authentic millennial representation on screen is still yet to come.
12:31The universe is trying to f*** with me, and I refuse to engage.
Recommended
12:05
|
Up next
18:57
16:17
23:08
10:53
12:49
1:04
17:03
4:46
13:25
Be the first to comment