Episode 59: Empire Records (1995‪)‬ Verging on Greatness

So it's the 90's and you've got a movie idea that circles around late teen Gen X'ers working in a record store with their stand in father figure who is still young enough to be relevant, boss. You've got a message you want to spread about being authentic and staying true to yourself. So what do you do? Do you go down the Clerks route and create a meta textural slice of life film big on realism with everyday characters that features very heavy commentary on pop culture that helps define the generation. Or do you create a film that wants to skewer corporatization of society by producing a film that smacks heavily of corporatization with a narratively simple plot that manages scrapes by aided in no small part by a soundtrack that screams "this is my generation"? Well Craig and Mike did all the watching so you can do all the listening.
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