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7NEWS
04-08-2025
- Entertainment
- 7NEWS
It's a good time to be a nostalgic millennial
The Backstreet Boys are playing to sold-out crowds. Lindsay Lohan is starring in a new Freaky Friday movie. And former Dawson's Creek co-stars and exes Katie Holmes and Joshua Jackson were recently spotted filming a new project in New York City. No, it's not the early 2000s — but millennials feel like they're so back. As the saying goes, what's old often becomes new again. And millennials, typically defined as individuals born between the early 1980s and the mid-1990s, are now at a point in their lives where their generational nostalgia is front and centre. This recent surge in millennial-focused pop culture serves as 'the next level of escapism' for the generation, author of One in a Millennial: On Friendship, Feelings, Fangirls, and Fitting In Kate Kennedy said. 'It returns us to a time when our biggest worry was getting in line for a CD, not whether we would be able to afford a house,' Kennedy said. At the Sphere in Las Vegas, that sentiment was echoed by thousands of Backstreet Boys concertgoers, many wearing all-white attire in homage to the band's Millennium album, singing along to hits like Drowning. Those who couldn't attend watched the concerts unfold on TikTok — where some videos have amassed millions of views. 'This healed more of my childhood in 1.5 hours than any therapist has,' one TikTok user wrote in the caption of their video from the show. 'I feel like I just time travelled,' another creator wrote in the text of their video from the concert. 'At the Sphere, listening to Backstreet Boys, wearing an all white 90s outfit, taking Jell-O shots.' Kennedy, who went to the Backstreet Boys concert last weekend, described nostalgia as a 'connective tissue that makes people feel less alone and less judgmental toward themselves, because other people like what they like, too'. 'I think we're a more lonely and isolated generation as adults than we ever anticipated that we would be in our youth,' she said, adding that millennials 'straddle two very different eras in terms of technology and information'. Generations 'can be hard on each other online', Kennedy noted. But now, 'after several years of being called cringe, or 'cheugy', we millennials are leaning in.' The longing for the millennial era has even crossed generational lines. Gen Zers, who once mocked millennial culture, are now romanticising it. On TikTok, hundreds of users have recently posted tributes to all things millennial — from Tumblr and skinny jeans to upbeat music, Barack Obama and, perhaps most notably, HBO's TV series Girls. Perhaps sensing that enthusiasm, a string of early 2000s artists have stepped back into the spotlight. Nelly, Creed and The All-American Rejects — all staples of the late 90s and early aughts — have launched tours. Beyoncé brought her Destiny's Child bandmates Michelle Williams and Kelly Rowland on stage for her final Cowboy Carter show in Las Vegas last weekend, marking the group's first reunion in seven years. Hollywood is also jumping on the trend. Studios continue to green-light sequels, prequels and spinoffs based on beloved titles from the 90s and 2000s. Shots of Anne Hathaway, Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and Emily Blunt filming the sequel to the 2006 hit 'The Devil Wears Prada' in New York City have caused a frenzy. Fans online are analysing the actors' high-fashion looks and others are reportedly lining up to catch glimpses of the stars in person as they shoot, according to Variety. Adam Sandler's Happy Gilmore 2, which came out almost 30 years after the 1996 film, debuted to 46.7 million views on Netflix, making it the streamer's largest US film opening ever.
Time Out
23-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Don't miss the last week of Encounters
Don't let the rain keep you away from a week of African creativity and insights, as the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival lights up screens across the city. This is the festival's 27th edition, and it runs until Saturday 29 June with screenings across the city taking place at The Labia Theatre (this year voted one of the world's most beautiful cinemas!), V&A Waterfront Ster-Kinekor and The Bertha Movie House in Khayelitsha "In 2024, Encounters presented three of the five documentaries later nominated for Oscars, including the winner 'No Other Land'," explains Mandisa Zitha, Director of Encounters. "This year we're raising the bar even higher with an excellent selection of films that speak to the role of the documentary and impact filmmaker in 2025." The 2025 program features close on 70 documentaries, spanning everything from intimate local stories to global social justice narratives. Certainly don't miss 'Fitting In', which takes a hard look at tradition and transformation at Stellenbosch University's Eendrag men's residence. Or Normal To Me, a tender, honest portrait of life at Fish Hoek's Joyce Chevalier Center for adults with intellectual disabilities. From abroad, How to Build a Library opened the festival with a poetic lens on Nairobi's iconic public library, tracing Kenya's complex colonial past while imagining futures for its youth. You'll find the full schedule for the Encounters South African International Documentary Festival over here. But it's not just about the films. The festival's final week also features a stellar lineup of panel talks and masterclasses, diving into themes as wide-ranging as memory and trauma (Wounds and Whispers), the role of AI in learning (Rewiring Knowledge), and women's voices in resistance movements (Rise and Resist).
