Giancarlo's Thigh

INT. Chicago -- 1994

I am sitting in a dark theater with my serious actor friend watching the movie Fresh. Fresh is a 12-year old drug dealer trying to rescue his drug addict older sister from the drug lord she’s sleeping with.

Heavy.

Early in the movie there is a scene where the sister lays in bed, strung out and at her most vulnerable. The drug lord slowly enters the frame and in a manner both tender and menacing - leans down and caresses her.

My friend clocked my conniption and snickered in side eye.
Not me rooting for the bad guy!
I have no memory of the rest of this movie.

CUT TO:

INT. My bed -- Last week

I was on my daily doomscroll when an Instagram reel stopped me cold. I sat up and immediately forwarded it to my friend along with the biting lip emoji. That’s when I noticed that he had sent me the very same reel with the note “You’re welcome.”

Huh? I was so confused - I couldn’t tell if he had sent it to me first or was just responding to my message so I texted him:

“Hey did you send me that reel or—”
“Yup!”

Haaaaa! Come on synergy! That moment in the theater had been our inside joke for years but the algorithm did its big one that day. Get you a friend that knows you.

The reel we’d exchanged was one of those “What were you like in the 90’s?” trend currently making its rounds on social media. Nostalgia fueled edits bearing the ghosts of baddies past. Honeyed self-retrospectives…and Giancarlo had posted one!

🫦🫦🫦

The more I thought about the trend the easier it was to see that its baked in nostalgia wasn’t just limited to thirst traps. Rising within us is a collective yearning for a way of life that doesn’t exist anymore. Today our headlines veer from insane to absurd and back again, quickly. By comparison, 1994 seems quaint.

1. Our national obsession was an ice skating scandal - the heated rivalry of Tonya and Nancy

2. Late night hosts joked about Lorena Bobbitt deciding she’d had enough

3. We were hopeful when Nelson Mandela became the first black president of South Africa

4. We were mournful when Kurt Cobain died

5. NAFTA made sense at the time

Nothing makes sense now. Embroiled in an unnecessary war, we may find ourselves wondering if being patriotic means rooting for the bad guy.

Still, even as our cultural institutions are falling we are rebuilding in real time. Every writer on this app is creating the future we want to see by answering the question: “What were you like in the 20s”?

By the way, I scoured the internet but was unable to find a pic of the thigh in question. Probably for the best. Oh well. Guess I’m gonna have to watch that reel again.

😈

That man fine y’all.