As a 90's teen, I protest this sidelining of Chris Cornell. Coincidentally, counterpoint, I recently re-watched:
Singles
This movie from 1992 by Cameron Crowe, starring Bridget Fonda, Kyra Sedwyck, and Scott Campbell also includes Matt Dillon, BIll Pulman, Chris Cornell, Alice In Chains, and the soon-to-be members of Pearl Jam.
Technically this is a romantic comedy but really it's a tour guide of the Seatle youth scene of the time and, like any movie, was frankly already too late but it cemented the imagery of what the media and future generations would call "grunge." This movie is like Saturday Night Fever or the Woodstock documentary- it's less about what's actually happening and more about the vibes and to capture a specific cultural moment in time.
Matt Dillon plays a singer in a rock band whose members are played by Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard as cameos- these were founding members of Mother Love Bone (you can see graffiti of that in the film) whose singer Andrew Wood died. They would soon hook up with Eddie Vedder during both a tribute project Temple of the Dog with Chris Cornell of Soundgarden (who also makes a cameo and was roommates and friends with Vedder) before forming Pearl Jam. The latter has two songs on the soundtrack that don't even appear on their debut. Eddie Vedder plays the drummer in this film's fictional band.
The main romantic couple played by Sydwyck and Campbell meet at a club where Alice In Chains is playing. It is so wild seeing a scene where two girlfriends are just out to go "dancing" and it's freaking Alice In Chains playing- like, people used to dance and have fun to depressing noisy guitar rock. What a time!
The soundtrack is legendary: the aforementioned bands, sure, but also Paul Westerbreg, the sister/leader members of Heart playing a Led Zeppelin song, Chris Cornell solo songs, a token Jimi Hendrix song (who was originally from Seatle though his music has little in common with that era's alt-rock), the Smashing Pumpkins, and two bands for the real grunge-nostalgics: the Screaming Trees and Mudhoney.
(quick side story- there is an apocryphal anecdote that the members of foundational "grunge" band Green River attended a Jane's Addiction concert. Half of the band love them for their mix of funk, glam, showmanship, and guitar leads; the other half hated what they perceived as crass commercialism and shallowness. It highlighted the growing split among the members' musical interests. The latter half went on to form Mudhoney while the former formed Mother Love Bone-> Pearl Jam. I don't know how true that is but it feels true hahah).
Beyond music the film is a fascinating snapshot of how then-contemporary issues of romance and youth culture and sex were represented. If you want to see the beginning of pop culture dealing with 3rd wave feminism, hook-up culture, children of divorced parents forming relationships, body image issues, and the substitution of friends for family, it's all right here, with all sorts of delightfully smug but still cool pop culture references and very mediocre jokes.
