Reality Bites Movie
Storyline
TAGLINES
A comedy about love in the '90s.
In this study of Generation X manners, Lelaina, the valedictorian of her college class, camcords her friends in a mock documentary of posteducation life. Troy is her best friend, a perpetually unemployed musical slacker. Vickie is a manager at the Gap who worries about the results of an AIDS test, while Sammy has problems grappling with his sexuality. When Lelaina meets Michael, an earnest video executive who takes her homemade video to his MTV-like station, she must decide what she values--the materialism of yuppie Michael or the philosophical musings of Troy.
| Winona Ryder | Lelaina Pierce |
| Ethan Hawke | Troy Dyer |
| Janeane Garofalo | Vickie Miner |
| Steve Zahn | Sammy Gray |
| Ben Stiller | Michael Grates |
| Swoosie Kurtz | Charlane McGregor |
| Harry O'Reilly | Wes McGregor |
| Susan Norfleet | Helen Anne Pierce |
| Joe Don Baker | Tom Pierce |
| Renée Zellweger | Tami |
| James Rothenberg | Rick |
| John Mahoney | Grant Gubler |
| Eric Morgan Stuart | Damien |
| Barry Del Sherman | Grant's Producer |
| Chelsea Lagos | Troy Groupie |
| Ben Stiller |
6.20 out of 10 (8985 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Then and Now
posted on 12 Mar 2009When I first saw this movie, at the time of its initial release, I really liked it a lot. I didn't necessarily buy it as the "definitive Gen-X movie" or anything, but it still offered up a feast of pleasures: Wynona Ryder (who I don't normally like) at her sexiest and most appealing, a quirky and irreverent script, a *great* soundtrack, and the projection of a real "lived-in" feel amongst the main group of friends. Their hanging-out and their conversations with each other felt very genuine and unforced, and reminded me of times I'd spent with my own friends. People who criticize the film for "just showing young people sitting around" forget not only how much of life (even the enjoyable parts) is spent doing nothing particularly momentous, but equally how difficult it is to capture that elusive, just-sitting-around quality on film. Heck, I even thought Ethan Hawke was terrific (although this was due more to my inability to get over the fact that it was the same actor who played the nervous, uptight kid in Dead Poet's Society).Looking at it today, though. . . . well, I still like it, but I can see more clearly a lot of its flaws and why many people (particularly those of my age group, i.e. the Gen-Xers) didn't like it. It is a bit too self-important, and many of its moments feel forced. The romantic triangle aspect of the movie seems more like a gimmick to propel the action than as an idea anyone could seriously get behind. I'm still totally captivated by Ryder in this movie (weird, because I almost never care for her otherwise), but it feels wrong that she should end up with *either* of these two guys. Hawke and she have a believable and appealing chemistry, but he's really too much of a poster boy for Slacker-hood to be taken seriously as a romantic prospect. And Ben Stiller as the corporate yuppie is just too dweeby and annoying. His performance is the big weak link in the movie; he takes what could have been (and seems written as) an interesting, double-edged character of personal charm but deep insecurity, and turns him into a one-dimensional nerd whose tics and mannerisms grow increasingly more grating.And yet, there's just too many good things in this movie to write it off. The scenes with John Mahoney as the daytime talk show host - hilarious! Ryder's conferences with her clueless parents (I love when her mother, played as a perfect ditz by Swoosie Kurtz, lovingly calls her daughter "sugar booger"); any scene with Janeane Garofalo or Steven Zahn in it (this movie introduced me to both these actors, and I've enjoyed them more and more ever since); and, most memorably, the hilarious butchering that Ryder's student film receives at the hands of MTV. That scene makes me laugh uncontrollably every time I see it. It demonstrates Ben Stiller's greatest ability as a director: a profound media savvy and an ability to satirize not only television, but any form of pre-fabricated culture. His jaundiced yet playful eye takes in everything from Melrose Place to psychic hot-lines, Gap outlet stores and 7-11 Big Gulps and posits them as the type of cultural detritus that, for good or bad, a generation has come to view the world through. Nothing as coherent as a "statement" comes out of all this, but the film does provide an enjoyable fun-house mirror through which a certain segment of the population can find itself reflected, if perhaps imperfectly.So, yeah, not the film to end all films (and the worse for sometimes looking like that's what it's trying for), but certainly good for a few self-referential chuckles, and an appealing (if a bit slovenly) cast of characters to spend the evening with.
Reality or not?
posted on 06 Mar 2009I rented this movie knowing it wasn't really a comedy but a drama about the life of people in their early twenties in the 90's. What pushed me to rent it was the fact that many people qualified this film as horrible, but many other people loved this film and were talking about it like it was the most realistic thing ever. Let's face it. I'm not going to pretend to know what it's like to be a teenager/young adult in the 90's since I was 9 years old when this movie came out. However, I think I have a good enough judgement to tell if this movie was realistic or not based on my personal experiences.This movie isn't specially about the 90's, it's about "becoming an adult" and all it implies. It's about a cast of characters who hesitate between forever living what they were told is a pointless life [always having fun and bumming around] and becoming like the adults that they have criticized so much in their childhood. This, by itself, is very realistic, because it's a problem that many young people face even today. The main character Lalaina represents this fact completely. She's shooting a video of her friends as they struggle to find themselves in this world that was built by baby-boomers that they can't relate to. Also, she's a very clean-cut and hard working person, yet she hangs out with her friends who are more of the "rebellious" type. This movie tries to represent the "alternative" crowd. Each character in this movie has an "alternative" as well as a "conformist" side, which is very strange. By example, you have a female character who wears vintage clothes and lives in a typical artsy room but works at the gap. This is another side of what was mentioning earlier. As young adults, they're straying away from the whole "alternative-ness" of their teenage years. This is something I've seen among people I know as well, and that I personally dislike. I guess it's something very typical of our era as well as the 90's.What I found unrealistic in this movie was that the characters seem a bit cliché sometimes. Sure, I've seen people like that. But the personalities in the movie are too simplified. By example, there's the guy who always is slacking around doing nothing because he feels that having a full-time job until you retire is like wasting your life. Okay, but what else? What type of person is this guy, really? Also.. Each of the characters seem to act the way they do because they come from broken homes, which isn't very realistic in my opinion... The video that the main character has made is supposed to make their viewers know her friends and herself, but we don't really get to know them by watching the entire movie. Overall, I thought it was an enjoyable movie. I liked the atmosphere of it. It also wasn't always predictable. I gave this movie a 7 because I liked it even though I disliked some of it's aspects.
Not very good
posted on 01 Feb 2009I wish I could take credit for this, but alas I cannot. But, I think it as SPIN magazine that said, "Reality Bites, and so does the movie." A boring and overused story of a girl who must chose between two guys (as if they are the only two out there). One is a wannabe rockstar and the other is a yuppie. All you wish that she would do is go out and find someone else. Stereotypical and boring.This movie is about a group of friends that all graduate from college and move into a shared apartment. The main character (Winona) is an idealist that graduated top of her class that does not want to work for the man. She meets Ben Stiller (the yuppie) accidentally and the two start to date while the rockstar (Ethan Hawke) gets jealous and accuses her of being a sell-out for seeing the guy. The tension that happens between Ryder and Hawke has been overdone in about every Hollywood movie. Steve Zaun was good, but the direction to make him this boring, "I am just a quiet gay guy," was a bad choice.Jeanne Garafalo was very good in this movie and she made it more bearable and the direction and acting with her was great. I think there was a good effort, but it just seemed to fall short of what it was trying to reach. Maybe it was reaching for nothing and it was just meant to entertain, but I doubt it.
Whine with that documentary
posted on 26 Jan 2009Here is yet another movie where people in their twenties sit around and smoke pot all day. That is not all that we do and this movie has the most whiny and pathetic characters in it. This main character, Lelaina, is making a documentary about her friends after they graduate from college. It's not even good because all she does is just tape them laying on the couch and smoking pot. She also tapes a lot of whiny people who are so messed up about their parents divorce twenty years ago. I just wanted to tell them to get over themselves and get a job. I especially liked that jerk, Grant. He was so honest and so correct about Lelaina. I also didn't care about who she picked as a love interest. I really didn't like this movie that much.
what was this film aiming for?
posted on 27 Dec 2008I rate my movies by how much i feel they are worth watching. Thus "totally" equals a score of 10 and "don't bothers" like this one end up with 5 or below.The back cover of Reality Bites presents it as a commentary on life for 20-somethings in the 90s - with a love story to boot. It begins that way... but lapses soon enough into what is merely a clichéd love triangle tale between Winona Ryder's documentary-maker-wannabe Lelaina, Ethan Hawke's darkly handsome moody-muso-slacker Troy and Ben Stiller's likable yuppie Michael who, whilst adoring, "will never really get her". No props for guessing who she picks. The sad thing is that the deluded Lelaina ain't that deep, and it's her that isn't deserving of Michael.Overall you can tell the film is trying to say something, but what? I didn't enjoy watching it enough to bother chasing for meanings that mostly had to rely on the audience's imagination to be formed. Whatever the message was supposed to be is strangled by the sloppy script and dislikeable characters (can you say pretentious and whiny? The only character we're actually able to relate to, who doesn't seem to think the world revolves around him, is Michael - the yuppie! So what if he's a suit, he's the only one who isn't an a**hole).While Reality Bites manages to be reasonably entertaining throughout, it will leave you ultimately unsatisfied and more than likely bothered - it doesn't really explore or say anything favourable about those Gen-X-ers and the love triangle thing has been done a thousand times before, and better.
Reality? Winona - A genuine person
posted on 18 Nov 2008I have always really enjoyed Winona Ryder's performances. Once again she took what could have easily been a very conventional role and gave it some real humanity and depth. I have always been amazed at how good Winona Ryder has been in nearly every one of her performances. It surprises me that she hasn't yet won an Oscar. Though I suppose it is really something to even be nominated anyway. And I think perhaps for her it is probably better that she didn't. I have always felt that Winona Ryder possibly could be described as a "genuine, down to earth person trapped in an actors body." perhaps she's someone that might have chose a different life than that of an actor if she had it all to do over again. She has always appealed to me as the sort of person who just wants to be an average joe...oops- I meant "jane" who happens to act for a living. She certainly would be an interesting person to just sit and talk to about anything that has to do with 'nothing important'. The sort of person I could certainly identify with. I wish she lived in my neighborhood. I would love just to call her up and invite her to denny's for some simple coffee and chatter. There are not many actors nor people of any fame that I would feel comfortable trying to connect with. But somehow it isn't hard to see that she would really make a good friend once you sat down with her a few times and forgot about the her notoriety. I might also add that if she did indeed Rip off sacks 5th ave. I think it only helped reveal the fact that she is simply a human being. One with problems. One that is anything but perfect. One who has fears, and has trials in her life just like all of us. Winona seems genuinely to be the sort of person that has never let her fame go to her head and I think this is what makes her such a passionate performer. In some off beat way perhaps she shows the world a real part of herself coming through in her roles in film. The part of herself that is vulnerable, sometimes fearful of the world around her. Perhaps the sort of person that maybe would give anything just to be accepted as a regular person. As always her performance in 'Reality Bites' was brilliant. You can see that she both carries and strongly supports her fellow acting participants, and is often clearly carried and supported in the same way. The result is that you realize there is allot more to this woman than simply beauty. There is the obvious attractive characteristics that she has been lucky to be born with, but more importantly she sometimes allows us to see what a truly beautiful person she really is from within when she is willing to let us see it. There is no one like her in the world,and I for one feel pretty dammed cheated for not having the chance to get to know her. But not for who she is on the level of fame, but for who she is in her heart- a genuine person. And luckily I am grateful to at least sometimes see just a glimpse of it on occasion through the mist of what we call 'film'. Winona Ryder is unique and I for one am glad she is...simply by sharing her gift of humanity through her wonderful performances, I am a happier person in some small way knowing there are people like her in a world gone wrong.
Truly great film
posted on 18 Nov 2008'Reality Bites' is one of those movies that deserves a certain place in film history. It never became a great cinematic masterpiece, nor did it aspire to be. It simply is a movie about the true meaning of life...which is nothing. Humans are nothing more than their experiences. Who we are is directly relative to where we are and who we are with at a nameless point in time. I loved the raw reality of Troy's(Hawke's) mix of misdirected sorrow and dark love. I liked the wit and subtext that can only be related to by the non-shallow. I loved this film for everything it tried not to be and for everything it said in the process. Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder, Janeane Garofalo, and Steve Zahn form an outstanding cast.It's blatantly honest.
One of those movies that defined my life
posted on 04 Oct 2008Some films are great because of their escapism. Others are great because they transport you to a time or place that is exotic or different or unknown. "Reality Bites" is not one of those films.Instead, this is a movie that is great because it's true. I was a teenager when this film came out - too young to be living it but old enough to be afraid of it. (As another comment put it, I fall into that "skipped-over generation" between GenX and GenY). Despite that, this film stayed with me as I made all those decisions that people are supposed to make - going to college, graduating at the top of my class, and then... what? Now, ten years later, I can say I successfully surpassed "Reality Bites" and forged my own reality which doesn't, well, bite. But the confusion, the aimlessness, the frustration that life won't be the way you planned and the fear that maybe all the hard work won't pay off, well, that stayed with me.There were so many classic scenes in this film that I can't even begin to list them. I can just say that there's a general feeling with this film that the actors, the writer, the director... everyone just "gets it". They tap into what it's like to have followed all the predictable, next-step paths of life and done all the things we were supposed to do, and find at the end of them that instead of the keys to the city, we were handed a big giant blank. They know what it's like to be confused about life, confused about love, confused about pretty much everything... and be learning that a future is something you build one step at a time.I can't review "Reality Bites" without mentioning the soundtrack. There is no other movie whose soundtrack has made it into such heavy rotation in my CD player for so many years. Lisa Loeb, U2, Lenny Kravitz, and of course "My Sharona" - just to name a few - make this movie so much of what it is."Reality Bites" is a movie that people either love or hate. I think those who hate it don't quite understand it, and those who love it - like me - do so because we identify with it. That's why it ranks as one of my all-time favourites. 10/10.
Gen X refresher course
posted on 01 Sep 2008REALITY BITES (1994) ***1/2 Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, Ben Stiller, John Mahoney, Swoosie Kurtz, Joe Don Baker, David Spade, Anne Meara, Jeanne Tripplehorn, David Pirner, Evan Dando, Karen Duffy. Insightful, funny and smart comedy about recent college grads of Generation X: Lelaina (Ryder) wants to be a media artist but still remain with her pals but faces love and Hawke and Stiller (who made his directorial debut) as the platonic philosopher and video exec with a heart of gold, respectively, vying for her. Biting and witty screenplay by Helen Childress.
enjoyable
posted on 01 Sep 2008The most common criticisms of this movie were (in short): whining ne're-do-wells and pretentious acting/theme. Alright, I can see that.However, there are those that can empathize with the characters and appreciate their circumstances. It may be a gloss of Gen-Xers and the woes experienced by university graduates, but this is (in large) the nature of the movie medium. And Art, no matter what the medium, always seeks to filter out certain elements or details in favour of those details necessary to communicate the message. I believe 'Reality Bites' has accomplished this, if not for all people, at least for some -- and this is what ultimately matters. Those that are sensitive to the message will understand and need not articulate it to those whose experiences do not permit an honest understanding. Lastly, bitching about people bitching isn't 'ironic', but it is certainly a great parody of ego -- ie. of the hypocritical ego. The tone evident in some of these reviews border on a strange hostility. Yah, you have the right bitch. I guess. But, about people bitching? hmmm. . .
Well I like it.
posted on 09 Jul 2008First of all the cast really appealed to me. Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Steve Zahn, Janeane Garofalo and Ben Stiller on there day are all fine actors (but in recent years most have fallen in quality). Plus the fact that this is Ben Stiller directing feature debut.I think Reality Bites is a good look on sub-generation X twenty something's who venture into the big bad world in search of employment.I can associate with Hawke's somewhat tortured soul trying to get the girl he loves, but they are in the friendship group.I find Reality Bites a very intriguing, interesting and good piece of film making about life in the early 1990's7/10
Left-wing in the USA
posted on 09 Jul 2008A picture of left wing-wing generation X in the USA.These people should look like left wing? In Europe they would be far right-wing and superficial.As usual nothing made in the US, has any intellectual content, first of all Mr. Allen. Even people who claim to be intellectuals are too brainwashed by TV and hamburgers and 44oz. Colas (as cited in the movie)and MTV.America has them all in hand. In the end the bourgeois so called "left wing" is always a winner, when it comes to compromising with traditional American values.Nothing new, nothing well done. I wonder what US Anarchist do different? Do they eat at an "alterantive" fast food chain? Vote: 2/10, as an insult to real European "alternative" intellectuals (not burger intellectuals but real intellectuals).
Unfortunately, just achieves mediocrity
posted on 21 Jun 2008Not a particularly bad movie. Regrettably, not an especially good one either. We tend to be told more about the characters than actually see what they're like in action. Troy (Ethan Hawke) is supposed to be some sort of brilliant musician (and a deep thinker, too), but there's little evidence of that on screen. When Vicki (Janeane Garofolo) makes a speech about not wanting to be "the HIV AIDS character" on "some crappy show like Melrose Place," it's clearly a preemptive strike by the screenwriter, because her character IS just about that two-dimensional. Scenes are strung together with endless pop songs to make up for the lack of narrative drive, and the predictable storyline failed to surprise me even once. Winona Ryder and Ben Stiller meet cute. Ryder and Hawke have a love-hate relationship. The two secondary characters have their secondary problems. Ryder, the Sensitive Artist, has to decide whether to Sell Her Soul to Mammon in order to succeed. Having boinked once in the backstory, Ryder and Hawke get back together in the end. (Imagine my surprise.) Houston is pretty much wasted as the setting -- this could have been filmed in Atlanta or Cincinnati or Phoenix, for all it matters. This picture stays resolutely in the shallow end of the pool from start to finish. The actors are attractive and believable in their roles, and the dialogue sounds natural, but for me only Ben Stiller's kinda-sorta bad-guy yuppie Michael stands out with any memorability. Wish I could like it more than I do.
cute with Chris
posted on 20 Mar 2008i know some people will hate me for this, but i don't care. i just came here because i wish to show the power of the cute with Chris cult. wow this sounds corny. don't care tho! i don't even know what this movie is about. in fact, i didn't even know about this website. once again i just came here because a strange man with a plastic horse told me to. but you don't care! so stop reading this! its pointless! no wait - this thing has to be 10 lines? well then! i will talk about the movie then. but how will i get information on the movie? to wikipedia!! hahaha!!!lets see - reality bites - made by Ben stiller, he sounds familiar. the plot iiiiis - The film follows a group of recent college graduates living and loving in Houston,TX. Long-time friend, temporary roommate and angry starving artist Troy (Hawke) and his love interest, Lelaina (Ryder) are attracted to each other, though it's an attraction that neither of them has really acted upon as the film begins, one alcohol-influenced event in the past notwithstanding. He's a slacker and nihilist grunge rock musician by night, while losing job after job in a series of minimum wage dead end endeavors during the day - the last of which he loses early in the film because of stealing a candy bar from his employer. Troy's father, who is never seen on-screen, is dying of prostate cancer; this prompts Troy to remain close with his father when he can.Lelaina meets Michael (Ben Stiller) in what filmmakers call a meet cute scene: in an act of derision, she throws a cigarette into his convertible, causing him to crash into her car. The two soon begin to date. He works at an MTV-like cable channel as an executive, and after learning about her documentary, he wants to get it aired on his network. The film follows Lelaina as she struggles with her career and is forced to figure out whether it is Michael or Troy she wants.Lelaina's roommate Vickie (Janeane Garofalo) has a series of one-night stands and short relationships with dozens of guys, motivated by a fear of being alone compounded by a fear of rejection; her promiscuity leads her to confront a very-real risk of contracting AIDS. Vickie works as a sales associate for The Gap, a job she was initially reluctant to take. She was promoted to assistant manager and found that she had a talent for management.Friend Sammy (Steve Zahn) is gay; he remains celibate, not because of a fear of AIDS, but because forming a relationship would force him to come out to his conservative Republican parents. - all copyright to wikipedia, i suppose. copy and paste is great! :D. omg Sammy is gay!? yay gay peoples! i love gay people. well, not like that. or - like that? wow confused. OK now you can stop reading!P.S. - hello to all you crazy cat ladies! ;p
One sided view of "Gen X'ers" in the 90's
posted on 08 Mar 2008I know I couldn't personally relate to any of the characters in the movie.
I was 20 in 1994 when this movie came out, and my life was completely different from anything that's in the movie. What gets me about this movie is: Here are these kids who are disillusioned, full of angst, whining, complaining, riddled with self imposed drama, blah blah blah, but yet, when you really look closely, they're not bad off at all. College educations.
Daddy gives you the gas card and the BMW as your graduation gift, a nice spacious apartment that can accomodate three people living in it, killer wardrobe.....hmm, must be nice. These biggest problem in life for the characters in the movie was that their parents got divorced. Oh lordy lord, please......as they get to go over to their "divorced parents" large, nice house, and have a large lovely dinner with them. In '94 I was working anywhere from 2 to 3 jobs, bouncing from re-possessed house to re-possessed house with my then roommates who were my surrogate family, having the time of my life in the process, and hanging with kids who were truly getting the short end of the stick in life, completely thrown to the dogs, the kids who were the product of the new 90's parenting attitude of "throw your kids away". You know....the REAL aspect of society, family and life in the emerging 90's. We didn't get the luxury of "College Educations", free BMW's, gas cards, and our own, big spacious nicely decorated apartments in downtown Any City, USA like these people in Reality Bites do. This movie to me just does NOT portray the 90's that I know and saw and lived through. This movie is entertaining.....but not because it's realistic. Although I'm sure there are many who can relate to this movie, because they had an existance very similar to the characters in the movie....college, and / or valedictorian of the class, trying to carve a career out for yourself and climbing the ladder with high ambitions....etc. Just not me. And there is funny and amusing dialogue yes, but the amped up angst and overly dramatic scenes between Lalaina and Troy are just too much. Everybody takes the littlest things so seriously and amps it up to its maximum possible level...probably because they don't have any REAL problems in their life.
So of course the little things seem magnified, like the end of the world. My experience in the 90's also had a better soundtrack. ; )
"welcome to the maxi pad!"
posted on 02 Mar 2008Ben Stiller's directorial talents go unsurpassed in this one. It's a pity he's gone onto do typical slapstick, straying from the early days of his otherwise genius work. Though this movie probably comes in second to The Cable Guy. He so dutifully portrays the slacker lifestyle and'anything-goes-day-to-day' philosophy that defined the 90s and became the backbone of our slowly degenerating society, but at least he does it intelligently.Not only is this movie exemplary of the ever-changing front on a woman's place in society but the place of her opinions and the way she presents them (or rather doesn't, for that matter).
Interesting and sweet (SOME SPOILERS)
posted on 10 Sep 2007This film was one of the more mainstream offerings in the array of films that emphasized the overly hyped "Generation X" phenomenon, a list that ranges from Slacker to Singles and includes a host of other films. Winona Ryder stars as Lelaina, a recent college graduate. Out on her own and independent from her supportive, but out-of-touch parents, Lelaina faces the realities of careers and relationships. She can't stand her internship under a local television personality (John Mahoney), and she's forced to choose between Michael (Ben Stiller), a well-intentioned music-video network executive, and Troy (Ethan Hawke), a brooding, sensitive slacker. Meanwhile, she must also protect the artistic integrity of "Reality Bites," a video documentary that depicts the everyday lives of her friends (Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, and Steve Zahn). The first time I saw this movie I went insane! I saw it on the first day of school that year, so it started me off pumped. It meant so much to me, and accentuated and made sense of many parts of my life. I cannot explain how close I am to this movie. My best fiend saw it with me too, and we have been a lot closer since then.It was very smartly written, realistic as hell- not necessarily the actions, but the feelings behind the actions taken in this movie. As a drama/comedy, Reality Bites was great. The first half of the movie, though, was one of the funniest, darkest setups I have ever seen. A lot of sarcastic humor that many would call it whatever. It's got some of the best one liners I've ever heard. I will not go on and on about the ending, because other reviewers have overly voiced their 10 line opinions about how it's so good that it's gone past bad and back to good again or really "artsy and it sucks". About the ending, I will say this- It is not a normal Hollywood ending. That's good. Hollywood is redundant. Ghost World is one of the better teen or coming of age movie I have seen in a while. The story was very sweet, and it gives people who are hopeless (like myself) hope. This is because the beautiful AND unique dork of the movie gets to find true love! I don't usually see that in todays movies.The movie consists of many interesting characters, and the actors who played the characters did an outstanding job (especially Ben Stiller and the beautiful Winona Ryder). The settings in the movie was good, and I liked how the movie used different room colors for different occasions in this movie.There are some problems of this movie: 1. The movie was a little bit long, and sometimes the story drags. 2. Ethan Hawke character seemed pretty small, it would be nice to more a little bit of Ethan Hawke character.This movie was funny, sweet, and interesting. If you are sick of the ordinary kinda teen movies, you should watch this interesting little teen movie called Reality Bites:)If you liked this movie, I recommend Ghost World (2000), Election (1999), maybe Can't Hardly Wait (1998) and Psycho Beach Party (2000)
Good Flick
posted on 07 Sep 2007Reality Bites, yeah that pretty much sums it up. For anyone who didn't fall right into a 70'000 dollar a year job, business majors, boo. This movie has a great sound track and every time I watch it. I just get reminded of how much it sucks and is awesome to be a twenty-something. I mean on the one hand you have a shitty job and sometimes the future looks bleak, but on the the other hand you can still get away with sex,drugs, and rock and roll with out to many questions asked! Ethan Hawk is a major fox and his character just makes him all that much cooler. Thank you Reality Bites for giving me a nice concise definition of irony, in your face Alanis! This movie gives those of us who haven't fully explored or reached our career potential hope, and it totally justifies living in a shitty apartment with like 8 of your closest and job bearing friends! If you are ever having a bad day and you just need a little reminder that you're not the only one with massive issues pop this movie in and enjoy the mixed up lives of people slightly, it was the 90's when movie stars still looked somewhat normal, more attractive then yourself. Good Flick!!!
Music on the roof
posted on 17 Aug 2007Does anyone know the artist and title of the song that is used in the very beginning of the movie when Laney is filming her friends on the roof? As far as I know, there are no lyrics in it. It sounds a bit electric. I tried to find it on Google but that won't work. The song is not included on the soundtrack. Somehow it sounded really familiar to me. I can not upload the video part because I saw the movie on television. Please let me know if you have the answer! I really like this song so some help would be great. (I didn't really like the movie, I did like the music. For me, the movie was a bit too long and whining almost. But well that's my question and I hope someone can help me with it!)
The whiney side of post-80's materialism
posted on 26 Apr 2009REALITY BITES isn't without its good moments but it's overshadowed by completely self-absorbed, whiney characters that don't even get what they deserve in the end.This is often called the definitive Gen-X movie but I couldn't disagree more. Sure, in the early 90's there were plenty of people that moped around, assumed they were misunderstood genuises and thought that society owed them an entry-level job as an Executive VP making $200k per year, but we called them idiots and losers. There was nothing hip about that attitude back then, and why Ben Stiller decided to make a movie about it is beyond me. Stiller does infuse the film with a certain amount of yuppie hyper-pragmatism but it's potency is diluted by the stiffness of his own one-dimensional character. He's afraid to really challenge the ideas of the main characters with real, thought-provoking arguments (the kind that really teach you how to grow up), for fear of how his intended audience will react.
In the end, he is the cliche'd, uncreative, sellout yuppie who's easy to disagree with and label the bad guy. And that's pretty much true of any of the big, bad and bitter adults that won't let these young, misunderstand morose geniuses spread their wings and reach their potential. In the end these are just kids that are complaining that they didn't end up like Ferris Bueller. I guess reality bites.