Review of Reality Bites (1994) by Alethea D — 19 May 2013

I didn't see this until I was in my mid-thirties, and that's just too old. I'm at the tail end of Gen X, just a few years younger than the characters (if not the actors). And I get it, and it kind of rang true, but mostly it rang superficial.

Maybe if I'd had more of an upper-middle-class success-only childhood, I could have identified more, but I think that by the time I got to college I'd already failed at enough stuff that I didn't have any ideas about taking the world by storm at 23.

The movie is a bit uneven and doesn't quite make sense. Poor Steve Zahn is the token gay friend . . . but nothing else, really. We don't even see him struggle with his sexuality except when he comes out to his mother, and we don't even see that happen.

Ethan Hawke is supposed to be a genius but we're never told why. If spouting literary references makes you a genius then he can get in line behind pretty much everyone else I know. Slamming Michael/Ben Stiller as "the guy for whom Cliff Notes were invented" is a ridiculous cheap shot since there isn't any evidence, really, that Tony isn't cruising on Cliff Notes, as well.

Here it seems more like tool to charm his sucker friends and avoid doing anything productive. He also seems like an egotistical hypocrite, telling Lelaina "not to think for herself" when Michael likes her dress .

. . which is really no different than Tony telling her he doesn't and expecting her to listen to him. Even Ben Stiller/Michael kind of failed as a yuppie creep because a) he really does seem to care about Lelaina, and we all make dumb mistakes when we're young and new at whatever we're doing, and b) he still manages to one-up pretentious hairball Tony with logic.

I can see why I would have loved this when I was 22, but I can also see why I outgrew it.