Review of Reality Bites (1994) by Ola G — 11 Jan 2013

Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder), a recent college graduate in Houston has aspirations to become a.

Documentarian, although initially she has to settle for a position as a production assistant to a rude and obnoxious TV host. She camcords her friends daily in a mock documentary of posteducation life. A lot of hard work goes into it and she dreams that someone will see it and like it. Troy Dyer (Ethan Hawke) is her best friend, a perpetually unemployed musical slacker with a history of having lost several minimum wage jobs. Vickie (Janeane Garofalo) is Lelaina´s roommate and a manager at the Gap. She is very sexually active and her promiscuity leads her to confront a very-real risk of contracting AIDS. Sammy Gray (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 parents. When Troy moves in with Lelaina and Vickie the tension between Troy and Leliana rises. They are not sure how to handle it and they clash heads instead. Via a car crash Lelaina meets Michael (Ben Stiller) an earnest video executive at a MTV-like cable channel called "In Your Face" and suddenly there´s someone who makes Lelaina feel appreciated and she´s smitten. They start dating and when Michael sees her homemade videotapes, he praise her and wants to bring them to his network and get them aired. Amidst this, there´s suddenly tension between Lelaina, Michael and Troy. Lelaina needs to figure out whom she wants to be with...

Been ages since I saw this movie (had forgotten most of it) and the first thing that struck me when seeing it again was how stunning, charming and beautiful Winona Ryder was/is. I had kind of forgotten about her. I fell in love with her yet again! I was all smiles through the movie.. This so called Generation X movie takes its label seriously and the script show us four characters satirizing the generation they exemplify and the culture of that generation. And the massive product placement creates as well another layer of irony as the characters in the movie are based around an independent and "un-commercial" philosophy. The characters are flawed, stereo- typical, naïve and carries condescending opinions about all and everything. This creates a dynamic of such, it fits within the film and its characters and it´s not a problem if you ask me. The drive of "Reality Bites" is the acting performances and all involved does a great job. Predominantly Ryder and Hawke. Great soundtrack with songs like U2s "All I Want Is You". This movie is a time document of an era I was highly involved in at the age of 22 and part of the Generation X. I can only say that reseeing "Reality Bites" was such a treat and I loved every minute of it.