Review of Reality Bites (1994) by Eric On His Fantasy Quest V — 08 Aug 2009

"'Evian' is 'Naive' spelled backwards.".

- Vickie.

Life. Jobs. Friends. Love. Life is always funnier when it happens to someone else. Reality Bites is an irreverent portrayal of the harsh realities of life after college captures the misadventures of Lelaina, an ambitious TV production assistant, and her relationships with her sarcastic roommate, Vickie, friends Sammy and Troy, and an ambitious video executive, Michael. As her search for good jobs is difficult Lelaina chronicles her lives of her friends on film.

Directed by Ben Stiller, Reality Bites features great acting performances from the following cast:

1.) Winona Ryder (Lelaina).

2.) Ethan Hawke (Troy).

3.) Ben Stiller (Michael).

4.) Janeane Garofalo (Vickie).

5.) Steve Zahn (Sammy).

Reality Bites is the best film portrayal of a postgraduate life where, even if you're the valedictorian, it is often difficult to find the most desirable jobs and romance relationships. When I watched this I was surprised with many of the Generation X references throughout, whether by picture or by spoken dialogue, although the time setting was in the mid-'90s. The way Lelaina was chronicling her life on film was close to being The Real World to me. Nice to see the great acting performances from our characters - I was surprised with the short David Spade appearance at the burger joint! Plus, the soundtrack has a good selection of tracks to fit with the sequences and to keep them moving, including Lisa Loeb's #1 hit "Stay (I Missed You)". Beyond Reality Bites, the good thing about me is that, unlike the characters here, I'm still in college now, so I don't have to worry about the difficulties of life after graduation. :).