Reality Bites
Year: 1994
Grade: C
Country: USA
Director: Stiller
Reviewfirst saw this in the theater with teresa kacena. hadn’t seen it since. i remember thinking that it wasn’t a great film when i saw it, but i think teresa liked it so i felt kinda uncool. she was cool and she liked the characters in spite (hopefully not because) of their promiscuity and drug use so maybe i was missing something. it’s kind of a film within a film. the documentary that follows ryder’s group of friends which is all about her generation is basically the non-fiction version of what stiller is trying to do with reality bites. i don’t think he really succeeds though. there are mild concerns about the economy and aids as well as relationships and the usual 20 something ennui. i guess i’ve just always been too old for this film. singles does the same basic thing better if you ask me. it’s a time of life that i just don’t relate to very well, at least as presented in films from the 80s and 90s. the graduate is about the same time in a young man’s life and it’s my favorite film, but in that film there seems to be more purpose, even when he is “just floating along,” as he puts it. here the characters seem to lack purpose and are self-destructive and self-important. this is not to mention naive, clueless and not grown up. those last things, though, are perfectly understandable traits given the age.
the ending is pretty lame. ryder isn’t a great actress.