Let's Do Some Carnage:

PLOT SYNOPSIS:

Lelaina is one of a several recent college grads. She lives with her best friend Vicki and works at a local television station for a jerk talk show host. And she's put together a home movie about herself and her circle of friends. One day Lelaina runs into a young cable TV executive named Michael, who suggests he turn her documentary into a project for his channel. As Michael and Lelaina become romantically involved, her grungy friend Troy begins to disapprove of the way her life's heading. But Troy actually loves her, and soon she has to come to several important decisions about herself and her documentary.

JANEANE'S CHARACTER:

Reality Bites gave Janeane her first true movie acting role. Vicki is something of a hardass. She's tough, independent and cynical, and (gulp) works as a manager of a local GAP store. Yet she also projects warmth and charm. Towards the end of the movie, Vicki allows Janeane to show a greater depth as the character goes through an AIDS scare, and the actress delivers the goods. Her character being a fan of 70s culture, Janeane sports a very uncharacteristic retro look in Reality Bites, and it's a nice change.

MY REVIEW:

**1/2

Stiller's motion picture directing debut is an entertaining piece of work, even if it never quite knows exactly what it is. Promoted as a realistic "Generation X" tale, it does cover the topic well enough, capturing attitudes, fashion, and music. The aimlessness of youth is captured quiet well, with characters stuck in low paying jobs they hate, or, in Hawk's case, none at all. The lack of motivation is not only a part of some of the characters, it also defines them. They're intelligent and generally decent, but are somewhat resentful of society and what it expects from them. This is an interesting approach to a comedy, and does provide some honest insight to the target insight, but it also makes the film rather across as down right whiny.

Considering the publicity for the film was built on the Gen-X concept, it's surprising that director Stiller goes off onto such a obvious and predictable path in the final half hour. It becomes another generic romantic comedy with a love triangle plot. It's a shame that it does go this way, as it leads to a rushed and uninspired resolution. It's not that's it's not satisfying, because if you feel for the characters, it does work. But it could have been something fresh, which it is simply isn't.  

The cast is what makes the material work. Ryder is wonderful and appealing as always, and perfectly cast. Her sweet, tom boyish-yet attractive look is just right for the movie. From the first time you see her as Leilaina, you want her to succeed in every way. Stiller casts himself as the yuppie Michael, a role that requires him to be both endearing and a bit of a tool. The relationship between he and Leilaina just doesn't seem meant to be, but Stiller's effortless charm makes it easy to root for him. Which is more than get be said for Hawk's Troy. This character comes off as a jerk throughout the whole film, despite some elements that provoke sympathy. But his smug and self-righteous attitude is a total turn off. Some comments towards Leilaina are just plain cruel, while his dislike for Michael is completely unfair.

I like Hawke the actor in stuff like Training Day, but he's stuck playing an asshole here...and he's the leading man. Zahn, who's gone on to be a very reliable and likable performer in a number of roles, doesn't get to contribute much here. As their closeted friend, he's good and understated, but it's a shame he didn't get more to work with. The supporting cast is top notch, right down to the brief cameos.  

Reality Bites is a film with good performances, sharp dialogue and fun set pieces (such as the memorably cute dance number set to My Sharona in a 7-11), but it ultimately doesn't come together as a whole. Nice try, though, and a pretty good directorial debut for Ben Stiller.

Movie Gazette

By rights, 'Reality Bites' shouldn't really have the reputation it has. Now ten years old, it's become revered as something of a cult classic, lauded by its fans as the movie that spoke for a generation. In fact, you'll be hard pushed to find a single review of it that doesn't include the phrase "Generation X" somewhere along the line. Hell, I've just done it myself - and I'd promised myself I wouldn't. But I can't help but feel that, stripped of its hyped faux relevance, it possesses little to suggest it's anything more than a generic, if slightly above-average, rom-com.

It's typical young-attractive-people-in-love-triangle stuff. Lelaina (Winona Ryder) has just graduated Uni, and she captures that increasingly common post-student annoyance perfectly in that she's now unable to get herself a decent job. So she spends her days making home videos of questionable quality and hoping that one day they'll pave the way to a career in documentary-making. Remarkably (given how resoundingly poor her films are), her dream looks like it could be about to come true when she meets yuppie go-getter Michael (Ben Stiller), a rising hot-shot with MTV doppelganger 'In Your Face'.

Michael promises to show her tape to his bosses but, more importantly, the pair are soon dating. Not best pleased with these developments is Troy (Ethan Hawke), Lelaina's sometime lodger, sometime best friend, and full-time soap-dodging couch-surfing waster. He's secretly got the man-sweats for Lelaina, and is more than happy to act the spoiled brat in order to prove it.

So, who should she choose? Well, in any sane world it would be Michael, a thoroughly decent bloke who's also willing to do a bit of work to get somewhere in life. But, in the world of 'Reality Bites', our hero is supposed to be Troy, a rude, arrogant, wispy-bearded dullard who appears to spend each and every day wearing exactly the same t-shirt. Apparently, you see, he's the good guy here, because he'd rather simultaneously sponge off AND look down his nose at those who dare even attempt to achieve any level of success. What a guy!

Much of the story just doesn't ring true, particularly as we're shown little evidence of the supposed friendship between Troy and Lelaina (they spend most of their scenes together rubbing each other up the wrong way). The ending is a cut-and-paste job from countless other romantic comedies, only with the added annoyance of being wholly unsatisfying.

Thankfully, Ben Stiller's first attempt at feature-length direction is funny in places, decently performed and generally entertaining enough to gain pass marks - but it's certainly nothing special.

DVD Extras: There's only a trailer.

It's Got: A pre-'Bridget' Renee Zellweger in blink-and-you'll-miss-her mode as one of Troy's throwaway conquests.

It Needs: An updated version, just to let us know whether or not Troy's had a wash yet.

Alternatives: Chasing Amy, The Breakfast Club

Summary: What is reality coming to?

Review by Gary Panton
Review Date: 24th November 2004

Reelviews

A Film Review by James Berardinelli

Date Released: 2/18/94
Running Length: 1:39
Rated: PG-13 (Language, sex)

Starring: Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, Ben Stiller
Director: Ben Stiller
Producers: Danny DeVito and Michael Shamberg
Screenplay: Helen Childress
Music: Karl Wallinger
Released by Universal Pictures

Take a typical romantic comedy, add a dash of Cameron Crow's Singles, and top it off with a little When Harry Met Sally, and you get Reality Bites, Ben Stiller's feature film debut, and the movie that draws out the most memorable performance from Winona Ryder since Heathers (The Age of Innocence not excepted).

Following college graduation, four close friends - Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder), Troy Dyer (Ethan Hawke), Vicki Miner (Janeane Garofalo), and Sammy Gray (Steve Zahn) - are still hanging out with each other. In fact, after Troy loses his job and moves in with Lelaina and Vicki, three of them are living together. It's life without a direction, however. Vicki is working at the Gap, Troy is unemployed after being fired from his twelfth job, and Lelaina is on the slow track working for a local morning television show. Their personal lives are no less settled, with the promiscuous Vicki obsessed with getting AIDS, and Lelaina trying to choose romantically between best friend Troy and an MTV-type station manager yuppie named Michael Grates (Ben Stiller).

Reality Bites starts with a lot of promise, but it doesn't take long for its freshness to wear thin. Struggling for the feel of Singles, the film matches neither the quirkiness nor the honest insight of the 1992 feature. It doesn't take long for the central romantic conflict to become established, and from then to the conclusion, Reality Bites follows a number of standard formulas. The characters are all types, with little or no depth beyond the expected. This is true not only of the central figures, but the supporting ones as well. It becomes tiresome after a while to continually make accurate predictions of what each character is going to do.

Commercialism runs rampant, as well. Some of the product placements are grossly obvious (so obvious that I'm willing to give director Ben Stiller the benefit of the doubt and wonder if he isn't satirizing their use in other movies), and the soundtrack has all the marks of something designed to sell CDs and tapes. At least when Troy is required to sing, it's actually Ethan Hawke dubbing the vocals.

There are some clever moments, the best of which are the satires of MTV-type "cutting edge" programming. Also enjoyable is John Mahoney as a Phil Donahue-like morning talk show host who's affable in front of the camera, but nasty offstage.

Winona Ryder turns in a strong performance as Lelaina, but she is often upstaged by Janeane Garofalo, who has all the best one-liners. Both work well together, and their impromptu dance to "My Sharona" (shown in all the commercials) is one of Reality Bites' silliest highlights. Would that the chemistry between Ms. Ryder and her male co-stars was as strong. There are no sparks between her and Ethan Hawke or Ben Stiller. This makes it difficult to care about the central romance. Also, from the beginning, there's never really any doubt about who Lelaina is going to end up with.

Frankly, I expected more from Reality Bites. It's certainly a watchable film, but it lacks any semblance of originality. Beneath a thin veneer of style lie buried all the old cliches and formulas of typical romantic comedies. A number of people, especially fans of Ms. Ryder, will be delighted by this film, but I can't add my voice to their acclaim. Reality Bites is far too ordinary.