Reality Bites (1994)
Directed by Ben Stiller
A small circle of friends suffering from post-collegiate blues must confront the hard truth about life, love and the pursuit of gainful employment. As they struggle to map out survival guides for the future, the Gen-X quartet soon begins to realize that reality isn't all it's cracked up to be.
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What critics compared Reality Bites to
And Gillian Armstrong’s affectionate 1994 film, beloved by ’90s kids, was Little Women gone Reality Bites as Jo (Winona Ryder) faces a romantic choice between slacker-next-door Laurie (Christian Bale) and older, nerdy Professor Bhaer (Gabriel Byrne).
It's a reeled-back performance that reminds of the straight men he used to play back in the mid-'90s "Reality Bites" era, but he isn't a standout.
Though his leading man status has gone from encouragingly superb to incorrigibly bland, Ben Stiller’s succinct filmography as a director carries a more respectable reputation (Tropic Thunder, Zoolander, Reality Bites).
FROM Reality Bites to Tropic Thunder, Ben Stiller makes intriguing and varied films whenever he sits down in the director's chair.
So, in 2013, the task rests in the reliable – if not entirely expected – hands of actor Ben Stiller, who has steadily built up his directorial CV with challenging comedies The Cable Guy and Tropic Thunder, not to mention the surreal Zoolander and his debut feature, the oh-so-1994 Reality Bites.
The then-sketch comedy star’s 1994 directorial debut Reality Bites is a rom-com that aspires to say something about being an adult in the early 90s - he even cast himself as the go-getting, no-fun member of the central love triangle.
This noncommittal job setup, too, is part of what lends the movie a kind of “90s feel” with the “slacker energy” of the characters (think: Empire Records or Reality Bites).
Julie’s restlessness makes her a love/hate fascination; the film may speak to millennials much like “The Big Chill” did to boomers and “Reality Bites” to Gen-Xers.
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A couple of conspicuous stylistic choices (like printing subtitles in Template Gothic, a very dated typeface whose heyday was Reality Bites ) might cause one to wonder if Gunn wants to do for the ‘90s what he did for ‘70s AM radio fluff in Guardians .
It no longer reflected the bra-burning activism of our mothers; rather, ‘90s feminism was about defining strength in womanhood, whether it be physically (à la Sarah Connor in Terminator 2 ) or tossing out the idea of an “emotional” female (see: Daria ) or simply, defining who you are (like Lelaina Pierce in Reality Bites ).
Generation Xers railed against it, or so we were informed in movies like “ Reality Bites .”
Star/auteur Ben Stiller has only directed a handful of previous movies (the most memorable for audiences was probably Reality Bites ), but his directing aspirations go all the way back to 1990 and The Ben Stiller Show , the 13-week flop that failed so badly Fox didn’t even broadcast its final episode, but which somehow launched not only Stiller’s career but that of Judd Apatow, Janeane Garofalo, Bob Odenkirk, David Cross and Andy Dick.
The usually offensive Ben Stiller ("The Cable Guy"/ "Zoolander"/"Reality Bites"), who thinks anything he does is funny, directs, cowrites (with Justin Theroux and Etan Cohen) and stars in a film that has the distinction of being bad as both an action pic and as a comedy.
Coogan himself blows up early when he steps on an old French colonial landmine, but the movie explodes at the same moment: the script has too few ideas about narcissistic and insecure actors and studio tyranny to keep the plot moving, and Stiller settles for that blend of vitriolic nastiness and broad buffoonery that I never thought he'd settle for way back in the days of The Ben Stiller Show and Reality Bites.
"Reality Bites," which he starred in with Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke, was a funny, hip Gen-X romantic comedy, but it died a quick death at the box office.
Already something of a comic legend due to his acting accomplishments, Stiller has always achieved more interesting results with his directorial efforts (“Zoolander,” “Reality Bites,” and the unfairly maligned “The Cable Guy”).
As for working for director Stiller (who also directed 2001’s “Zoolander,” “Reality Bites” and a few others), Jackson said: “Ben knows what he wants.
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…or The Goonies directed by Ridley Scott with a strong assist from Reality Bites…
She’s most heavily associated with Gen-X essentials of pre-Internet alienation and dislocation like “Reality Bites,” “Heathers,” and “Beetlejuice,”…
…conflict as a standard-issue, Reality Bites-esque choice between two representative women, and the way the story ends just as it finally sets aside its many fuzzy, inchoate questions and reaches a point of real relevance.