25th Anniversary: "Reality Bites"
Wednesday, February 20, 2019 at 2:39PM by Mark Brinkerhoff
Sandwiched between (and oft-overshadowed by) the so-called Baby Boomers and Millennials, Generation X, those born between 1965-1980, seems to get little attention from Hollywood — or from anyone, really. In fact, just last month CBS infamously omitted Gen X in an otherwise comprehensive chart, “Generation Guidelines Defined by Birth Year.” For Gen Xers (of which I am one), this was generally considered as simply par for the course. Of course, of course, of course!
But 25 years ago this week, we got our cinematic Valentine in the form of Reality Bites, the seminal film of a “forgotten” generation...
Released in U.S. theaters on Feb. 18, 1994, Reality Bites centers on a quartet of newly-graduated twentysomethings, college friends in Houston who are trying to figure out their future in a blasé reality that doesn’t square with pre-conceived notions — and parental expectations — of success. It stars Gen X’s ultimate ‘90s superstar, Winona Ryder, alongside Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller, the film’s newbie director (whose D.P., incidentally, was none other than Emmanuel “Chivo!” Lubezki). An of-the-moment film, with a knowing script by first-time screenwriter, Helen Childress; and a stellar supporting cast of then up-and-comers, Janeane Garofalo and Steve Zahn, as well as veterans like John Mahoney and Swoosie Kurtz (not to mention blink-and-you’ll-miss-them cameos from Jeanne Tripplehorn, Stiller’s offscreen girlfriend at the time, and Renée Zellweger in her first credited role in a movie (though you can also spot her in Dazed and Confused the year before!), Reality Bites must’ve seemed sure-fire on paper. Naturally, it sank like a stone (relatively speaking), grossing just $20 million in the U.S. against an $11-ish million budget.
For those who managed to see it in theaters (or on video, cable, etc.), the cult following around Reality Bites is hardly surprising. The film is not only a breezy 94 minutes long, it’s also archly comical—chock full of smart quips and rejoinders that make the movie endlessly quotable.
- “I truly believe that if we can get two women on the Supreme Court, we can get at least one on you.”
- “You don’t have to put [valedictorian] on your application.”
- “Oh, who told you that, Your psychic partner?”
- “He's weird, he's strange, he's sloppy, he's a total nightmare for women... I can't believe I haven't slept with him yet.”
- “[My social security number] is the only thing I really learned in college.”
- “I'm late for a jean-folding seminar. Let's locomote!”
- “‘Melrose Place’ is a really good show.”
Without delving too much into plot details — there’s an IMDb page for that — that Reality Bites deals head-on with some heady subjects (coming out to family, dealing with the prospect of HIV/AIDS, feeling the weight of un—or under—employment, etc.) is to its credit. Admirably, it also treats its characters, by and large, subtle and broad, compassionately. There’s no coddling or slut-shaming. The awful truth is delivered humiliatingly at times, but also lovingly. Against this backdrop is Ryder’s protagonist, caught between what her head (Stiller) and her heart ultimately want (Hawke), an aspiring documentary filmmaker whose obvious talent is not (yet) appreciated, and whose matter-of-fact depression can’t vanquish her resilience. Her Leland Pierce eschews “likeability” for embracing complicated feelings, actions and outcomes. She’s real.
Why Reality Bites has endured so well, at least among a subset of movie lovers, can be chalked up to this: though a total time capsule — those clothes! that giant cell phone! — its central theme of growing up and awkwardly into your own is timeless, regardless of generation. It also happens to house arguably Ryder’s single best performance, one that so perfectly encapsulates the ennui and indignities of early career and adulthood. That this came out the same year as Little Women, a fine film (and performance) for which she was Oscar-nominated, serves as a reminder that the Academy is ever prone to nominating the right actor for the “wrong” role. But I digress…
“A comedy about love in the ‘90s,” as the film’s tagline read, actually is more aptly described as a comedy about friendship in your twenties. Because Reality Bites is, most of all, a story of friendships—friends you grow up with, friends you grow apart from, friends you come back to, and friends you come through for (and they for you), when it’s needed most. There is, for some, the friend you fall in love with (gradually, over time), and the friend whose love is (and only can be) purely platonic, which can be the most profound, enduring kind of love anyway. It’s friends like these who help us become whom we’re meant to be.
Reality Bites is available on iTunes and Prime Video, and also is streaming now on Starz.
Reader Comments (15)
Is there a better gif than the My Sharona dance at the shop.
I laffed my way all the way through Reality Bites when it debuted in 1994, but a few years later it seemed a little too self-conscious about all the hipster pop cultural references ("I broke your Dr. Zaius"). But it would be really fun to see again for its cast - what a time capsule, indeed!
Oh Mark, the feels! As an impressionable 18 year old, I wanted to be just like Troy Dyer and have the same messy, intense, cool friends. Happy 25th Reality Bites!
Not at all the wrong role, but this is the righter role. Used All I Want Is You very well, and features more great work from Ethan Hawke.
But Ryder is exceptional.
Ah, this movie. It truly is a time capsule...I just rewatched it for a podcast, and it's really something. It was hard for me to enjoy this time around, being older and (maybe?) wiser. The Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder characters were just too annoying for me to enjoy and it felt like Janeane Garofalo and Steve Zahn were woefully underserved. Still, fond memories!
Thank you for writing about this. As a generation Xer myself the erasure of our generation is REAL. And I saw this movie in theater four times no joke. Loved it so much then. Still love it. And maintain that Winona Ryder should have won the Oscar for it. 1994 was a weak year for Best Actress (if you go by their selections) but as is nearly always the case with "weak years" it's only because they didn't look hard enough at less 'traditional' choices in great acting.
I, too, love this movie and agree that it feels like a time capsule of a bygone era (how did we get this old?). I had no idea it was streaming on Starz - now I know what I'm going to watch tonight.
I feel that in many ways Hawke is the quintessential Generation X actor; I can trace my whole life through his films. It has given me a more personal relationship to him than pretty much any other film star.
Good call Suzanne. I might have initially said Brad Pitt if asked that question, but Hawke is the better answer.
A grotesque movie. I suppose it was cool to get laffs out of Jeaneane Garafalo thinking she caught HIV while Steve Zahn has the only reason to worry and the film barely acknowledges his position. I also hate it for making Ben Stiller likable, unintentionally.
I freaking LOVE this movie. But I wonder sometimes if it's really any good.
Is this one of those “you had to see it at the right age” films? I’m Gen X, but didn’t see this til the early 2000s, at which point it didn’t do much for me.
Mileage may vary, certainly, but it *is* very much a time-and-a-place experience for some. Now "good" can be a relative metric, but I think Reality Bites still holds up pretty well as '90s touchstone that still is (re)watchable.
Suzanne: YES. I was just thinking that the other day after seeing him in JULIET, NAKED and FIRST REFORMED. Of the actors of his generation (which is also my generation), he's had the most consistently interesting and in many ways most successful career, if you count success in the quality of his films rather than their box office. He's never been a particular favorite of mine as an actor, and yet he's somehow been in many of my favorite movies in the last 20-25 years. In that sense he's Gen X at its best.
As for REALITY BITES, I saw it in a theater with my best friend from high school and remember she liked it but I thought it was kind of shallow. But it has indeed stayed in my mind as a perfect encapsulation of young Gen X and the '90s, from Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke at their most fetching to Lisa Loeb's "Stay" to the movie's surprisingly delicate treatment of heavy topical subjects like coming out, AIDS, and MTV. Funnily enough, someone gave me a DVD copy of it years ago but I never got around to watching it. Perhaps I should now.
I can't believe it;s been 25 years. I also can't believe that Helen Childress, who definitely deserved a WGA nomination if not an Oscar nomination for that screenplay, didn't have another credit until just last month with that Nellie Bly movie that aired on Lifetime.
This and Cameron Crowe's "Singles" are the perfect pair to give us the Ultimate Gen X Time Capsule.