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.