Winona Ryder @50: the definitive "Reality Bites"

Team Experience is celebrating Winona Ryder this week for her 50th birthday

by Timothy Lyons

1994 was a watershed year for a young Winona Ryder. It started with her first Oscar nomination (and a Golden Globe win) for her performance in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence and would come to a close with the Christmas release of Gillian Armstrong’s superior adaptation of Little Women with Ryder’s performance as Jo leading to her second Oscar nomination in as many years (more on that tomorrow). Sandwiched between this diptych of heavily-costumed prestige pics was the release of Ben Stiller’s Reality Bites. Here was a film that would come to define a generation (Generation X) and featured the best, most natural, and luminescent performance of Ryder’s career.

I am a huge Winona Ryder fan - let me get that out of the way before we go further. She does however have a tendency towards the fidgety, the strangely mannered and vaguely uneasy in her performances. Sometimes this can lead to her work feeling slightly blank or disengaged, but more often than not (especially when called upon to play one of many outsiders) it is just right...

Click to read more ...

Winona Ryder @ 50: "The Age of Innocence"

by Cláudio Alves

It didn't take long for Winona Ryder to capture the Academy's attention. In 1990, Mermaids marked the young actress' first brush with awards buzz, and, three years later, The Age of Innocence cashed in on that promise. For playing May Welland, the fiancée, then wife, of Daniel Day-Lewis' Newland Archer, Winona Ryder was nominated for the Best Supporting Actress Oscar and probably came quite close to winning. She won the Golden Globe and Anna Paquin's win at the Oscars for The Piano was considered a surprise at the time. And yet, reading reviews from the time and even modern considerations, it's clear that Ryder's performance isn't as universally beloved as her victories might imply. Indeed, it's divisive work…

Click to read more ...

Winona Ryder @ 50: "Mermaids"

Team Experience is celebrating Winona Ryder for her 50th birthday this week

by Eric Blume

With more than a half dozen films behind her, this week's birthday girl Winona Ryder received her first major awards attention with 1990’s Mermaids.  This slight comedy-drama, directed by Richard Benjamin, garnered the young actress "Best Supporting Actress" from the National Board of Review and a Golden Globe nomination, too.  While that praise seems a little generous in hindsight, the film features some lovely work from Winona who is up against a very wobbly picture...

Click to read more ...

Winona Ryder @ 50: the iconic "Heathers"

Team Experience is celebrating Winona Ryder this week as we approach her 50th birthday

By Christopher James

Some talents are undeniable. Winona Ryder’s rise to stardom was quick. Her first leading role, as Veronica in Heathers, was only her fifth film. However, the ease at which she conveyed the dark comedy’s tricky tone spoke to a talent well beyond her years. In its theatrical release in the spring of 1989 Heathers barely made a dent at the box office, only grossing $1.1 million domestically. Today, it stands as one of the defining roles of her Ryder’s career. It was a launching pad and announcement to the world. She is neither achild star nor a scene stealer, but a leading lady with a one-of-a-kind screen persona.

Not only is Heathers my favorite performance from Winona Ryder, it also ranks as one of the best performances of a high school student ever. Veronica is on the Mount Rushmore of teen heroines alongside Cher from Clueless, Cady Heron from Mean Girls, Lady Bird and, of course, Carrie. In so many ways, Veronica combines attributes of all of those characters...

Click to read more ...

Winona Ryder @ 50: "Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice. Beetlejuice"

Team Experience is celebrating Winona Ryder this week as she turns 50.

by Ginny O'Keefe

He’s the ghost with the most, babe. It’s Beetlejuice. The wacky, morbid and over the top 1988 Tim Burton joint  revolves around Adam and Barbara Maitland (Alec Baldwin and Geena Davis) a couple living in an idyllic Connecticut countryside. They are tragically killed after their car swerves off a bridge and into a river. The thing is the film keeps following them and their perspective. Tracing their steps all the way back home which is when they realize…they’re dead! Once home they discover a book titled "Handbook for the Recently Deceased". Soon enough their house is sold to the Deetz family. Charles, his wife Delia and their daughter Lydia all moving out into the country from New York City. They begin to tear apart the house and make it their own. Barbara and Adam want them gone so it’s time to start haunting. Eventually they turn to someone (or something in the form of Michael Keaton) they never should have for help: Betelgeuse (pronunciation: beetle juice). 

The greatness of this film is its supreme wackiness. Nothing is too out there for this movie. It’s got sandworms, moving sculptures, Harry Belafonte musical numbers, dead caseworkers, Catherine O’Hara wearing gloves as a headband, goofy production design, and a perfect balancing of message and escapism. My favorite character in the film is Lydia played by the great Winona Ryder...

Click to read more ...