Check Out the Trailer

If this film is supposed to represent Generation X then we’re a pretty shallow lot. The central characters pretend to be about something more than the establishment, but in reality they’re slacker rich kids who feel they have some kind of entitlement. The film pretends to be rebellious, but in the end the Man wins because the righteous cool kids are really a bunch of posers.

Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder, EDWARD SCISSORHANDS) is supposed to be the valedictorian, but can’t even remember her graduation speech when she misplaces a page. She is filming a documentary about her friends who are all kids of divorced parents. It’s supposed to be a deep look at her generation’s identity. Troy Dyer (Ethan Hawke, DEAD POETS SOCIETY) is a pretentious fledgling rocker who dropped out of school just shy of a Philosophy degree. He’s such a rebel. Vickie Miner (Janeane Garofalo, MYSTERY MEN) is promiscuous and fears getting AIDS. She currently works at the GAP until who knows, because we never find out much more about her. Sammy Gray (Steve Zahn, HAPPY, TEXAS) is their obligatory gay friend. One day Lelaina throws her cigarette into the convertible of Michael Grates (Ben Stiller, ZOOLANDER), who happens to be a producer at the MTV-on-steroids TV network, In Your Face. When he starts dating Lelaina, Troy becomes jealous and a jerk.

Lelaina and Troy are supposed to be sympathetic, but they turn out to be whiners. Lelaina hates her job at the cheesy morning show, which any recent graduate would kill to have. Then acts surprised when she gets fired for sabotaging a live program. But her documentary is so brilliant. That’s what everyone says, but it’s not what we see. So often fictitious brilliant artist never work, because their work is never as brilliant as all the characters in the film say they are. For the most part of the film, all we see Troy do is loose jobs for justifiable reasons, sit around the house and turn up his nose at the successful “sell-out” Michael. He’s a jerk at every moment, as well as a fraud. Writer Helen Childress and director Stiller keep trying to convince us that Troy is “real,” when he has the biggest front of all the characters. In the end, Michael turns out to be the most sympathetic character, because he’s at least being himself.

When Lelaina loses her job and Michael offers her a dream come true opportunity, she turns it down then exploits her father’s kindness so she doesn’t have to work at the GAP. In an effort to make their characters so principled about their art, they make them idiots and brats. When Michael makes a mistake, the film quickly writes him off as a moron and then for added measure takes cheap shots at his intelligence. Troy turns out to be a bully plain and simple. At every turn, the surface characterization and self-righteous attitude undermines the film’s heroes. While in the end we believe Lelaina and Troy deserve each other, it’s not for the right reasons.

Support the Site

Buy “Reality Bites” Here!