Remember Gen X? This is why you forgot it.
Reality Bites (1993)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:41
Fresh:26
Rotten:15
Average Rating:5.9/10
Runtime: 1 hr 49 mins
Genre: Comedies
Synopsis: Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder) faces life after college, using a video documentary about her confused and drifting friends to advance her ambitions in the entertainment industry. When a video... Lelaina Pierce (Winona Ryder) faces life after college, using a video documentary about her confused and drifting friends to advance her ambitions in the entertainment industry. When a video executive (Ben Stiller, also making his directorial debut) becomes romantically interested in her, she is forced to choose between her slacker boyfriend (Ethan Hawke) and the big cruel world of adulthood lurking ahead. [More]
Starring: Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo
Starring: Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, Swoosie Kurtz, Joe Don Baker, John Mahoney, Renée Zellweger, Harry O'Reilly, Susan Norfleet, James Rothenberg, Eric Morgan Stuart, Barry Sherman, Chelsea Lagos, Bill Bolender, Jubal Palmer, Marti Greene, Helen Childress, David Pirner, Andy Dick, Keith David, Anne Meara, Mick Lazinski, Amy Stiller, Afton Smith, Pat Crawford Brown, Karen Duffy, Evan Dando
Director: Ben Stiller
Director: Ben Stiller
Screenwriter: Helen Childress
Producer: Danny DeVito
Composer: Karl Wallinger
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Reviews for Reality Bites
A romantic heart, caustic wit, and the energy of its fresh cast ensure the film's continued appeal.
Although it never became the definitive document of Generation X, Reality Bites is a touchstone for anyone just out of college and stuck with more ideals than job prospects, not to mention a head full of bad-TV trivia.
In 1994, the novelty of seeing a romantic comedy written and directed by, as well as starring, people in their early 20s made for a certain freshness, but after a point this 'youthfulness' consists of little more than TV references.
It's often genuinely funny -- but it's still an establishment picture pretending it's not.
Reality Bites begins as a promising and eccentric tale of contemporary youth but evolves into a banal love story as predictable as any lush Hollywood affair.
Ben Stiller's feature directorial debut is a zeitgeust comedy, whose significance is more sociological than cinematic--It's "The Big Chill" for the twentysomething crowd in the Age of Clinton and AIDS.
Gen Xers looking for a good time probably found themselves cheated at having been pigeonholed like this and watching the film's fun, ironic beginning give way to goopy pathos.
There's probably a moderate little romantic comedy crying to get out here, but the film's vain striving for casual hip proves suffocatingly obtrusive.
Terrible Gen-X romantic comedy. Glorifies the loser at the expence of the successful guy. There's no basis for love, and the silly dance scene and "reality show" are just lame.
Like the generation it presents so appealingly, it doesn't see any point in getting all bent out of shape and overambitious. But it knows how to hang out and have a great time.
| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 15% 15% | The Ugly Truth |
| 98% 98% | Up |
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| 52% 52% | The Taking of Pelham 1… |
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 36% 36% | Angels & Demons |
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| 25% 25% | Four Christmases |
| 45% 45% | Shorts |
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