Reality Bites 10th

Director Ben Stiller offers an interesting snapshot of the mid nineties, presenting a curious perspective of that zeitgeist and its atmosphere.
Stiller himself, Winona Ryder and Ethan Hawke play three dazed and confused young adults who have to deal with troublesome situations and decisions in a turning point of their lives. The story focuses, with humor and some depth, the difficult and contrived process of growing up, offering characters that have contradictory views and ideas of the world.
The movie wisely covers multiple problems of the Genration X crowd, like the stuggle to find a decent job, the indecisions after graduation, the price of independence or the choices about love. Although this picture has a few years, it still seems fresh and poignant today, focusing situations that occur everywhere.

"Reality Bites" is a fine, witty and clever flick, that despite its somewhat predictable plot proves to be a noteworthy and entertaining effort. A little gem and a good one to watch with a group of friends, since most youngsters can relate to it.

This movie is about four recently graduated college friends who find adjusting to the real world to be tougher than they thought. They end up either working at jobs that they feel are beneath them or they just don't work at all. Meanwhile, their social lives are in turmoil. The story mostly centers around little Winona's character and the two men who compete for her affections. One of these men is played by Ethan Hawke as the penultimate 90's hipster slacker. He's an arrogant philosophy major/musician/poet who chain smokes, has nothing but contempt for people in "corporate America" (ie anyone who works), and has taken aggressive stances against getting a job, shaving, and washing his hair. In other words: Ethan Hawke plays a complete jerk! The other male character is played by Ben Stiller- a hard working TV executive who is very nice. However, in the end the nice guy finishes last as little Winona hooks up with her slimy, leech of a friend. I still remember leaving the theater and saying to myself: "What the heck was that all about?"

I guess this movie is the sort that divides the sexes in their opinions. Every guy I know who has seen this movie finds Ethan Hawke's character to be a contemptible creep. Yet, when I ask women why Winona chooses the jerk in the end they roll their eyes at me and say: "It's Ethan Hawke and he's hot!" My guess of where this movie went awry was that Ben Stiller was incapable of playing his character as a shallow "suit" which is what the script probably called for. Instead, Stiller's inate sweetness transformed his character into the "nice guy" without his realizing it. Thus, people, who can look beyond Hawke's scuzzy good looks, will end up just astonished that Winona chooses the jerk over a good man.