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Such a frustrating disappointment

Best movie ever!

The acting in this movie is really good.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Winona was great.Ben was average, directing was decent.Steve and Jan were barely there.And Ethan was a complete failure. He is the pivot point that does not turn.There is no poignancy to this narrative.There is nothin funny about this movie. 'Nuff said.

Reality Bites is basically a case of putting a trendy patina on a shopworn romantic comedy cliché. The film is something of a paradox; it's specifically about the reality of finding a job and love in an unforgiving world, and tries to spell out, in pretty big letters, that people in the nineties had "issues" to deal with. But therein lies the films problem - its sheer glibness; serious issues like job globalization or the advent of AIDS appear as snapshots, almost reduced to an exercise in style. In numerous shots, the "real" characters in the film represent youth culture as its referenced in rock videos and the grungy, black and white magazine ads of its day.Troy, the main love interest in the story, is a composite of the dude from the Replacements and some 90's retro fashion insert. Additionally, Troy is a wellspring of political and philosophical quips about the surrounding world, ultimately cynical in tone and indifferent to the ideal of success or suburban security. The "other guy" in the movie is sort of a TV exec yuppie, likable enough but not really cool at all and somewhat self regarding and out-of-touch. (Maybe a tad "eighties", as well. The biggest crime in this movie would be to openly admit liking Billy Idol.)The comedy/drama/romance focus of the picture is REALLY about media grad Lelaina Pierce tryna find "true love" and so she must choose between these two male stereotypes. The curious feeling of gender and class manipulation is palpable, if only because the filmmakers are interested in selling an age-old love triangle convention and also because of the tendency to reduce the nineties Gen-X/grunge era to a type. A handful of good dramatic conflict scenes help prop the vehicle up, so to speak, also a film soundtrack was marketed around the same time.

Reality Bites is a movie I can currently relate with, as I have been recently suffering through post-college trauma. The movie has such a relatable premise, but I feel it could have been just a little better. But watching the movie provided me with the feeling that I am not alone in this ordeal. The movie was written pretty well and this is Ben Stiller's directorial debut, so a movie like this is not a bad way to begin a directing career.Stiller's film is about a TV production assistant named Lelaina who is creating a documentary about post-grad life with her three friends: Troy who is a philosophical unemployed slacker, Vicki who is the manager of Gap, and Sammy who is trying to find his sexuality. When she meets Michael, an executive at an MTV-like studio, there is a chance her documentary can now go public. The film is reasonably acted. Winona Ryder does a pretty good job as Lelaina, even if she seems a little whiny. I liked Ethan Hawke's character as his philosophy reminded of his character in the Before Sunrise series. Ben Stiller had a limited role, but he did a solid job. I also like Steve Zahn as the man trying to find out who he is. Overall, Reality Bites is a decent movie because mainly it has a theme that people my age can relate to. The path to show this theme may not work as effective, but the movie was still mostly entertaining. I will say that the documentary shots got a little annoying at times, but the narrative itself is quite good. My Grade: B

Slightly cynical, but not overwhelmingly so. Good cast. Probably one of the better Winona Ryder films-- better than 'Heathers' I think. I like Ben Stiller, so I liked his character better than his rival's, but Ethan Hawke's guy was okay too I guess. There's also something to be said about having a clear resolution to a three-party triangle where one of the two rivals is clearly chosen, although in this case I think the choice was somewhat influenced by 90s anti-business cynicism. Although I'll admit that Hawke's character was sympathetic to some degree for me, despite being somewhat cynical about life. On the whole about as good as many movies of this kind, and better than some. And it's not bad, pretty nice, to see Winona Ryder get a good part in a film that, works for her, I guess, since a lot of them don't, I think. She always comes across to me as a nice girl with usually bad luck, so it's good to see her when she's at her luckiest. (8/10)