X
- 1994
- PG-13
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 39 m
- 1994
- PG-13
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 39 m
Summary A documentary filmmaker and her fellow Gen X graduates face life after college, looking for work and love in Houston.
Directed By: Ben Stiller
Written By: Helen Childress
- 1994
- PG-13
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 39 m
- 1994
- PG-13
- Universal Pictures
- 1 h 39 m
Reality Bites
67
7.8
Where to Watch
Summary A documentary filmmaker and her fellow Gen X graduates face life after college, looking for work and love in Houston.
Directed By: Ben Stiller
Written By: Helen Childress
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
67
69% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
23% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
8% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 26 Critic Reviews
67
69% Positive
18 Reviews
18 Reviews
23% Mixed
6 Reviews
6 Reviews
8% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
The great thing about Reality Bites is that each of the characters comes across as real, and not some glib concoction by a screenwriter who's watched them from a cloistered distance. Childress obviously knows their world inside out, and shares it with insight and a prickly, original wit. [18 Feb 1994, p.C1]
The movie ultimately plays as a dead-on snapshot of the much-maligned post-Baby Boomer generation. In 10 years, Reality Bites might seem dated and irrelevant. Right now, it feels remarkably astute. [18 Feb 1994, p.G5]
Reality Bites principally turns on the romantic tension between Ryder, wonderfully radiant and not all that literate for the class valedictorian her character is purported to be, and Hawke, who does the alienated-poet thing better than anybody since Matt Dillon's greaser in "The Outsiders."
The best -- the brilliant -- bits of Reality Bites etch in epigram, anecdote and brittle, dazzling dialogue the inner life of young people who want desperately to believe but haven't decided in what. It loves them but it doesn't pity or sentimentalize them. It's tough as nails.
Childress has an ear for dialogue that rings true even when it's self-consciously movie-ish, and Ryder and Hawke bring crucial authenticity to their roles with effortless appeal. You'll find yourself wanting more of these characters than the movie gives you.
The performances are all just fine; I wish they'd been at the service of another movie.
Reality Bites embodied seemingly every odious post-Nirvana media trend. The title alone was laughably faux-hip, and the movie's portrait of slackerdom—limply enacted by Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Steve Zahn, and Janeane Garofalo—was both broad and shallow...No one acknowledges the obvious—that a heinous idea got even worse when Stiller signed on to direct.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
7.8
86% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
14% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 21 User Ratings
7.8
86% Positive
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
14% Mixed
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
0% Negative
0 Ratings
0 Ratings
There are no user reviews yet. Be the first to add a review.
Awards
Society of Texas Film Critics Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination
MTV Movie + TV Awards
• 1 Nomination
