Plot: What’s it about?
You might argue that “Reality Bites” is nothing more than a mid 90’s movie filled with nothing more than bits and pieces of good 70’s and 80’s music…you might be right. To me, and a lot of others though, Reality Bites is an expression of our generation. True, it didn’t revolutionize filmmaking as we know it and it didn’t win any major awards, but it’s made by people of my (our) generation and it’s a movie for people of our genereation. I think it would be next to impossible for anyone of the “Baby Boom” generation to get this movie. After all, how many of them sat on the couch, smoked dope, watched MTV all day and didn’t have a job. Not many, I’m guessing. Reality Bites is a statement of who we are, though the movie might be six years old now, the message is still quite the same–Young people struggling to find who they are in this complicated world.
The movie starts with Lelana (Winona Ryder) giving her Valedictorian speech at her University graduation and, oops, she is missing a note card. So her final wishes to all those in attendance is “I don’t know”. That kind of sums up what she and her friends know about now. After all, graduating from college doesn’t make you any smarter (take it from me, I know). It’s no doubt that Lelana is smart, her parents have been divorced and she was forced to grow up on her own, as is with her friend Troy (Ethan Hawke). Troy is the appitomy of a slacker. He smokes cigarettes all day, watches TV, has been fired from 12 jobs (the latest for stealing a Snickers candy bar) and is trying to find a way to tell Lelana that he loves her; though his methods are a bit confusing at times. Lelana is in the midst of making a documentary of her and her friends: Troy, Sammy (Steve Zahn), Vickie (Jeanane Garafolo) and Lelana herself. While ultimately, Lelana would like to sell her documentary for some major bucks, most likely used to pay rent, she has her artistic integrity. Since graduation, she has a job at a local “Good Morning…” show where she hates the host and he her (John Mahoney, the dad from ‘Frasier’), but is eventually fired for rigging his note cards. In the middle of all of this is Michael (Ben Stiller), a young, yuppie-ish executive who meets Lelana through blind luck, but start to form a relationship (which angers Troy). While not exactly right for each other, Michael offers to help Lelana with her video, as he is working with “In Your Face” productions. In Your Face productions is describes as “MTV–with an edge!”, but as we learn later on, all they do is cater to teenagers and take good works of art and materialize them for the MTV generation. Now all of this might seem like it would make sense and Lelana would be happy, but as mentioned before Lelana has her artistic integrity. She gets ticked at Michael and is confused about her relationship with Troy, she needs rent money and doesn’t know what to do.
As if all of this wasn’t enough, Vickie is battling her own personal demons as she has gone and had an AIDS test and is struggling with what the results might or might not be, Sammy is struggling with his own sexuality and is trying to think of a way to “come out” to his family…there’s a lot of stuff going on here. You know what? The people of our generation have a lot of stuff going on, while maybe not these exact same issues, there are some very similar. Reality Bites hit home with me and I loved it instantly. It captured a time of many people’s lives that they can relate to and was shown in a truthful enough way that it made sense to others as well. Wheather it’s for you or not, only you can be the judge. I’ll tell you this for sure, it has a great soundtrack and in my opinion is one to watch over and over again. Maybe the only drawback of the movie is Ben Stiller. While this is his directing debut, he also stars in it and communicates much in the same way he does now…through a series of half pronounced sentences and stuttering, followed by a series of hand gestures. For him it may work, I don’t know, but I don’t like it and I feel someone else could of played the part. But who am I to judge? I have some MTV to watch…
Video: How does it look?
Reality Bites utilizes many different formats in this presentation on DVD. There are several shots from a HI-8 cam (for Lelana’s video documentary) and a good majority of that is played on television screens. The parts that are shot like a regular movie look splendid. The movie is shown in it’s original 1.85:1 ratio and is presented in anamorphic widescreen. The result is terrific! I saw a few blips here and there, but on the whole it was a great image. And while not an “old” movie, it does benefit from the 16:9 enhancement. If you need proof, just watch the full-screen trailer.
Audio: How does it sound?
As I mentioned earlier, this has a great soundtrack. In fact, this movie is mainly known for the soundtrack. I’m not sure, but I think that the sountrack to this movie outgrossed the acutal movie itself. Anyhow, there are several songs that sound great in Dolby Digital 5.1 sound and the ending credits have the full-length song of “Stay” by Lisa Loeb (too bad they didn’t have the video…she’s fine). Still, dialogue is clear and channel seperation is as well, overall a good sounding disc and a great soundtrack.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This what I call a “Standard Universal” offering. While I’m happy to see a 5.1 soundtrack and 16:9 enhancement, the only additional extras are a trailer in full screen in surround sound, some production notes and cast bios. I won’t go on and on about how good it would be to hear a director’s and cast (notice how I threw “cast” in threre) commentary. Still, this is the best this movie has looked and sounded. Pick up a copy for rent or take the plunge and buy it. I say you won’t be sorry. Lastly, it’s interesting to note that I noticed in Ethan Hawke’s cast bio that “Snow Falling On Cedars” had a date of 1998 next to it. Now either it’s a misprint or the movie was made and set to come out then…something. But as we all know it came out late last year and is set to come out on DVD in May of 2000. Odd, but something I noticed. Can anyone shed some light on this?
