# Reality Bites (1994)

### reviewed by
David Wong Shee

                                    REALITY BITES
                           A film review by David Wong Shee
                            Copyright 1994 David Wong Shee

    CREDITS
    Directed by Ben Stiller.
    Acted by: Winona Ryder (Lelaina Pierce); Ethan Hawke (Troy Dyer);
              Janeane Garofolo (Vickie Miner); Ben Stiller (Michael Grates);
              Steve Zahn (Sammy Gray).
    Cinematography by Emmanuel Lubezki.
    Music by Karl Wallinger.
    Written by Helen Childress.
    Edited by Lisa Churgin.

    COMMENTS

As with all stories REALITY BITES can be viewed from a range of overlapping vantage points.

* The dyadic and romantic. "Friendships" and/or "relationships" between those of opposite gender or the same gender. The most prominent in this film was the "romantic tension" between Lelaina (Winona Ryder) and Troy (Ethan Hawke) who alternately flirt and fight on the border between friendship and love, and between the casual and the intimate, throughout the course of the film.

* An ensemble piece. The culture and psychology of a small closely knit group. The success to which the culture of the group is communicated as reflected by degree to which the "in jokes" are comprehensible to outsiders (the audience).

* As "Hollywood". The perennial debate over whether the latest Beautiful Young Thing can act or whether he or she is just another cinematic hood ornament.

* The cinematographic and nostalgic. The Past as video, home movies or black and white television. Similar examples which come to mind include: Paul Cox's films MY FIRST WIFE, MAN OF FLOWERS, MY LIFE; the opening scene of TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL; THE SUM OF US; and MY LIFE. REALITY BITES could be seen as a nostalgic reflection on the seventies is as distinct from that for the fifties and sixties.

* The developmental and socio-cultural.

It is to the last of these that the rest of this article addresses itself.

This movie examines the transition from adolescence into young adulthood made a background of accelerating social and cultural change. This transition period can be somewhat protracted for, among others, those engaging in tertiary education.

In any event, there can be a rather abrupt change in the was reality is perceived from the view through the rose coloured glasses of childhood to a much sharper and sometimes brutal "real world" outside the protective boundaries of the family. There being a marked contrast between the experiences the post-war boom of the "baby boomer" generation of rapid economic growth and full employment with that of their post-post-war offspring. The "generation gap" seems to widening with each succeeding generation this century.

There are reflections on the fallout of the changes in the Family, for example, the experience of children who's parents divorced during their childhood or adolescence. This runs in parallel with the disintegration of a uniform value system at the societal level. That is not to say that pluralism is a bad thing, however it does for many hone certain existential issues to an uncomfortable sharpness.

There is what might be described as the "evolution" of the hippie into the yuppie. A change which mirrors a conservative shift among youth secondary perhaps to anxieties about finding work to "survive" - if not fulfilling middle-class expectations of a certain standard of living in industrialised urban societies.

Examined also are the place (if any) in America of the Intellectual and of other recognizable stereotypes such as the Yuppie, the Hippie, the Dropout, and the Homosexual. Overlaid on these types are the individual characteristics of the particular person portrayed. Are relationships across such subcultural types viable, for example, between Lelaina and Michael (a yuppie with a Heart of Gold?).

        Mrs Pierce: Why don't you try getting a job at Burger King?
        Lelaina: But Ma, I was valedictorian at my university!
        Step-father (?): Well, you don't have to put that in your
            application...

    GLOSSARY

Hippie = A young person who rejects conventional ideas and society and adopts and unusual style of dress and habits, etc (OED).

Yuppie = Young Upwardly Mobile Professional

-- * David Wong Shee * david@zikzak.apana.org.au * Live Long and Prosper *

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