Conference bookie::movies

    Ben Stiller directed, produced and acted in Reality Bites.  It was 
    written by a woman in her early 20s but her name slips my mind at 
    the moment.
    
    Jt

    For what it's worth, in the New Yorker, Terrence Rafferty's review of
    "Reality Bites" makes the same case Lisa Gassoway does (in 480), that
    the movie isn't much of a "statement" about the 20something generation
    (any more than "The Strawberry Statement" was just a figment of the
    Hollywood establishment's view of the 60's culture).  Take away the
    "hip" dialog of "Reality Bites" and you're left with a basic love
    triangle out of the 1940's, Ginger Rogers torn between kooky
    Burgess Meredith and staid George O'Brien (what's missing is
    the rich playboy).  Guess who the heroine picks?  (can cliches
    be spoilers?) Only in "Reality Bites" the hero is sour and cynical. 
    I'd imagine that would get pretty tiresome after a while.
    
    Richard

    re .2, that's sort've true, but I still liked it.  :-)
    
    I think I could really get to like Ethan Hawke, as an actor.  He may
    have to take over, for me, where River Phoenix left off (handsome, but
    scruffy, talented, serious young actor).
    
    It was an updated basic love triangle which reflected the pop culture
    of the '90's, and I thought it was quite funny in parts.
    
    Possible spoiler comment:
    
    I thought the part where her friend, who managed The Gap store, was
    folding clothes for display, and saying, "People don't realize what
    goes into it!" was hysterically funny.
    
    
    Lorna
      

    I graduated from college last May, so this film is supposedly
    portraying my generation.  I actually got upset that this film is
    giving people the idea that all we do is get high, get drunk, only
    care about careers to buy the alcohol and pot and hate everything the
    generations before us did and have left us.
    
    I don't know anyone who lives the life of those characters.  I think
    it would have been more of a 'reality'  if they had more emphsis on
    trying to find a decent and satisfying job in your field.  I have
    many friends with technical degrees still working at the mall or
    waiting tables because there is nothing out there, but they are not
    giving up like Winona did in the movie.
    
    I know it sounds like I didn't like it, but it was actually ok.  I just
    don't want people to think all we young people do is party.  
    
    

>    I graduated from college last May, so this film is supposedly
>    portraying my generation.  I actually got upset that this film is
>    giving people the idea that all we do is get high, get drunk, only
>    care about careers to buy the alcohol and pot and hate everything the
>    generations before us did and have left us.

Wow, that doesn't differentiate your generation from your parents'
generation (as portrayed by the media) all that much.  

    re .4, first of all, I didn't see Wynona's character as giving up. 
    Sure, she got discouraged and depressed for awhile, but then she
    snapped out of it.  When did she give up?  The movie ended when she was
    still quite young.  :-)   It's not as though it showed her as a bag
    lady at 75, or anything.
    
    Also, I am of the previous generation, and I didn't take the movie as
    saying that all your generation does is party and reject everything my
    generation did.  It didn't seem that way to me at all.
    
    The way I see it is this:  This movie is about a group of people of a
    certain age, and what is going on in their lives at a certain time.  I
    don't take that as meaning that it is representative of every single
    person, in that age group, now living in the U.S.  After all, there are
    a lot of you, and I realize everyone is not the same.  But, it seems
    like people in that age group are seeing the movie, and saying, "Hey,
    that's not me!"  Well, so what, it's not you, that doesn't mean to me
    that it's not a good movie.  It may not be your reality, but it may be
    someone else's.  I didn't exactly see The Big Chill as reflecting my
    reality either.  All the characters in that movie went on to make a lot
    of money, and feel disillusioned with their lives.  I'm a baby boomer,
    but I've never had a high paying job, or made a lot of money, so The
    Big Chill didn't really reflect my experience at all.  Still, that
    doesn't mean it wasn't valid.  No one movie can express the reality of
    every single person in a certain generation.
    
    Lorna
    

    
    We rented this one this weekend. _Reality Bites_ bites.
    
    Why is it that in order to portray today's kids they have to always use
    the cliche of dirty, badly cut hair? I see kids the age these would be
    everyday of the week, and I never see anyone (apart from some homeless
    people) looking as unkempt as these. Especially, those who work at
    places like the Gap.
     

  I rented this movie last night and I have mixed feelings about the story.
While the movie was very well written directed and acted it has the problem of
not having any characters that I felt I could really like. 

  When the heroine had to make the difficult choice between a brooding looser
and a slick huckster I found myself feeling that both choices were pretty bad
but then I've met so many women her age who have "adopted" a loser they later
failed to reform that it all seemed pretty realistic. Painful to watch, but
realistic. 

  The story moves right along without many boring parts and has moments that
are pretty good. The actors do their job well of portraying people who I'd
really rather not see portrayed. 

  I disagree with those who have stated that this movie portrays a generation
in any form, flattering or otherwise. Nowhere does this film pretend to
represent an entire generation, rather it seems to stick to following the lives
of a very small group of people who may or may not be representative of others
their age. 

  Not bad for TV but I'm glad I didn't waste money to see it in the movies.
In many ways it seemed like the dark counterpart to the TV series Friends.

  ** out of 5,
  George