Reality Bites (1993)

Although it was unfairly derided for its perceived commodification of the grunge/slacker zeitgeist, Reality Bites is actually a rather charming if conventional film that uses its mid-'90s trappings -- AIDS tests, espresso shops, unwashed hair, '70s TV trivia, and so-so alt-rock -- as a backdrop for coming-of-age melodrama and romantic comedy. The screenplay contains some pretty sharp writing from first-time scribe Helen Childress and a stellar cast highlighted by Janeane Garafolo and Ben Stiller. Fresh from his celebrated stint in TV sketch comedy, Stiller exhibits a sure hand as a director, but it's his portrayal of a corporate scumbag who wants to prove he's still hip that helped cement his status as one of the most enjoyably neurotic leading men of the '90s. Garafolo, meanwhile, steals every scene she's in -- folding sweaters at the Gap, obsessing about her drunken sexcapades, and providing acerbic commentary on the main romantic plot. Steve Zahn is underutilized as the obligatory gay friend, his inner life reduced to a few scenes of HIV paranoia, but Swoosie Kurtz has fun in a brief role as Lelaina's mom. As for the heroine herself, Winona Ryder was at the height of her popularity when the film came out, and she invests Lelaina with the fragile luminosity and hipster wit she perfected in Heathers. Co-star Ethan Hawke, in a role similarly close to his own celebrity persona, downplays his looks with bad facial hair and an intellectual sneer, turning Troy into the sort of pretentious, defensive, cred-obsessed jerk who did not, alas, disappear from the pop-culture landscape along with Generation X. In the end, that's what makes Reality Bites more than the sum of its once-hip references; its details may be rooted in 1994, but its characters and situations are as universal as they are funny. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide