REALITY BITES: Blu-ray re-issue (Universal, 1994) Universal Home Video
Basically, the ‘Seinfeld’ of all movies, director, Ben
Stiller’s Reality Bites (1994) is a show about nobodies doing nothing
spectacularly well, or as discontented Generation X-er, Lelaina Pierce (Winona
Ryder) puts it, are “masters at the art of time suckage.” Until recently, the abject tedium of daily
life was enough to get anyone down. But
the dilemma was never more prescient than for Generation X - or so it then
seemed; a cohort, so the experts foretold, was lost is a vast sea of iniquity,
anxiety and internalized frustrations. Discontented with their direction in
life – or rather, lack thereof, the bitter disillusion that comes from knowing
one has played by every rule, only to be trounced on by the status quo holding
all the cards, realizing – despite best intentions - there may be no proverbial
‘light’ at the end of a tunnel…what can I tell you? Reality Bites or so
it would seem, according to Stiller and his screenwriter, Helen Childress. The picture is,
in fact, a scathingly on-point dramedy, one that, alas, removed from its own
time, now appears far more dated than most rom/coms from its generation. Simply put, Gen-X has since become the
‘catch-all’ for a cohort of then ‘young adults’ – now entering middle age –
who, try as they might, were marked as doomed, discarded and forgotten relics,
disassociated from their own wrinkle in time. To some extent, we have all
become Gen-Xer’s since; world events and homegrown dilemmas, conspiring to rob us
of our once blind-eyed optimism, faith, and place of relative safety; the place
we call home, becoming more alien to us by the minute as the world spins
rapidly out of control. In many ways, Reality Bites prefigures the
beginning of these ‘end times’ for the post-spend/spend, 'life’s good' period
in America’s brief cultural renaissance – the 1980’s - (now, also a misplaced epoch
in very steep decline), though fondly recalled by those of us who lived through
it with warm, fuzzy affections for its profound enthusiasm, looking towards the
future, though unknowing it would all come to a terrific and grinding halt.
Gone, but decidedly not forgotten, in 1994, the
eighties were yet as distant a memory. Stiller’s film, despite seeming
preciously cynical then, has since managed, rather effectively, to tap into our
present age of deep malaise and pessimism.
It bears a brief reprise herein, that any great society is judged – not by
its technological/scientific and/or political demarcations, but rather – its
contributions to the world of art (music/literature/theater/movies and
television). Art informs. It also reflects and inspires. But it can condemn,
stifle, cripple and brutalize an audience too, creating its own normalcy along
the way, thereafter adopted – nee absorbed – into our cultural fabric to
tarnish and distort reality beyond all recognition. Yes, art is that
powerful and the movies – in their ability to saturate the human frame of
reference with towering, cleverly-composed images, designed to manipulate and
mimic truth – arguably, remain the most influential cursor of them all. Hence,
only in retrospect can we truly see Reality Bites as an ominous
predictor of how far American pop culture in totem has degenerated since; the
implosion, ingeniously wrapped inside the paradox of a romantic/comedy –
arguably, without the proverbial happy ending. Yes - lovers, Lelaina Pierce and
Troy Dyer (Ethan Hawke) meet in the middle of their flawed relationship before
the final fade out. But there is no future in it for either of them; this lost
waif and her scuzzy Lochenvar, who looks as though he would benefit from a bath
in Varsol.
No, Lelaina is drifting – given up on a promising
future – twice – first, as the backstage gofer on a popular daytime variety TV
show, tyrannically mismanaged by its ensconced and curmudgeonly host, Grant
Gubler (John Mahoney), then again – trading in a hopeful alliance with waspish
MTV-inspired producer, Michael Grates (Ben Stiller) for a very dubious future
involving Hawke’s unemployable and very bitter street poet. Into this mix, come the unwitting family.
Lelaina’s mom, Charlane McGregor (played with motivational decapitating
precision by Swoozie Kurtz) and her bumbling second husband, Wes (Harry
O’Reilly), Lelaina’s obtuse father, Tom (Jo Don Baker) are acrimonious over
their own bitter divorce. Meanwhile, well-intended friends, Vickie Miner
(Janeane Garofalo) and Troy’s introspective book work, Sammy Gray (Steve Zahn),
a closeted homosexual, are too self-involved to be of any use or support.
Depending on one’s point of view, Reality Bites
is either a sad epitaph to the 1980’s or a remarkably clear-eyed prologue to
what followed, heralding the cultural perspectives we have since adopted -
scornful, bored with life, and utterly lacking in any sort of impetus to jerk
ourselves free from the malady of merely existing. The characters populating Reality Bites
are not ambitious. Arguably, they are not even marginally motivated, but beaten
in their initiatives and thoroughly careworn before their time. Point blank:
Lelaina and her friends have given in and given up. What’s the point? In fact,
there doesn’t seem to be one. Only in
retrospect can we see just how farsighted Reality Bites is: self-mocking
and iniquitous. It is a story about people who, not only have lost their will
to dream, but perhaps to whom the concept of dreaming itself is tragically
foreign. Mediocrity, rather than exceptionalism has become the new standard.
Arguably, it was always their norm. It is perhaps a bit much to claim Reality
Bites as the oracle of this foretelling. But there is little to deny the picture
its prophetic nod to putting a period to one era, while punctuating the start
of another.
Reality Bites begins with graduation commencement – the real
beginning of the end for Lelaina Pierce, an aspiring videographer, honor roll
student and class valedictorian, attempting to disseminate her own brand of
self-appointed wisdom to her college cohorts. Alas, her cue cards get jumbled
at the most inopportune moment, her rhetorical inquiry as to how her generation
will face the moral/social/political and economic challenges of tomorrow,
resolved with a rather deflated “I don’t know.” We advance to an undisclosed period in the
immediate future. Vickie and Lelaina now live together in a cramped apartment
in Houston. Lelaina is working for obnoxious Grant Gubler who, to the public at
least, remains the genial, Cheshire-grinning host of Good Morning Grant!
– an utterly vacuous TV variety show. Lelaina’s repeated endeavors to improve
the program’s content by preparing more probing questions for Grant to exercise
on his guests are met with Gubler’s wretched derision. He even threatens to
fire her if she persists to elevate the overall tenor of his talk show. As
retribution, Lelaina decides to sabotage Grant’s cue cards. Since Grant never
bothers to pre-screen them, he dives headlong into his self-inflicted
humiliation on live television, reading Lelaina’s words that brand him as a
pedophile while interviewing a guest about young girl’s self-esteem. It is an
amusing vignette to be sure, but a lethal blow to Lelaina’s career. Very soon,
she discovers jobs are not plentiful in her line of work. Her misguided mother,
Charlaine naïvely tries to put a positive spin on her unemployment situation,
suggesting she get hired at Wal-Mart where they even hire “the retarded”.
In the meantime, Vickie decides to move an old college
pal, Troy Dyer, into their apartment to help with expenses. After a round of
debilitating job interviews, Lelaina quickly realizes how inept and unsuitable
she is for just about every other line of work. She is inadvertently rear-ended
by producer, Michael Grates who is not paying attention to the road, but
wrapping up a big deal on his cell phone. After an initial exchange of
telephone numbers – for insurance purposes – Michael decides to ask Lelaina
out. It’s an awkward call, but a really good first date. Both discover they
have much in common. Michael offers to present some of the raw footage Lelaina
has been working on in her spare time for a documentary about her friends, to
executives at ‘In Your Face’ TV. Having an ‘in’ with Michael could
really boost Lelaina’s chances for landing the career of her dreams. Alas,
advancing Lelaina’s prospects does not bode well for Troy’s chances with
Lelaina. As far as Troy is concerned,
Lelaina does not need money to make her happy. She just needs him. She,
instead, admonishes Troy for being chronically unemployed, lacking even the
initiative to go out and look for a ‘real’ job, and, for getting fired from
various part-time jobs he has temporarily held. The irony, of course, is Lelaina
has yet to recognize Troy is more her speed than Michael. She is, in fact, the same type of screw-up:
one who would rather have wrecked her chances in the industry she professes to
aspire to with her silly prank (the cue card fiasco) than diligently work
around the obstacles to get where she thinks she ought to be.
Troy is not exactly a patient man. Okay, he is a
fairly cruel pragmatist, forcing Lelaina to accept him with a deliberate and
rather vindictively systematic plan to ruin her romantic chances with Michael.
For example, after Lelaina and Michael’s first kiss, Troy condescendingly
inquires, “Did he dazzle you with his extensive knowledge of mineral water,
or was it his in-depth analysis of Marky Mark that finally reeled you in?” After
Troy and Lelaina sleep together, Troy is even more pitiless, “You can't
navigate me. I may do mean things, and I may hurt you, and I may run away
without your permission, and you may hate me forever, and I know that scares
the living shit outta you, 'cuz you know I'm the only real thing you got.” Ironically,
the toxicity of the Troy/Lelaina relationship is the most fascinating aspect of
Reality Bites, what sets it apart from just another cornball fluff piece
about oversexed twenty-somethings bumping uglies in the night. Troy and Lelaina
are so right for each other it is unpleasant to watch as they tear at one
another – or rather, tear down the barriers and artificial role-playing between
them to get to the heart of the matter. Or perhaps, ‘heart’ is the wrong word.
These two have a whole ‘cerebral/sexual’ thing going on and it is deceptively
delicious to watch. Vickie, a sales associate, recently promoted to
manager of The Gap, is rather laissez faire on the dating scene. Her
promiscuity forces her to face the very real risk she has contracted HIV – a
fear narrowly averted when her AIDS blood test comes back negative. Meanwhile,
Sammy – everybody’s even-keeled friend – has remained celibate to hide from his
conservative parents the fact he is gay.
As Helen Childress’ screenplay progresses, everyone is forced to come to
terms with the crises and dilemmas presently afflicting their lives.
Vickie convinces Sammy to tell his parents he is gay.
They are distraught, angry and hurt by his revelation. But the confession
allows Sammy to move on with his life. Vickie decides to clean up her act after
her encouraging blood test results. The imperfect solution to Michael and
Lelaina’s relationship persists. She is utterly humiliated when her documentary
about all of their lives – a labor of love with social significance – is
butchered in the editing process by the exec’s at Michael’s network, her ‘serious’
reflections distilled into a sort of extended Saturday Night Live comedy
skit, intermittently interrupted with pop-tune infused nonsense. Storming out of the premiere, Lelaina is ripe
for the picking and Troy wastes no time encouraging a mutual seduction. This
leads to one hot night of passion. However, in the morning things look very
different. Commitment-shy to a fault,
Troy nervously scurries away – and this, after professing his undying love the
night before. Shortly thereafter, Troy all but disappears from Lelaina’s life,
the death of his own father forcing him to realize how important Lelaina is to
him. Michael returns to awkwardly reconcile with Lelaina at the coffee house
where Troy performs. Sensing Lelaina is about to discard him for Michael, Troy indulges
in an impromptu vamp, dedicating the song to her (with very crude lyrics that
reveals for Michael the specifics of Troy and Lelaina’s one-night stand).
Disappointed, frustrated and humiliated, Michael leaves the bar, chasing after
Lelaina. He is too late to catch up to her, and finally, rejects even the will
to try. Troy and Lelaina eventually reconcile. But the movie’s improbable and
uncertain ending is interrupted midway through the end credits, as we are
treated to a brief tag, featuring two characters ‘Laina’ and ‘Roy’ –
transparent parodies of Lelaina and Troy – having a very shallow/severely
scripted argument about their sinking relationship. As the faux credits to this
‘episode’ roll, we discover Michael is the producer, suggesting he has turned
his own failed relationship with Lelaina into a hit spinoff for his network –
life imitating art, bastardizing life for art’s sake.
Reality Bites was the inspiration of producer, Michael Shamberg
who, after reading Childress’ screenplay, became obsessed with the idea of
making a movie about real people in their twenties struggling to make a name
and a life for themselves. As it turns out, Childress was largely cribbing from
her own experiences as well as that of her friends, working through their own
post-graduate angst and uncertainties during the recession to find their niche,
their purpose and their futures. Shamberg persisted. Three years and a rumored ‘seventy’
drafts later, Reality Bites began production; Ben Stiller’s fame on The
Ben Stiller Show ensuring his participation as co-star and director.
Stiller’s involvement necessitated several rewrites. It also changed the
organic chemistry of the subplot involving Vickie and Sammy’s characters, their
more detailed back stories reduced to mere cameo at Stiller’s behest, to
concentrate on the lover’s triangle involving Troy, Lelaina and Michael
instead. Every studio balked at the project, including TriStar – who had
initially agreed to fund Reality Bites, then promptly reneged and put
the film into turnaround. Stiller and
Childress, along with producer, Stacey Sher, managed to convince Texas’ Film Commission
to pay out of pocket for location scouting. Ultimately, however, it was Winona
Ryder’s involvement that opened the doors over at Universal – Ryder’s request to
have Ethan Hawke as her co-star, willingly granted by the powers that be.
Universal had heavily campaigned to cast Gwyneth Paltrow as Vickie. But Ben
Stiller, having already worked with Janeane Garofalo on his show, pushed for
her involvement on the project instead.
Ultimately, Universal gave in, after the revised
script severely pared down the part. On a relatively brief 42-day shoot in
Houston and Los Angeles, and a budget of $11.5 million, Reality Bites
went on to gross $20,982,557; a sizable hit by most any standard. True confession
– numbers do not impress me, as rarely, do they tell the whole story. Alas,
some twenty-six years later, Reality Bites has dated, its message of imploding
society and misanthropic youth, destined to perpetuate and expedite its own
downfall, ringing with a hollow echo rather than a resounding thunder of clairvoyance.
The picture is blessed with good solid chemistry between its three ‘stars’ –
Winona Ryder doing the doe-eyed/angst-ridden ingénue best. For all his
involvement behind the camera, Ben Stiller’s Michael really takes the
proverbial ‘backseat’ to Ethan Hawke’s Troy. Personal opinion – but I have
always found it difficult, if not entirely impossible, to appreciate Hawke as a
leading man. He is a competent enough actor, but not very easy on the eyes or
ears. However, in Reality Bites, Hawke’s dressed-down, arrogant,
bong-smoking trailer trash/drugstore cowboy anti-heroism never wears thin.
Hawke gives us a wounded soul – warts and all – and does not hold anything back,
even for a moment. His Troy is a gloriously tainted, though never pathetic, and
belligerently clear-eyed man of indecision – the one true believer, reduced to
playing the part of the romantic fool. Stiller’s Michael is, of course, meant as a
counterpoint; clean-cut, respectful, altruistic in his romantic pursuits and
sadly, out of his league. Yeah - nice guys really do finish dead last. Childress’
screenplay never promises her audience the proverbial ‘rose garden’, so we get
a lot more thorns than blooms along the way. In fact, one of the movie’s
salvations is its razorback dialogue - adversarial, ironic and tremendously
funny. In the final analysis, Reality
Bites refreshingly lives up to its namesake. This is not a movie about perfect
people or even imperfect ones finding true love the first, second or third time
around, but a tale told by misfits, fools, and people who know better but
cannot help themselves, made by and for misfits, fools and the rest of us,
still trying to make sense of it all.
Universal Home Video reissues Reality Bites on
Blu-ray, stripping its cover art of the previous ‘20th Anniversary’
header. The movie, shot and finished on ‘conventional’ video tape – not digital
tape – has an appropriately dated characteristic most will find charming and
vintage. Reality Bites divides its run time between Emmanuel Lubezki’s
film-based footage and a simulated VHS quality/faux documentarian style; both
accurately captured on this hi-def 1080p transfer. Colors are solidly balanced
with great-looking flesh tones. Occasionally, we get some startling clarity to
boot and fine detail revealed even during scenes shot under low lighting
conditions. There is a good smattering of grain too, rendered with accuracy.
Everything looks as it should, except for contrast – which does seem just a tad
anemic. Not a deal breaker, in my opinion, but not stellar either. The DTS 5.1
audio is adequate without ever breaking the sound barrier. Uni has ported over
the extras from its previous Blu-ray edition – deleted scenes, a retrospective,
Lisa Loeb’s ‘Stay’ music video and a somewhat meandering commentary from
Ben Stiller and Helen Childress. Bottom line: this is the same disc you probably already own, with marginally altered cover art. No need to repurchase.
FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)
3.5
VIDEO/AUDIO
3.5
EXTRAS
3
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