Sorry, this movie sucks

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

Never have seen it tell 2018. Wow slow n dumb. I guess this is were Blair Witch Protect came from. This is not even a funny movie. No relationship to a 90s kid too.

When Lelaina Pierce and her friends graduate they have expectations about how their lives will progress; inevitably they don't go according to plan. Lelaina is working for an obnoxious morning TV presenter… at least she is until she makes him look a fool and gets fired. She is living with her friend Vickie and they are joined by their friend Troy after he is sacked from his job at a magazine stall. Troy clearly has feeling for her but can't express them; instead he acts like a jerk. Lelaina is making a documentary about her friends and new boyfriend Mike, who works for an MTVesque TV station, offers to get it aired… unfortunately the way they edit it isn't anything like she intended.I recall enjoying this when I first watched it but watching again I found it somewhat less enjoyable; the characters aren't particularly sympathetic. This is particularly true of Troy. I think we were meant to want him to end up with Lelaina but I couldn't help thinking that just about anybody, or nobody, would have been better than this obnoxious bully… even Mike and he was played by Ben Stiller who we were meant to dislike! I think the cast did a good job; even if I didn't like the characters I did believe in them. Winona Ryder impressed as Lelaina and even though I didn't like Troy, Ethan Hawke did a solid in the role. Overall this isn't a bad film but it was a bit disappointing as it wasn't as good as I remembered.One last thought; isn't it depressing that when this generation were at school they were 'The Breakfast Club' but once they graduate they become this bunch?!

Reality Bites is basically a case of putting a trendy patina on a shopworn romantic comedy cliché. The film is something of a paradox; it's specifically about the reality of finding a job and love in an unforgiving world, and tries to spell out, in pretty big letters, that people in the nineties had "issues" to deal with. But therein lies the films problem - its sheer glibness; serious issues like job globalization or the advent of AIDS appear as snapshots, almost reduced to an exercise in style. In numerous shots, the "real" characters in the film represent youth culture as its referenced in rock videos and the grungy, black and white magazine ads of its day.Troy, the main love interest in the story, is a composite of the dude from the Replacements and some 90's retro fashion insert. Additionally, Troy is a wellspring of political and philosophical quips about the surrounding world, ultimately cynical in tone and indifferent to the ideal of success or suburban security. The "other guy" in the movie is sort of a TV exec yuppie, likable enough but not really cool at all and somewhat self regarding and out-of-touch. (Maybe a tad "eighties", as well. The biggest crime in this movie would be to openly admit liking Billy Idol.)The comedy/drama/romance focus of the picture is REALLY about media grad Lelaina Pierce tryna find "true love" and so she must choose between these two male stereotypes. The curious feeling of gender and class manipulation is palpable, if only because the filmmakers are interested in selling an age-old love triangle convention and also because of the tendency to reduce the nineties Gen-X/grunge era to a type. A handful of good dramatic conflict scenes help prop the vehicle up, so to speak, also a film soundtrack was marketed around the same time.

"None are more hopelessly enslaved than those who falsely believe they are free." - Goethe "Work Makes Freedom" - sign above Auschwitz entrance The directorial debut of Ben Stiller, "Reality Bites" is a well meaning but slight film which hopes to capture the tempo and anxieties of Generation X. The film revolves around a small cast of young adults (Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller, Steve Zahn), all of whom are raging caricatures. There's the artist, the sex junkie, the drop out, the corporate sell out and of course the always-precious Winona Ryder, who serves as our window into their world. She faces well worn conflicts: does she pursue a career in the arts, or trade her dreams and aspirations for a "reliable" corporate job? Does she settle down with a "loser" musician, or a likable but stiff businessman in a suit? At the heart of the film is therefore a tug-of-war between the logic and rationales of techno capitalism and the sensitive soul's vague yearnings for something else.Whilst the film is absent of analysis or serious insight, it does capture a certain relevant vacuity. Stiller's whiny young adults hang in limbo, aimless, lethargic, high-strung and always placating themselves with material or biochemical pleasures. Deeming the adult world abhorrent, they flutter in the wind, unable to function in it, but unable to conceive of, latch onto or find something else.Other anxieties abound: fears of rejection, poverty, success and judgement turn all these characters into emotion wrecks. They're stuck in post graduate delirium and quarter life crises, some pushed into self promotion, solipsism and competition, others opting to instead drop out of the game altogether.Like all these films, "Reality Bites" turns its back on a deeper reality. It ignores the fact that its anxieties are essentially social symptoms spawned by social systems. Indeed, our very neurological structure is closely tied to, and is necessarily continuous with, environmental relations, which are themselves directly responsible for certain neurological or synaptic connections flourishing or atrophying and dying off. In a very real sense, you are continually being built by the "outside". By individualising what is systemic, these films thus override the possibility of their subjects becoming agents, rather than patients, of their symptoms.Whilst there are hundreds of films like "Reality Bites" about Generation's Xers, Generation Y's anxieties don't seem to make it to cinema screens. Maybe they've been completely inculcated, have self medicated themselves into zombiedom, or simply have no use for cinema, the stuffy medium of their forefathers. Perhaps with interactive media supplanting old media, the quaint idea of stories, and even the audience/object dichotomy itself, is displaced by a situation in which the anxiety tale is writ on the subject itself; their virtual and real bodies are the new anxiety performance.Cynicism and irony were a huge part of Generation X's identity. They saw the ideals, dreams and possibilities of the Baby Boomers get thoroughly squashed. The result was a generation which recognised the "reality" that rebellion and honest dissent would either fail or make one a laughing stock. Authentic emotional expression was to be buried or cocooned in irony/cynicism, lest one risk ridicule or hurt. But Generation X at least knew how to smell BS. Generation Y's thoroughly of the post-everything, multicultural, accept-everything entertainment world. They're both stronger and more fragile, supremely confident and well adjusted, but perhaps with a nihilism buried so deep they're not even aware of it, shuffling off to the abattoir with smiling faces, heads bobbing to personalised play-lists. No surprise that The Journal of Social Psychology reports that Millennials think about social problems less, have less interest in government, family and community, and have a very inflated sense of self which in turn leads to unrealistic expectations and chronic disappointment. They're also pushing back each of the five milestones of adulthood: completing school, leaving home, becoming financially independent, marrying and having kids. But maybe this is all overly pessimistic. Maybe it's stereotyping. Maybe every generation's a mass of differences, simultaneously ahead of its time, of its time, and of the past. Or maybe it's prophetic that our next generation will be dubbed Generation Z; a nation of snoozers.7.5/10 - Worth one viewing.