Warning: This review may contain spoilers. If you have not yet seen the film and wish to see it unspoiled, consider watching it before continuing.
The Reality Bites Generation
Marketed and widely known as a Generation X movie, Reality Bites serves more as a snapshot in time for a coming-of-age generation. As a later-born Gen Xer, I can’t claim it represents well the generation as a whole. Rather, it beautifully represents a moment in American time that only Generation X experienced in a unique way.
For those who were in their early 20s right around 1990, the story should be wonderfully and painfully relatable. One might go so far as to say those born between 1968 and 1972 could be described as their own micro-generation, The Reality Bites Generation, if you will.
What is a micro-generation, you ask? Read about the micro-generations surrounding Gen X HERE.
The screenplay was written by Helen Childress who says it is inspired by the lives of herself and her friends. Though I haven’t seen it declared anywhere, I imagine the character Lelaina, played by Winona Ryder, represents herself.
Lelaina is working on a project in which she documents bits and pieces of her friends’ lives, as well as their thoughts and experiences. The film intersperses some of these clips into the production.
The characters describe growing up with divorced or absent parents, having to grow up too fast or care for themselves, and how their upbringings have shaped their views and goals. They are the Generation X we are so familiar with.
Employment Woes
As many young adults do, the characters struggle to find and hold meaningful employment. They were young, educated, and entering the workforce in a time of recession. They were over-educated and under-experienced, so they managed to be both overqualified and underqualified for positions that were few and far between already.
Lelaina captures the frustration of the time when she argues with Vickie about Troy. Vickie wants Troy to stay with them just long enough for him to find a job and a place to live. Lelaina says, “That’s the American Dream of the 90s. That could take years.”
Lelaina meets Michael, the only character who seems to have his act together, complete with a lucrative career. Ironically, he mentions that he dropped out of school. It’s a subtle comment but I think it demonstrates a growing sense among the generation that perhaps a college education didn’t open the same doors it used to. At least, it reflected the unfortunate timing of the graduates entering the workforce. If only they had been available just a few years earlier.
Money Troubles
Vickie appears to be thriving career-wise when she announces her recent promotion to Manager at The Gap. Even though she seems proud of her job, the film is sure to show us Vickie’s apparent success isn’t such a big win.
She says with this new promotion she will finally be making $400 a week. Lelaina is happy for her, claiming their rent problems are finally over, even though just a few film-minutes earlier, she had expressed to Michael that she couldn’t afford a dentist because “she only makes $400 a week.”
Between Vickie, a smart and educated young professional, proudly showing off her sweater-folding skills, and Lelaina’s insulting declaration that she’s “not going to work at The Gap,” we understand that Vickie is underemployed.
Romantic Complications
The Boomer Generation had ushered in the era of free love, breaking down expectations of traditional courtship, but for Gen X, the love life of young adults had become complicated. Young adults were single and sexually active while HIV/AIDS was making headlines. Non-traditional sexual identity was becoming more accepted among the younger generations but not necessarily reaching acceptance in older generations. The dating landscape was open but required caution and was fraught with drama. The film captures these complications through the dating lives of Vickie and Sammy.
The Triangle
Besides being a movie about the unique experiences of Generation X in the early 90s, this film is a love triangle story. I think the triangle itself says a lot about the author’s view of the time and the generation navigating it.
Lelaina is torn between two men, Michael and Troy. Michael is stable and emotionally mature. He demonstrates his interest in Lelaina by attempting to win her over. He compliments her, openly values her, and overtly attempts to make her happy.
In contrast, Troy demonstrates his feelings for Lelaina with insults and disregard. He is conflicted and tortured by his feelings for her, and he takes it out on her.
In the end, Lelaina chooses Troy. As I watched the film, I was obsessed with the writer’s decision. What did she mean when she chose Troy for Lelaina? Is she saying that real love should be torture? Is it a commentary on the poor decision-making of young people of the era? Or is it simply a retelling of a real-life event and this is just what happened?
If I was 20-something in the 90s and watching this movie for the first time, would I have been rooting for Troy? For the tortured, complicated artist who can’t stand how in love he is with her?
Because I wasn’t. I’m in my late 40s, watching with the soft heart of nostalgia, like a mom watching my young adult daughter, screaming at Lelaina to pick the good one! Pick the one that’s nice to you, for God’s sake. But maybe that outcome is better suited for a Generation X in Midlife movie.
Real TV
In 1994 when this film came out, The Real World was popular on MTV and introduced a fledgling new genre. It’s interesting to watch Reality Bites now, knowing what I know about the trajectory of reality television.
When Michael, an executive at an MTV-like television station, presents Lelaina’s documentary to the team, he says “We are entering an era of Real TV”. I wonder if the authors of the screenplay knew how accurate that premonition would be.
To Lelaina’s disappointment, the presentation was a commercialized bastardization of the project she had submitted. Looking at the reality TV of today, I must conclude that it was Michael’s version that ultimately won the market.
And yet, this glimpse into the future is another commentary of the time and the generation. They didn’t want to sell out, but the paths for the artists and the creatives were not smoothly paved. And they didn’t want to be like their parents.
What’s In A Name
While reading about the film I learned the most interesting outside-the-film tidbit. The author, Helen Childress, says the movie’s title is usually misinterpreted. Reality Bites, often interpreted as synonymous with reality sucks, did not mean that at all. Instead, the title references the bits of reality shown in Lelaina’s documentary film and peppered throughout the movie. Like sound bites, the snippets of reality documentation were ‘reality bites’.
Regardless of what was intended, I like to think it has a dual meaning. Maybe a happy little accident.
After all, what is Generation X if not misunderstood?
Like Generation X movie reviews? Try this review of “Slacker”.
More you might like:
Generation Z to Generation X Translation Guide
Generation X “isms” and Their Definitions
We Need a Generation X President But We Aren’t Going To Get One