Follows 4 classic Gen-X-ers as they face life's trials and tribulations after college, all recorded by the amateur documentation amongst them. Lelaina's gotta choose between yuppie but caring Michael and the intense, but confusing and sometimes hurtful, musician Troy. She's also got to decide whether she wants to make a badly needed buck by compromising her documentary or stay true to her art. Vicky wants excitement and passion, but at the risk of an AIDS scare? Sammy struggles with revealing his sexuality to his parents. Troy needs to shit or get off the can in regards to much of his life. Warning, this blog will include spoilers.
So much of this movie exemplifies "Generation X" as we know it. Though these characters are older than me, there's MTV soundbites programed into them that were also programmed into me. Some of their lines while mostly pointless when analyzed on their own is really evidence of their programming and surroundings. About the only lines they don't quote are the Simpsons (copyright infringement maybe?) When Troy jokes that Lelaina is "cuckoo for cocoa puffs" they are neither conversing about cereal but making a media reference symbolizing fanaticism. There are a number of lines, loosely related to the topic at hand, stolen from commercials and the like, scattered through this movie. Does this not scream Douglas Coupland to anyone else?
The soundbites don't even begin to scratch the surface of how I relate to this movie. In Lelaina's valedictorian speech, she speaks of the societal and environment damages that our generation has inherited and how to undo them. She closes with "Fellow graduates, the answer is... the answer is... I don't know." I never grasped the true meaning of that line until pretty recently, having never realized that "I don't know" is a phrase that exemplifies my generation. From episodes of 'You Can't Do That On Television' which dumped neon green slime onto the head of anyone who said that magic phrase, to my piano teacher when I was 16, tsk-tsk-ing how kids my age tended to say "I don't know" and "I guess so" a lot instead of giving more absolute answers.
On the rooftop scene, Vicky makes a comment about dodging her student loan officer for the rest of her life (what do you think was one of the first reasons I stopped answering my phone?) and Sammy tells Troy he can still go back and get his B.F.A. (the same pretty, but largely useless piece of paper that hangs on my wall). I have vague recollections of getting asked to leave a store because I was singing too loudly or dancing with friends in the mall. Lelaina gets her required daily nutrients from a Big Gulp, I survived off Slurpees. Their apartment included much typical 90's whimsical bohemian decor, I've since packed up my alphabet fridge magnets (which was what we had on our fridges before Magnetic Poetry became the rage btw) but my lava lamp still sits on my desk. I even worked at The Gap for pete sakes!
What I'm saying is that I don't know if I can really review this film objectively. When it comes to judging the characters - their personalities, morals, priorities, etc.... On some level I know they're obnoxious, pretentious and self-important, but aren't those also traits of the generation itself? Plus I can't help but romanticize and forgive them for their flaws. I see the logic in their wordy, urgently delivered philosophies. I am still in love with the artists with their eternal self-discovery, brooding indifference, and medium length hair that brush my face when they lean down to kiss me.
So clearly this movie review has gone all to hell, feel free to regard it as a claptrap of 90's nostalgia (which some might consider this movie to be). What happened in the two years between Singles and Reality Bites that has me blindly in love with one, but not the other? Though Singles in some way captured a snapshot of the Seattle grunge scene, Reality Bites encapsulated the shortened attention span and media-driven edge that came to shape youth in years to come, even beyond the confines of "Generation X". This is accomplished not just through the dialogue, but also in the metatextual (one of my FAVOURITE words in the late 90's) editing -- movie within a movie all encapsulated in a TV show... LOL! Even the soundtrack is eclectic, and there were still a few good cameos (I caught Dave Pirner from Soul Asylum, Rene Zellweiger, and Evan Dando from The Lemonheads)
Whiny, wordy, what-have-you, Reality Bites still plunges forward with vigor you can't deny -- which is also one way to describe my friends and I!
[For those who are interested, here is an article on Reality Bites written by folks not wearing rose-coloured glasses... I found myself saying 'humph' a few times over but it's interesting to see how some champion the Michael Grates character whereas he still tends to make me think "vanilla" (no racist innuendos intended). The writers here also reference St Elmo's Fire and Ghost World when making comparisons to characters and themes.]
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