Watched: Reality Bites
Observations:
- This somehow managed to simultaneously feel surprisingly fresh and aggressively dated at the same time. It’s not just the VHS generation loss and the very 90s soundtrack - there’s a sensibility to this that we’ve kind of lost, even though the same issues (jobless arts grads struggling to find meaningful work) persist. Nowadays, though, it’s taken as read on most fronts that if you want to do the job you want, you work at something you hate first; here, there’s a fierce resistance to that attitude that seems both naive and visionary at once.
- Interesting, too, how the focus narrows over time rather than immediately seizing on the eventual love triangle. In the opening few minutes, it’s hard to tell who the real subject of the film is, which lends the whole affair the feeling that this is just a glimpse of a culture.
- Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder are electrifying in this - the latter didn’t surprise me, but Hawke can be very hit (Gattaca, Dead Poets Society) and miss (Daybreakers). This was good. He steals the last scene. Stiller was less impressive, though I suppose it’s tough when you’re essentially directing yourself.
- Not too philosophical (despite deliberately twee allusions to the contrary), but fun and heartwarming. Somehow paints so-called slackers in a positive light, which is nice (and rare) to see.
