Independent Films, Film Profiles

Reality Bites
by Ben Stiller

Reality Bites is a 1994 film written by Helen Childress and featuring the directorial debut of Ben Stiller. It stars Stiller, Winona Ryder, and Ethan Hawke, with major supporting roles played by Janeane Garofalo and Steve Zahn. The film was shot on location in Austin and Houston, Texas in 42 days. The plot is centered on Lelaina (Ryder), an aspiring videographer working on a documentary called Reality Bites about the disenfranchised lives of her friends and roommates (Hawke, Garofalo, and Zahn), and to a certain degree, about Lelaina herself. Their challenges, both documented and not, exemplify some of the career and lifestyle choices faced by Generation X.The film focuses on four friends living in Houston, Texas. Long-time friend, temporary roommate and coffee-house guitarist Troy (Hawke) and budding filmaker Lelaina (Ryder) are attracted to each other, though it's an attraction that neither of them has really acted upon, one alcohol-influenced event in the past notwithstanding. He's a slacker and nihilist grunge rock musician by night, while losing job after job in a series of minimum wage dead end endeavors during the day - the last of which he loses early in the film because of stealing a candy bar from his employer. Leleina on the other hand was valedictorian of her university, and has aspirations to become a documentarian, although initially having to settle for a position as production assistant to an obnoxious tv host.Lelaina meets Michael (Ben Stiller) in what filmmakers call a meet cute scene: by accident, she throws a cigarette into his convertible, causing him to crash into her car. The two soon begin to date. He works at an MTV-like cable channel as an executive, and after learning about a documentary she's been working on, he wants to get it aired on his network.Lelaina's roommate Vickie (Janeane Garofalo) has a series of one-night stands and short relationships with dozens of guys (In some cases she doesnt even remember the names of some of them.), motivated by a fear of being alone compounded by a fear of rejection; her promiscuity leads her to confront a very-real risk of contracting AIDS after a former fling tests positive for HIV. Vickie works as a sales associate for The Gap. She is later promoted to manager. (A position that she appears to be content with.)Friend Sammy (Steve Zahn) is gay; he remains celibate, not because of a fear of AIDS, but because forming a relationship would force him to come out to his conservative parents. He later desides to come out to his Mother. .After an impulsive act of retribution, Lelaina loses her job, which causes some tension with her roommates.When Troy's father dies, he forces himself to reevaluate his priorities, deciding to attempt a relationship with Lelaina. Meanwhile, Lelaina's relationship with Michael dissolves after he helps her sell the documentary to his network, only to let them edit it in a way that compromises her artistic vision.Eventually, Vickie's AIDS test comes back negative and Sammy comes out to his parents and the two manage to resume their lives amicably. Troy and Lelaina reunite after Troy returns from his father's funeral and make amends. While we do not see what happens to Michael, during the credits there is an abrupt break where two characters, "Laina" and "Roy," who are obvious parodies of Lelaina and Troy, have an argument about their relationship and as the "show's" credits roll, Michael's name is revealed as the producer, implying that he has turned the failed relationship into the subject of a new show on his network.