For a lot of us Gen Xers, watching ‘Reality Bites’ now is like looking at an awkward yearbook picture of yourself when you had your worst haircut.

| Apr 25, 2024

As a depiction of a particular age in a particular country for a specific generation, it is still a pleasant nostalgic trip.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Mar 26, 2021

...a fairly by-the-numbers setup that's employed to impressively compelling (and relatable) effect by first-time filmmaker Stiller...

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 17, 2020

The deeper themes of choosing art and integrity over earning a living . . . felt phony and hollow then, and are nothing short of embarrassing to watch from a modern perspective now.

| Jan 18, 2020

Reality Bites is a legitimately good movie.

| Aug 3, 2019

A lot has changed between the generations, but Reality Bites asks a question that anyone, of any age, will find familiar: what happens when the life you were promised isn't the life you got?

| Aug 3, 2019

In a picture full of painful moments, it's hard to decide on the lowest point.

| Aug 3, 2019

Written with verve and played with grace, Reality Bites is too smart to pass itself off as a definitive statement, but it gets the details delightfully right.

| Feb 15, 2018

Gone is the fearless savagery Stiller smuggled into his 온라인카지노추천 series. Stuck between slacker and attacker, he settles for something curiously inert, slavishly mainstream and so hopelessly phony its own characters might make fun of it between bong rips.

| Original Score: 1.5/5 | Feb 25, 2014

Ryder and Hawke bring crucial authenticity to their roles with effortless appeal. You'll find yourself wanting more of these characters than the movie gives you.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Aug 28, 2013

For all its faults, this still has moments of hip charm.

| Aug 28, 2013

The screenplay by newcomer Helen Childress falls back on familiar formulas too often, but first-time director Ben Stiller keeps the action fast and involving even when you can't help guessing what the next story twist will be.

| Mar 27, 2013

The smart script by 23-year-old newcomer Helen Childress doesn't lose sight of the characters and the issues that affect them and other young adults.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Mar 27, 2013

However conventional Reality Bites resolves to be, it is always engaging. Best of all, Ryder has her greatest role since Heathers, once again proving herself a seriously funny young actress.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 27, 2013

The best -- the brilliant -- bits of Reality Bites etch in epigram, anecdote and brittle, dazzling dialogue the inner life of young people who want desperately to believe but haven't decided in what.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 27, 2013

It's a good example of an anti-establishment comedy crippled by a seeming desire to infatuate the establishment itself. What Reality Bites needs most is a good bite. From reality.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Mar 27, 2013

Among the movie's strengths are the performances, especially that of Ryder, who comes across as bright, beautiful and more delicate than ever before.

| Mar 27, 2013

When the movie is over, you don't feel as if you had shared the experience of a new generation; you feel puzzled and vaguely crummy, as if you had just read a solemn news-magazine cover story about it.

| Mar 27, 2013

Yearning, hilarious, lost within their precocious self-awareness, these slackers have soul.

| Original Score: A | Sep 7, 2011

Comedy about 20-something slackers isn't for kids.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jan 2, 2011