Home » We All Know Who The Bad Guy In ‘Reality Bites’ Truly Is – Tales From The Slack

We All Know Who The Bad Guy In ‘Reality Bites’ Truly Is – Tales From The Slack

Reality Bites Top
ADVERTISEMENT

You can use this link or code mustang2yearanniversary to get 80% off membership and become a member so you can read this post. It would be nice!

Share on facebook
Facebook
Share on whatsapp
WhatsApp
Share on twitter
Twitter
Share on linkedin
LinkedIn
Share on reddit
Reddit
Subscribe
Notify of
77 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Loudsx .
Loudsx .
6 months ago

wait I always thought Winona  was the “badguy” of the film?

Electronika
Electronika
6 months ago
Reply to  Loudsx .

Lets face it, they all were horrible people

Holly Birge
Holly Birge
6 months ago

I’m very much a Gen-Xer. Saw Reality Bites when it came out in 1994 and thought Ethan Hawke was a prick. Saw it again a few years back and I still think his character is the bad guy and Ben Stiller was just trying to be a good guy.

And it really is the most Gen-X movie ever.

Ben
Ben
6 months ago

Also in this category (and also from the 90s): Rent. Wherein the “good” guys are drug addicts and losers who treat their significant others like shit, and the “bad” guy is the one with a job who just wants the “good” guys to actually pay their rent. What a monster!

Electronika
Electronika
6 months ago
Reply to  Ben

Hell that is my GenX high school experience in a nut shell. Maybe that is a case for Reality Bites in and of it self as the GenX movie because it is true. In my experience, all the Winona Ryder’s in my High School (In Los Angeles) all gravitated to either jocks or drug addict losers who treated them like total shit. And in most cases, either got them knocked up, beat them or abused them emotionally. Then left them with baggage both in the form as kids and PTSD. I realized this after college when I returned to find them all very interested in me with my shinny new degree, nice car, good job and nice place to live. I guess in that case Winona choose Ethen Hawk he wasted her early 20’s, got her pregnant, had the baby and bailed on her, leaving her with her worn out hand me down BMW, a 3 year old and a job as a program manager at a local tech firm making 17 dollars an hour.

I would guess that the long stuck in development hell, shelved script for Reality Bites 2, showed her desperately looking for Ben Stiller to hook back up with him to get him to help raise Ethan’s kid and live happily ever after in Denver where he is Director at Arrow Electronics and living in Aurora.

Electronika
Electronika
6 months ago

I am genx and I loved Reality Bites when it came out and to be honest with you… I liked it because I, like most men my age, was totally hot for Winona Ryder. I didn’t really care as much about the film as I did about her.. and Since Ethan Hawke was a “Cool Guy” back then, and she was hot for him, I rooted for him not Ben Stiller.

Now as a middle aged man (be kind). I see Winona Ryder as the worst incarnation of Spock’s mom from a mediocre Star Trek movie and can look at Reality Bites with a fresh set of eyes.

it’s Meh.. I think both guys suck and she could do better.. but she was kind of annoying too. They all were. Sadly that means that we probably were pretty annoying too, just like my kids who are around that age now are…

As far as the most genx movie, Maybe Say Anything.. Maybe Singles, The Crow yes But for me… it was the Clerks for sure.. and to reinforce it, we have Clerks 2 and 3 which followed our generation from young adulthood to us now.. Kevin Smith in many ways is a pretty stable voice of Gen X

Last edited 6 months ago by Electronika
Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
6 months ago

Ethan Hawke is the bad guy for stepping out on Uma Thurman.

As a genx person High Fidelity is not the most genx movie by a mile. For a start I’ve never even heard of it. Or of Reality Bites. Then there’s the breakfast club, footloose, back to the future, Clerks, gremlins, Wargames.

Last edited 6 months ago by Double Wide Harvey Park
Juanmi82
Juanmi82
6 months ago

I just want to point out that the code is giving me 20% off, not 80% off – I would be paying 80% of the membership fee

10001010
10001010
6 months ago

Adrian is right, The Crow and Judgement Night both win based on their soundtracks alone.

EXP_Scarred
EXP_Scarred
6 months ago

Maybe it’s because I (and my wife) are “early” Gen Xers, but where are The Breakfast Club and St. Elmo’s Fire in this discussion?

(Disclosure: I’ve never seen any of the other movies mentioned in the Slack…)

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
6 months ago
Reply to  EXP_Scarred

I consider Don’t You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds to be our generations unofficial anthem.
I also believe The Breakfast Club should be watched by any parents of teenagers, preferably with said teenagers.
Also… Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

EXP_Scarred
EXP_Scarred
6 months ago

Hear, hear….

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
6 months ago

A song written for Billy Idol, who was the lead singer of Generation X.

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
6 months ago
Reply to  EXP_Scarred

I would argue, that appreciation of the John Hughes oeuvre is an essential part of any true Gen X-er, those are not really ‘Gen X’ defining movies.

Mark Tucker
Mark Tucker
6 months ago

Sorry I missed this conversation. For the record, the two most defining Gen X films both star Christian Slater: Heathers and Pump Up The Volume.

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago

nm, ignore post

Last edited 6 months ago by Stef Schrader
Jb996
Jb996
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Well now I’m curious…

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago
Reply to  Jb996

I’m trying to reach tech support. Last I heard, I was instructed to acquire a hammer and a thick slice of apricot Wensleydale to fix the issue. At least that’s what the voices in my head are saying. Mmm, cheese.

Last edited 6 months ago by Stef Schrader
Jb996
Jb996
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Last time I also needed a Squirrel and a top hat, but your mileage may vary.
Good luck.

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago
Reply to  Jb996

Well, I’m doomed since I refuse to cooperate with…them. Fuzzy little fartknockers who keep eating my lawn furniture.

AnscoflexII
AnscoflexII
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Cheese fixes most everything

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago
Reply to  AnscoflexII

Well, it at least took care of the hangry part.

Chronometric
Chronometric
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

You need a dog, preferably named Gromit.

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago
Reply to  Chronometric

I think that’s why the ‘lumps are around: they don’t eat my cheese.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Were you talking to Jason at the time?

Icouldntfindaclevername
Icouldntfindaclevername
6 months ago

Really there should be a class of late boomers and early GenXers. They really should have their own classification. So many changes and crap happening at that time

Rust Buckets
Rust Buckets
6 months ago

Its almost like arbitrary distinctions made on a continuous timeline aren’t very representative of reality………

Phuzz
Phuzz
6 months ago
Reply to  Rust Buckets

I’m in a similar position on the GenX/Millennial boundary. I can remember the cold war (just), but I also had a mobile phone before I was an adult (just). At least people my age get a name ‘Xenials’

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago

Man, most of my friends are Gen X and I gotta admit as the baby of the group…generational differences are nonsense. There are older-generation things I’ve picked up from having older parents that make sense, and I am also a large child who routinely calls things “mid.” There are commonalities to be had with pretty much anyone I’d meet.

The only real truth to life is that everything sucks. It may suck in different ways. It may suck in different forms. It may specifically suck in ways that affect you moreso than it sucks for your fellow man. Maybe there’s a larger classification to be had, where all of us post-Boomers blend together in one giant, ever-worsening pit of suck—but I doubt it. Things also sucked for them, too! I’ve heard about it! Uphill, both ways, from their sucky-sounding bootstraps or whatever. The generational labels feel like a distraction from the fact that everything is circling the drain and we’re all getting stuck with it. It all sucks. It really, really sucks.

Last edited 6 months ago by Stef Schrader
Peter d
Peter d
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

I agree to some extent that the named generations don’t necessarily match common experiences, but anyone who graduated and tried to enter the workforce from 1987 to about 1992 had a way different experience than say someone in 1995 until 2000. Some years were just way more difficult to get an entry level job than others and if you graduated from college in 1988 you had a really tough time and you may still not have corrected for the slow start in things like take home pay and career advancement.

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago
Reply to  Peter d

Fair, but there does seem to be an outsized emphasis on the dumbest things like “millennials are killing avocadoes” or whatever instead of like, “maybe cut the hoardes of people who graduated into a recession some slack for a change.” (And yeah, as a 2010 college grad, I don’t think I’ll ever be able to make up the difference.)

Last edited 6 months ago by Stef Schrader
Peter d
Peter d
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Oh god, the “millennial kids don’t want to work anymore” bullshit is the worst. For many years I hired/managed interns and let me tell you no generation is better or worse than another – but there is huge variation in each individual – and you cannot predict which one is going to be hard working from their resume/application/interview. Things have not gotten worse or better with the young generations.

Cheap Bastard
Cheap Bastard
6 months ago
Reply to  Peter d

“Oh god, the “millennial kids don’t want to work anymore” bullshit is the worst.”

It’s not that they don’t want to work, it’s that they don’t want to work for FREE.

All those unpaid internships must be filled!!

Martin English
Martin English
6 months ago

I was born in may 61, so I call myself a space cadet

The Artist Formerly Known as the Uncouth Sloth
The Artist Formerly Known as the Uncouth Sloth
6 months ago

August 1964, I feel seen as the kids say

Squirrelmaster
Squirrelmaster
6 months ago

Yeesh, I can’t say I cared for any of those movies. High Fidelity was probably my least disliked film of those, but I couldn’t stand Cusack for years after that movie (until probably Con-Air, honestly). Singles and Reality Bites were just too much like real life (not so much in the story, but the characters reminded me of my older sister and some of her annoying friends).

I did rewatch The Crow a few years ago, and while I can’t say it held up super well, it at least didn’t remind me of the parts of the 90s I hated (high school and college). That was epecially true since the soundtrack to The Crow was great – I had it on both cassette and CD back when it came out.

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
6 months ago
Reply to  Squirrelmaster

There’s so many nineties movies with killer soundtracks.

Jb996
Jb996
6 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

This is really the most important lesson to take from all of this discussion.

DialMforMiata
DialMforMiata
6 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Whatever my feelings about High Fidelity (loved it when I was in my 20s, I find it a bit mopey and pretentious now) it introduced me to “Old Sad Bastard” (Belle and Sebastian) which is still my go-to chill band.

AnscoflexII
AnscoflexII
6 months ago
Reply to  DialMforMiata

So. Im fifty, and at my workplace I often dial up some music to listen to on our overhead system (mostly because I’m there first thing in the morning). I’ve recently been told that it’s called “Ansco’s Sad Bastard” music.

I mean, like half my coworkers are older than me but this is what I get? Was High Fidelity more popular than I realize?

Have I had one too many beers?

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago

No love for Slacker? Slacker is the Austin that every oldish coot claims they moved to, but totally missed when they moved here to work at some tech company in 2008.

Signed,
It was 2012 in my case, bro

Last edited 6 months ago by Stef Schrader
Squirrelmaster
Squirrelmaster
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Oh wow, Slacker. I had a friend who loved that movie to the point that it inspired him to move from Houston to Austin in the late 90s! I couldn’t understand why then anymore than I can now, but he’s still there today complaining about how trendy and gentrified his beloved Austin has become.

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago
Reply to  Squirrelmaster

Ha! Yeah.

It’s not really living in Austin if you’re not complaining about how it used to be.

Last edited 6 months ago by Stef Schrader
Jack Trade
Jack Trade
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Or how about how Dazed and Confused hits the seeming exact midpoint between the Boomers and Gen-X (per above discussion) – Boomer subject matter in a Gen-X style narrative. Simply fantastic.

Last edited 6 months ago by Jack Trade
Tom W
Tom W
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

I know at least two folks (maybe 3) that are in Slacker (and maybe in Scanner Darkly). And to a large degree, from about 90-2004 it honestly was pretty great. But even then, old Austin folk would complain about how much it had changed.

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago
Reply to  Tom W

Oh wow! Neat. It’s definitely fun looking at how much the different central neighborhoods have changed since then (as someone who showed up much, much later).

But yeah, if there’s one constant here, it’s complaining about change. Haha.

Last edited 6 months ago by Stef Schrader
Rad Barchetta
Rad Barchetta
6 months ago

I’ve never seen Reality Bites but I’ve always had Singles as my most Gen X movie. Mainly due to the grunginess.

A. Barth
A. Barth
6 months ago

Abashed the A.Barth stood, and saw how awful Adrian is.

That’s not true, of course. I do respectfully disagree with him about The Crow and agree that Singles and Empire Records are both better than Reality Bites. Some of the Crow characters were a little one-note, but Michael Wincott plays one hell of an antagonist.

If the Slack club would like to watch another music-related movie, may I recommend Rock Star (2001) with Mark Wahlberg and Jennifer Aniston. Wahlberg (in a series of not-great wigs) makes a mishmash musical journey from fan to band member to a proto Eddie Vedder. It’s not a great film but it has some good parts and a good cast.

Rad Barchetta
Rad Barchetta
6 months ago
Reply to  A. Barth

No, it’s a good film.

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
6 months ago
Reply to  A. Barth

Did you even make a movie in the nineties if Michael Wincott wasn’t your bad guy? I think not. Great to see him still getting work in Nope.

A. Barth
A. Barth
6 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

I’m not familiar with Nope but may need to change that.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
6 months ago

What, no followup on Adrian’s citation of “Judgement Night” as an epic flick??

It has perhaps one of the best examples (along with his apparently hated The Crow) of a peak ’90s-style soundtrack – a dream team of well-regarded artists, often doing collaborations. Had it on CD back in the day.

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

“The Crow’s” soundtrack is so good that it’s 99.9999% of the reason why I got viscerally angry at the thought of a movie remake. I know there are good artists now, and that there’s still some great use of music in film and TV out there (read: I definitely caught that Letterkenny reference in the NX piece, ya buncha degens).

But the potential for disappointment is there, man, and do I trust a film studio in the year of our toiletsplosion 2024 not to pump out a steaming pile of horse manure set to the most bland, radio-friendly “sad” music they can get their hands on? Nope. Not one second.

Last edited 6 months ago by Stef Schrader
Jack Trade
Jack Trade
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

I still own the soundtrack on CD. It lives in the Mustang, as it has an actual CD player on which to listen to it and other soundtrack gems like Repo Man.

“Who are you man?!” “I’m your…passenger.” <cue Stone Temple Pilots’ Big Empty>

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

Some of the tracks made it onto the Lemons Rally playlists I put together (at the appropriately named lemonsparty dot org, no less, and do not forget the “s”), and…yeah. That week was the week I heard about a Crow remake, so just like…salt in the wound, man. Let Lee’s final act rest. I do not need to hear the redone MGK version.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Can you have a CD player in a lemons car?

Stef Schrader
Stef Schrader
6 months ago

Sure, as long as it’s secured and doesn’t make you crash. Some teams have used sound before to hilarious effect: https://youtu.be/1CFmQOn0gmw

(Ours was for the Lemons Rally, though, which isn’t a race but more of an on-road scavenger hunt-type deal run by the same people.)

Sam I am
Sam I am
6 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

Repo Man! Now that’s a great soundtrack. As a late Boomer, naturally I have it on vinyl.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
6 months ago
Reply to  Sam I am

I had a good friend in school who was also a huge fan (we must have watched it hundreds of times, including once in a revival theater), and if someone mentioned Picasso in conversation, one of us was guaranteed to observe “Pablo Picasso was never called an asshole.” To which the other would respond “Not like you.”

Peter d
Peter d
6 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

The funny thing is Picasso was a huge asshole. Now we need to get out of this bad area…

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
6 months ago
Reply to  Peter d

Come on let’s get a drink.

Shop-Teacher
Shop-Teacher
6 months ago
Reply to  Stef Schrader

Same reason I got so mad that they remade Roadhouse. No Jeff Healey! You can’t have Roadhouse without Jeff Healey!

Peter d
Peter d
6 months ago
Reply to  Shop-Teacher

Wait! What??! Some idiots remade Roadhouse… why?? No way it is better than the original. My brother tells this story that one of his buddies was hosting a German exchange student who just could not get his head around the whole premise of the movie, so they watched it over and over again. I saw an interview with Kelly lynch not too long ago where she said her family gives her shit about getting naked with Patrick Swazye in that movie and somehow Bill Murray started the ribbing.

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
6 months ago
Reply to  Peter d

On the hmmm…maybe front, they’re also doing a sequel to Repo Man.

BUT Alex Cox is back to direct, and promises an appropriately unhinged movie.

Shop-Teacher
Shop-Teacher
6 months ago
Reply to  Peter d

Yeah, Amazon remade it. I refuse to watch that bullshit though.

Spikersaurusrex
Spikersaurusrex
6 months ago
Reply to  Peter d

I watched the Roadhouse remake the other day. I found it entertaining in its own right, but it’s completely different from the original. Don’t throw it out just because of the name.

Double Wide Harvey Park
Double Wide Harvey Park
6 months ago
Reply to  Shop-Teacher

Little known fact: Jeff Healey himself never saw Roadhouse.

Shop-Teacher
Shop-Teacher
6 months ago

Gadamn it Skeeter…

Adrian Clarke
Adrian Clarke
6 months ago
Reply to  Jack Trade

Last Action Hero, Spawn, Cool World, Tales from the Crypt.

Last edited 6 months ago by Adrian Clarke
Jack Trade
Jack Trade
6 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

You strike me as someone who also properly appreciated In the Mouth of Madness.

Jb996
Jb996
6 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Some movies I haven’t thought about in years…
But which reminded me of Hackers.
Terrible movie, made by old people pretending they knew what young, cool, computer people were like. (Ha, jokes on them, there is no such thing!)
But it did bring us Angelina Jolie, who in that era was… whew.

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
6 months ago
Reply to  Adrian Clarke

Yes to all of those.
I’d like to add Friday.

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
6 months ago

“Fight Club”.
Cmon people…

Jack Trade
Jack Trade
6 months ago

1999 was a weirdly, singularly good year for movies – so many important, lasting ones came out then. Pre-millennial tension was conducive to some damn good filmmaking I guess.

Rad Barchetta
Rad Barchetta
6 months ago

You’re not supposed to talk about that.

Jb996
Jb996
6 months ago

But I don’t think Fight Club was a Gen X movie, was it? It was a little late to the party, and has a different message and tone.
(But a great movie nonetheless.)

Phantom Pedal Syndrome
Phantom Pedal Syndrome
6 months ago
Reply to  Jb996

“We’re the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War’s a spiritual war… our Great Depression is our lives. We’ve all been raised on television to believe that one day we’d all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won’t. And we’re slowly learning that fact. And we’re very, very pissed off.”

77
0
Would love your thoughts, please comment.x
()
x