6.5 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 4.0 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
In this study of Generation X manners, Lelaina, the valedictorian of her college class, camcords her friends in a mock documentary of posteducation life. Vickie, her best friend, is a manager at the Gap who worries about the results of an AIDS test, while Sammy has problems grappling with his sexuality and Troy is a perpetually unemployed musical slacker. When Lelaina meets Michael, an earnest executive who takes her homemade video to his MTV-like station, she must decide what she values.
Starring: Ben Stiller, Ethan Hawke, Winona Ryder, Steve Zahn, Janeane GarofaloRomance | 100% |
Comedy | 48% |
Coming of age | 40% |
Drama | 10% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
French: DTS 5.1
English SDH, French
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
UV digital copy
Slipcover in original pressing
Region free
Movie | 4.0 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 3.5 | |
Overall | 4.0 |
As a director, Ben Stiller remains hard to categorize. He makes comedies and has a dead-on satirical aim, but Stiller never seems content with just evoking laughs. There's always something else at work in his films, and it often makes people uncomfortable, which is why it's rare when he has a big success like Tropic Thunder. In Stiller's hands, even a broad farce like Zoolander acquired quirky overtones that inhibited easy laughter. The same phenomenon led to the cancellation of Stiller's critically acclaimed TV show on the Fox channel. And when Stiller let Jim Carrey explore the dark side of his comic persona in The Cable Guy, the result was the first box office flop for the previously infallible star. Stiller's offbeat sensibility was already on display in his first feature, Reality Bites, based on a first-time script by film student Helen Childress and one of the earliest productions from Jersey Films, which later shepherded such notable works as Out of Sight, Get Shorty and Pulp Fiction. Producer Michael Shamberg wanted to make a film about what would later be called "Generation X", but no one realized at the time that the issues about which Childress was writing would continue to be relevant several decades later. Even in a landscape transformed by smartphones, the internet and social media, college graduates still enter a tough job market with heads stuffed with high ideals, only to find their expectations dashed. Relationships are still challenging, families are still frustrating, and money is still tight. Reality Bites was a tough sell to studios until the script was adopted by Winona Ryder, whose career was then at its peak and who was looking for a contemporary role to play after a series of costume dramas. As the film's depressed, conflicted, smart-but-hopeless center, Ryder creates a character that is, in many respects, the successor to her career-defining Veronica in Heathers. Having determined, as Veronica did, to get "cool guys" out of her life, Ryder's character in Reality Bites finds herself inconveniently attracted to one of them—and doesn't know what to do about it.
Reality Bites was shot by a young Emmanuel Lubezki, who has since become one of the most respected cinematographers in the industry, most recently winning the 2014 Oscar for Gravity. On the commentary track, Stiller refers to "Chivo's" perfectionism in lighting various scenes. Universal's 1080p, AVC-encoded Blu-ray is somewhat tricky to evaluate, because much of the film was actually shot and edited on conventional videotape (not even digital video) and will therefore never look any better than the source. The portions shot on film are sharp, clear and detailed with a realistic palette that shies away from overly saturated colors. However, consistent with Universal's frequent approach to catalog titles, these portions have been mastered to minimize their origination as film. Grain is largely absent, although any degraining appears to have been performed with the kind of software applied in today's digital intermediate suites, which leaves the detail intact. Nor did I see evidence of any compensatory artificial sharpening, which would have added video noise. The result is an image that most viewers will probably enjoy and only a minority of video enthusiasts will find suspect. (Of course, it is possible that projection at sizes larger than my 72" screen may reveal additional flaws. If so, please let me know.) The average bitrate is a generous 33.01 Mbps. Compression artifacts were not an issue.
The film's original 5.1 soundtrack is presented on Blu-ray in lossless DTS-HD MA. Dialogue is clear, even in its somewhat hollow and compressed rendition in the film's videotape segments. But the most memorable element of the Reality Bites soundtrack is the careful selection of pop tunes through which the characters express themselves and which spawned a hit album. Some of the notable songs include "My Sharona" by the Knack; "Tempted" by Squeeze, which is playing when Lelaina first meets Michael; "All I Want Is You" by U2; and "Stay (I Missed You)" by Lisa Loeb, which became a number one single. Ben Stiller discusses many of the selections—and several songs he wasn't able to get—on the commentary track. In the film's mix, songs often begin as source music, then expand into the full surround array as they inform the characters' world. Ethan Hawke performs several songs in character as Troy Dyer, and the Blu-ray's reproduction is no doubt superior to what one would hear in a live venue.
Universal first released Reality Bites on DVD in 1998 with only a theatrical trailer and talent biographies. In 2004, the studio released a "10th Anniversary Edition" DVD with a host of new extras, all of which have been ported over to Blu-ray:
Helen Childress' script for Reality Bites explores much of the same territory that Lena Dunham has staked out in her series Girls, but Childress got there before Sex and the City had created a genre pigeonhole and HBO had built its marketing machine. With Stiller's eccentric touch, the film has a roughhewn, handcrafted quality, and it still conveys the sense of excitement, as its creators explore something new and intriguing, without ever trying to Make A Statement. X Stiller's preferred register as a comic is self-mockery, and he brings the same quality to his work as a director. No one gets to take themselves too seriously in Reality Bites. Whenever they do, they get bitten. Despite minor video concerns, highly recommended.
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The F Word
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