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The Innkeepers ***1/2
The Woman in Black ***
The Grey ***
Man on a Ledge ***
Underworld Awakening **
Fullmetal Alchemist: The Sacred Star of Milos ***
Haywire ***
Beauty and the Beast ****
Contraband ***
The Divide *
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy ****
The Devil Inside **
The Iron Lady **
A Separation ***
Pariah ***1/2
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ***
The Darkest Hour **
War Horse **1/2
In the Land of Blood and Honey **
The Adventures of Tintin ***1/2
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Adaptation
Dream House
Drive
Frida
The Magnificent Ambersons
Malcolm X
The Mill and the Cross
The Moment of Truth
Outrage
The Piano
The Thing
To Kill a Mockingbird
2011: The Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
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Film Features

2011: The Year's Best Films
Year's Best DVDs and Blu-Rays
San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards
Interview: Steve McQueen and Michael Fassbender
Interview: Simon Curtis
Interview: Werner Herzog
Interview: John Cho
Interview: Roland Emmerich
Interview: Stephen Bishop on Moneyball
Interview: Nick Swardson
Interview: Lynn Hershman Leeson
Interview: Lone Scherfig
Interview: Jesse Eisenberg & Aziz Ansari
Interview: Wayne Wang
Interview: Andre Ovredal on 'Trollhunter'
Interview: Ewan McGregor & Mike Mills
Interview: Kelly Reichardt (Examiner link)
The 54th San Francisco International Film Festival - 2011 Coverage
Interview: Emma Roberts
Rainn Wilson & James Gunn (Examiner link)
Interview: Tom McCarthy
Interview: Abigail Breslin (Examiner link)
2010: The Year's Best Films
2010: The Year's Best DVDs & Blu-Rays
Interview: Sofia Coppola
Interview: George A. Romero
The Decade's Ten Best Films: 2000-2009
My Top 100 Films [Updated]
My Top 60 Directors [Updated]
Christmas Movies
Essential Halloween & Horror Movies
Cult Movies
Actress Interview Gallery
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Film Books

Have Yourself a Movie Little Christmas, by Alonso Duralde
Not Quite a Memoir: Of Films, Books, the World, by Judy Stone
James Agee: The Library of America Collection, by James Agee
Just Making Movies, by Ronald L. Davis
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The online film magazine Combustible Celluloid offers new movie reviews, DVD reviews, film reviews, actor interviews, actress interviews, director interviews, film books and all things cinema related for the thoughtful and passionate. Online for ten years! Over 3000 reviews!

 
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© 1997-2012 Combustible Celluloid



Reality Bites (1994)

Rating: 2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Gen X-Men

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Reality Bites on DVD

This was the first -- and only -- official Generation X comedy, containing plenty of references to Schoolhouse Rock, MTV, classic TV shows and commercials and 80s music. Unfortunately, the characters are nothing more than the standard-issue types, looking to overcome the same old obstacles.

Four friends have just graduated from college. Valedictorian Winona Ryder quits her job at a stupid daytime talk show but can't find a new job. Romantically she jumps back and forth between yuppie Ben Stiller and slacker Ethan Hawke, while her best friends Janeane Garofalo and Steve Zahn provide comic relief and go through their own crises -- including a brush with HIV.

Ben Stiller made his directorial debut here with very little in the way of style or personality. Gen Xers looking for a good time probably found themselves cheated at having been pigeonholed like this and watching the film's fun, ironic beginning give way to goopy pathos. In 1994, any self-respecting twenty-something would much sooner be seen attending Ed Wood or Pulp Fiction than this.

Hawke directed the video for Lisa Loeb's theme song "Stay," and went on to star in a much more potent twenty-something film the following year, Before Sunrise.

Universal has released the film in a new 10th anniversary DVD that includes deleted scenes, an introduction by Stiller, a commentary track by Stiller and screenwriter Helen Childress, a retrospective, "The Stars Look Back on the Making of the Movie, What It Was Like to Work Together and How Much Fun They Had," the Lisa Loeb video and the making of the video, and the trailer.

Starring: Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo, Steve Zahn, Swoosie Kurtz, Joe Don Baker, Renee Zellweger, John Mahoney, Andy Dick, Keith David
Written by: Helen Childress
Directed by: Ben Stiller
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for some language, drug content and sensuality
Running Time: 99 minutes
Date: June 22, 2004

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