Reality Bites

Reality Bites is a 1994 film starring Winona Ryder, Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller about the disenfranchised lives of an aspiring videographer Lelaina and her friends, whose challenges exemplify some of the career and lifestyle choices faced by Generation X.
 * Directed by Ben Stiller. Written by Helen Childress

Life is always funnier when it happens to someone else. (taglines)

Lelaina

 * He's so cheesy, I can't watch him without crackers.
 * I'm not going to work at The Gap for chrissake!
 * It's not like I had a hysterectomy. I just got fired.
 * I have work around here, and unfortunately Troy, you are a master at the art of time suckage.
 * Hey! I'm a non-practicing virgin.

Troy

 * You look like a doily.
 * Are employee snacks subsidized?
 * There's no secret handshake. There's an IQ prerequisite. But there's no secret handshake.
 * I am not required to make the world a better place.
 * Honey, the only thing you have to be at age 23 is yourself.
 * There's no point to any of this. It's just a... a random lottery of meaningless tragedy and a series of near escapes. So I take pleasure in the details. You know... a quarter-pounder with cheese, those are good, the sky about ten minutes before it starts to rain, the moments where your laughter becomes a cackle... and I, I sit back and smoke my Camel Straights and I ride my own melt.
 * I'm bursting with fruit flavor.
 * You have reached the winter of our discontent.
 * He's the reason Cliffs Notes were invented.

Vickie

 * Laney, sex is the quickest way to ruin a friendship.
 * My favorite part about graduating now will be dodging my student loan officer for the rest of my life. He will be in cahoots with the Columbia Record and Tape Company guy... been after my ass for years.
 * My parents have been married for 26 years. Theyre like brother and sister at this point. She goes to the bathroom with the door open. That would be "A". And "B" that's disgusting.
 * Don't you ever wish you were a lesbian?
 * It's not like its happening to me. It's like it's in a crappy show like Melrose Place.
 * Evian is naive spelled backwards.
 * I truly believe that if we can get two women on the supreme court, we can get at least one on you.

Sammy

 * [after coming out to his mother] I wanna be miserable and happy and all that. I wanna be let back into the house.
 * My goal is... I'd like a career or something.

Dialogue

 * Troy: Nice save, Lelaina.
 * Lelaina: I'm not a valedictorian but I play one on tv.
 * Troy: We all know you slept your way to the podium.


 * Lelaina: Well, I know this sounds cornball but I'd like to somehow make a difference in people's lives.
 * Troy: And I... I would like to buy them all a Coke.
 * Lelaina: And you wonder why we never got involved!


 * Lelaina: Can you define "irony"?
 * Troy: It's when the actual meaning is the complete opposite from the literal meaning.
 * Lelaina: Where were you this morning when I needed you?


 * Lelaina: Quick, Vicky, whats your social security?
 * Vicky: Uhm... 851-25-9357.
 * Troy: Very impressive.
 * Vicky: Thats the only thing I really learned in college... Sometimes I get that not so fresh feeling.


 * Troy: Well, should I get married, should I be good, should I astound the girl next door with my velvet suit and my faustushood and not take her to movies but to cemeteries and tell her stories of werewolf tongues and forked clarinets... What 'Hey, That's My Bike' would like to do as a band is travel the countryside like Woody Guthrie.
 * Sammy: Or Richard Simmons. You know, how in his commercials he surprises people jogging...
 * Troy: As you can see, I have the occasional run-in with an anti-Hey-That's-My Biker and to those people I say nobody... nobody can eat 50 eggs.


 * Charlane McGregor: Why don't you get a job at the Burgerama? They'll hire you! My Lord, I saw on the TV, they had this little retarded boy working the register.
 * Lelaina: Because I'm not retarded, Mom. I was the valedictorian of my university!
 * Wes McGregor: Well you don't have to put that on your application.


 * Lelaina: Welcome to the world of the emotionally mature. It's a really nice place to visit. Hey, you may run into Michael. He lives here.
 * Troy: Oh, yeah, right. Michael. Michael. He's so mature, because he lets you navigate that entire relationship. Well, I'm sorry, Lelaina, but you can't navigate me. I might do mean things, and I might hurt you, and I might run away without your permission, and you might hate me forever. And I know that that scares the shit out of you, because I'm the only real thing that you have.
 * Lelaina: Yeah, well that ain't real much.

Taglines

 * Life is always funnier when it happens to someone else.
 * A comedy about love in the 90's

Cast

 * Winona Ryder - Lelania Pierce
 * Ethan Hawke - Troy Dyer
 * Ben Stiller - Michael Grates
 * Janeane Garofalo - Vickie Milner
 * Steve Zahn - Sammy Gray