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Reality Bites Universal Studios 1994. Via Netflix. Official movie website.

The Plot: Post-college life of Lelaina, want to be documentary film maker; her roommate, Vicki, manager at the Gap; their drop-out musician friend, Troy; Sammy, who is gay but doesn't date; and the businessman Lelaina is dating.

The Good: I have a love-hate relationship with this film. Which means, so much I adore about it; and so much I hate with a passion.

What do I love? A snapshot of a time, the early 1990s, and the slacker - grunge lifestyle. Yes, children, before hipsters and the Millennials, there was another group of entitled twentysomethings who thought they knew it all and that the world owed them. Who worked at semi-dead end jobs to pay bills.

The dialogue, full of pop culture references and an "old before our time" jadedness is perfect. I just want to sit and rerun it over and over. And the music; oh, the music. The clothes, the need a shampoo hair.

I also find it so refreshing to see people smoking and it not being a big deal. Smoking both kinds of cigarettes. The divorced parents. AIDS. Trying to figure things out.

Ethan Hawke, Ben Stiller, Janeane Garofalo all shine. Steve Zahn's storyline is too short; like they wanted a gay character but then didn't quite know what to do with him. And Winona Ryder just puzzles me.

Because the reason I cannot full-out love this movie is Lelaina, and frankly I'm not sure if it's the character as it was written, the plot, or Ryder's acting. In a nutshell, she wants to make documentary film; she's in Houston, working on a morning TV show. She ends up looking for a job, not finding anything -- but here's the thing.

We're told that Lelaina is looking for a job; we see her looking for jobs and getting told "no"; she even voices my thoughts (find a job! get a life!) but it rings false.

False because of how it ends. with Lelaina having no job, no career, no idea what she wants, no goals. Oh, she does achieve one thing, figuring out which guy she wants. Interesting enough, deleted scenes included Lelaina compromising herself by getting a job at the Gap. Including this in the movie would have changed my reaction; but what remains unanswered, what job did she actually want? If it was filmmaking, what was she doing to make the shift from hobby to career?

Lelaina has no idea what she wants or how to work for it, other than to make self-indulgent rambly films about her friends and edit them. She talks about how much she works at it, but all we see is her shooting random video, editing it (without seeing the end product), and having no plan on what to do with the product beyond getting the local morning show to use it as a guest video spot. She is angry that her parents won't pay her bills when she cannot find a  new job and scams money off her father. When her boyfriend Michael offers her the opportunity to turn her film into a product (albeit one MTV-ized), the "happy ending" is her standing up against "the man" and ending up with Troy, slacker supreme. At least Troy realizes he has to get gigs for his band.

For a post-college look at life, with jobs hard to find, bills unpaid, it's interesting, refreshing, still topical.

Even when I watched it the first time, in the theatre, the fact that this ended without Lelaina deciding anything about how she was going to pay her own bills bugged me. There's a line in a young adult book (I forget which one) about how being an adult is not about owning a car; it's about paying the bills and insurance for that car. Lelaina never gets to the point where she realizes this. It's not just a picture of slacker life; it's saying that being a slacker, living off other people, is a fine life indeed. And I don't know if Lelaina is that shallow and unformed, or if it is Ryder who is unable to capture the loss of direction post-college life. Is Lelaina supposed to be our hero? Or just the main character?

Michael -- Michael, who pays his own bills, has a job, and doesn't scam rent money off his parents -- is the fool. Michael isn't perfect -- none of these characters are. But since Lelaina is the main character, and we see her happy and kissing Troy at the end, instead of being a character study of three imperfect people, it's the story of two "cooler than you'll ever be" people and one "working for the man" outsider.

So I hate the film. Wish there was a way to not have a Hollywood ending -- I don't want anything unrealistic -- but damn. There has got to be something other than Lelaina sitting around, making self-indulgent films that have no point other than to stroke her own ego so she can call herself an "artist."

But when I can ignore the end -- ignore the message that yuppies drool, slackers are cool -- and just indulge in the pop culture talk, the sharp dialogue, Ethan Hawke's brilliant performance of someone who is truly not sure what he wants, the music, the clothes, I love this film.

And, of course, I may love this film so much because back in the day I dated the Troy character, not the Michael.

So sit back, enjoy it for what it is -- a snapshot of a time and place. Forgive it for what it isn't -- a way of moving beyond that time and place. And show the current crop of twentysomethings that yeah, there is nothing new about the truth they are just discovering, the truth we knew fifteen years ago. Reality bites.

© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy

The Actor And The Housewife by Shannon Hale. Bloomsbury USA. 2009. Copy from BEA.

The Plot: Becky Jack is sitting in a Hollywood office, selling her screenplay to a producer. Who would have thunk it! Becky, a Mormon housewife, seven months pregnant, happily married to Mike, three young kids at home, in Hollywood. It's surreal. And gets more odd when Felix Callahan -- yes THAT Felix Callahan, the totally hot A list British actor married to a French model -- walks into her meeting. One comment leads to another and the next thing you know, Becky and Felix are.... friends?!?

The Good: This was one weird ass book. And I mean that in a good way. This book doesn't fit into any one genre; if you go in with certain expectations, chances are, you'll be puzzled, at the least.

What IS this book about? Friendship. Pure, simple, complicated, teasing, flirting, friendship. When can a married woman and a married man who are NOT married to each other be friends? The type of BFFs when just thinking about the other person makes you smile? With shared jokes and banter and giggles?

Wait, you say. That's not friendship! That's romance.

Is it?

Hale explores just that issue -- when can two people of the opposite sex be friends. What is friendship? And what is romance? What is love? What creates temptation? Should any temptation be avoided? Does that mean locking oneself away? If there is banter and a connection, does that mean there is, or could be, something more? Hale raises some uncomfortable questions and explores some touchy issues, and does so during an eleven (eleven!!) year period in the lives of Becky and Felix

There is more! There is Becky, who is so, well, normal and happy that you almost -- almost -- cannot stand her because she has the perfect family, perfect children, perfect husband, and now perfect best friend in Mr. Famous Felix. Hale weaves in things, puts things together, so Becky isn't perfect, but is likable and normal and very nextdoorish. While Felix is, well -- I'm sure every reader will picture a different famous actor in the Felix role. For the record? Hugh Grant. Also? For some reason, I picture Patricia Arquette as Becky, probably because she is so nextdoorish in Medium and Joe reminds me of Becky's husband, Mike. Except, just for the record, Becky Jack is not a medium and does not solve crimes. This book isn't THAT weird ass.

But this is more than an examination of life, love, and relationships. It's also funny! Laugh out loud, wishing you had said it, wishing you had that friend funny. I giggled my way through the book. Becky and Felix's banter are something out of, well, a Hollywood movie. Here is the dialogue from their first meeting, where they have literally, just met. And remember, Becky is seven months pregnant, and in a real person way, not a Hollywood model way. By coincidence, they are walking into the same restaurant, in that uncomfortable together but not together moment, Becky ahead of Felix.

Becky: Anyway, just so you know, I'm not following you.

Felix: Technically, I'm following you.

Becky: Yeah, I didn't want to mention that. You should do horror movies -- you're kind of creepy.

Felix: I get that a lot. People magazine's Creepiest Man of the Year, Lifetime's Top Ten Hunks Who Give Us The Willies, that sort of thing.

Becky: Where do you keep all the trophies?

Felix: In an abandoned shed in the forest.

Becky: Infested with bats and rusty farm equipment?

Felix: Naturally.

Becky and Felix appear to be opposites; but they fall into a patter, a way of looking at the world, that is similar. Each is, well, a good, decent, person. Felix, for example, interrupts Becky's business meeting by accident and realizes she is about to sell her screenplay without an agent. Felix steps in and tells her what terms to negotiate. (Wondering what favorable terms to ask for when selling an option on your screenplay? Page 17.)

One of the (many) areas that Becky and Felix have nothing in common is religion. This is one of those rare books that includes religion (Becky & family are Mormons) just as part of who the people are. Prayer, church attendance, etc. are just woven into the fabric of their lives.

Hale is best know for her fantasy books for teens (as well as Austenland). This, on the other hand, is realistic fiction. Except it's almost a fantasy... c'mon, a regular person who just happens to become best friends with famous actor? And he turns out to be an awesome guy? Yeah, there is a fantastical element here, for anyone who has daydreamed about meeting Mr Perfect. And being there friend. But maybe that's just me. Oh, and Ally Carter and George Clooney.

For those of us interested in covers, I found that the image up at Amazon and the one I had were different. See the photo to the side here? How different it is from the real cover, above? Subtle differences; here, on what I imagine is an earlier draft of the final photo the housewife is way more formal the Becky Jack: hair in an up do and pearls. The real cover has long hair, less formal, and a pie that looks more enticing. Plus, the actor -- here, if you look at it quick, as I did, you don't realize it's the actor but think it may be the housewife's legs. (Just me? Really?) The real cover shows more of the actor than his chin -- we also see his smile -- and that defines the shoulders more, so it's clearer there is a second person.


© Elizabeth Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy