So tonight is 90's night around Chez Thomas. Actually, Tim's out for Jeff's bachelor party so I'm Home Alone (smacks cheeks in incredibly adorable way). I just watched Reality Bites for the first time in eons and man, has that movie not held up well. Although I think it's not the movie, but my age. When I first say Reality Bites, I was a Junior in High School and I went with my friend Shannon to the Spring Lowe's across from my high school. It was Spring Break, I believe. I was carrying an Ammo Box from the Military Surplus store as a purse that I had decorated with pictures of Morrissey and Priscilla Queen of the Desert and other things I considered to be counter-culture. This was before the weight of the ammo box made my arm throb day and night and I had to retire it. I still have it. And I have been known to keep counter-culture items in it. Tee hee.
(*Note to self, remove counter-culture items, if they still exist, from Ammo Box. That will be the first place the cops will look now.)
Okay, so I saw the movie and I wanted it to BE my life. I thought Lelaina (played by my once girl crush, Winona Ryder) and her friends were the coolest people on earth. They drove around and smoked cigarettes and filmed themselves and smoked pot and danced in gas stations. Of course, that was when I was 16 (and I also thought that the other 65 times we watched that movie throughout high school and probably into college). Now that I watch it at 30 I'm like, "wow, all they do is drive around and smoke cigarettes and film themselves and smoke pot and dance in gas stations." Although I was mightily nostalgic for the driving around smoking cigarettes. Some of my favorite memories are drivingly aimlessly with friends smoking cigarettes. But that could be tinted by the fact that I quit smoking 3 and a half years ago;) And I did once buy snacks for all my friends at a Shell station on my parents' credit card (sorry Mom and Dad; it was Christmas Eve and nothing else was open. Hey, it's not my fault you guys got me an '81 Ford Fairmont for my first car, I could fit a football team in that thing!)
What was MOST interesting was the fact that this was the 10 year anniversary edition and they had a great "Looking back" documentary. And Janeane Garofolo said that she lives across from NYU and every year kids STILL come up to her and say, "wow, I love that movie, that is the most awesome movie." And she said that of course they love it because they see it and think, "hey, even after I graduate I can still hang out with my friends and talk all night and go see my boyfriend's band. Yes!" So that's it. The movie is not for nostalgia for us old farts, it is for the young to watch and pine for. So I bequeath Reality Bites to you kids. May my once favorite movie, the movie that made me want to name one of my children "Lelaina" for like 10 years inspire and excite you. And may you be as jealous of Winona Ryder's amazing gravity-defying unashed cigarette as I once was.
Extra Fun Fact: Janeane Garofolo was up against Anne Heche, Parker Posey and Gwyneth Paltrow for the role of Vickie. She won out partially because she was actually the most well-known of that group at the time because of her work on the Ben Stiller Show and The Larry Sanders Show.
3 comments:
You know what, I never saw that movie. So, if I had an ammo box it would not contain a VHS tape of that movie. I'm trying to remember my all time fave movie from high school. I think it might be Princess Bride or Edward Scissorhands.
Winona Ryder was also my young crush.
I didn't see that movie until I was in that just-post-college phase and I thought it was genius. I didn't smoke, but I wanted to. I loved driving aimlessly. I lived with a roommate in an un-air conditioned house. And I thought the whole buying snacks thing was awesome. Now I think, geez, that's rude, even if your parents are the embodiment of evil.
I am old.
Who could have been better than Janeane Garofolo? She was so cynical and fabulous.
P.S. You were totally the girl I admired and wished that I had the guts to be with your ammo box purse and everything.
P.S This is similar to Before Sunrise. I loved it when it came out. Now it's kind of embarrassing like was I like that? And as sad and depressing as it was, I could so much more relate to Before Sunset.
Did I mention that I'm old?
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