When Ben Stiller's "Reality Bites" hit theaters in February of 1994, the entirety of Generation X was informed, over and over, that this was the definitive comedy about our slacker lives. Sight unseen, I bought it. Winona Ryder was our Gen X queen thanks to her performances in such instant classics as "Beetlejuice," "Heathers," and "Bram Stoker's Dracula," while Ethan Hawke had become a hero to our angsty cohort after leading a classroom revolution at the end of "Dead Poets Society."

The film, which depicts the struggles of four college friends as they embark on their post-graduation lives, marked Stiller's feature directing debut, which was also exciting. His "The Ben Stiller Show" was one of the sharpest sketch comedy shows of the early 1990s, and he'd brought over some of its cast m

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