When ‘X’ Doesn’t Mark the Spot : In a time when youth culture is king, why are Hollywood’s Generation X movies, more often than not, shunned by the X-ers? Maybe filmmakers should listen to the people they think they’re talking to

“Reality Bites” executive producer Stacey Sher couldn’t have been happier. There she was, buying CDs at Tower Records, and the tousled-haired clerk bagging cassettes behind the counter--the hippest guy in the room--was proudly wearing a “Reality Bites” button on his shirt.

When Sher mentioned she’d been involved with the movie, the Tower clerk exclaimed: “Oh my God, that’s so cool! I’ve listened to the soundtrack about 4,000 times.” Then one of his co-workers jumped in. “Hey,” she said, “you haven’t even seen the movie!”

The clerk shrugged. “Come on, I work at Tower Records. I can’t afford to go to movies.”

Whatever the reason, the Tower clerk, like many of his Generation X brethren, don’t seem to be going to the movies the way they used to--at least not to movies about themselves.

Beginning in 1989 with the release of “Heathers” and “sex lies, and videotape,” a wide array of young filmmakers have surfaced, making a series of quirky films aimed at the scruffy core of the twentysomething marketplace.

Focused largely on brooding, disillusioned youths absorbed in edgy relationships and turbulent romances, the films have been alternately praised and reviled by critics. Some, like “Kalifornia,” were instant bombs. A few lower-budget entries, like “Benny & Joon,” turned a modest profit. One classic alienated outsider tale, “Edward Scissorhands,” was a major hit.

But none have captured the elusive spirit of a generational moment, as “The Graduate” did for disaffected youth of the late ‘60s, “Saturday Night Fever” for the self-discovery of the disco era or “Fast Times at Ridgemont High” for the teen anxieties of the early-’80s mall culture.

Buoyed by strong word-of-mouth and what seemed like a picture-perfect marketing campaign, Universal Pictures’ “Reality Bites” had the heady scent of a generational impact film when it hit theaters in mid-February.

Its star, Generation X goddess Winona Ryder, graced the cover of Rolling Stone. Details gave its cover to co-star Ethan Hawke. Director and co-star Ben Stiller was everywhere on late-night TV. GQ, Sassy and Vanity Fair did celeb-struck profiles of the film’s stars. Time, Newsweek, Entertainment Weekly and The Los Angeles Times weighed in with rave reviews. MTV did a “Big Picture” special edition devoted to the film. Its soundtrack rocketed into the Billboard Top 10.

Even more importantly, “Reality Bites” seemed to catch a pop-culture wave: Newspapers debated its Generation X merits in Op-Ed page stories. Local deejays started obsessively playing “My Sharona,” the 1979 teen anthem revived on its soundtrack. Even the New Republic’s Michael Kinsley used the movie’s portrayal of out-of-work slackers as a hook for a column about the federal deficit.

But despite the hoopla, the $11-million film never caught fire. It is inching toward a gross of $20 million, meaning its modest profits will come from its home-video release.

“It’s a little depressing,” says Sher. “My crackpot theory is that we made a really good movie for people who can’t afford to see it.”

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Coined by Douglas Coupland in his 1991 novel, “Generation X” is a classic sound-bite catch phrase. Beloved by the media, it is loathed by everyone forced to wear the tag, even if it’s no more bogus than previous media convenience labels, including such whoppers as the Beat Generation, the Flower Power Generation and the Me Generation.

According to media and marketing mavens, Generation X-ers are post-baby boomers, a generation born roughly between the Cuban missile crisis and Watergate. They’ve been depicted--and often depict themselves--as overeducated and underemployed. Cynical and disillusioned. Media savvy and equally media suspicious.

You’ve seen the snapshot: White middle-class kids raised on junk sitcoms and trashy rock bands who hang out in coffee bars, wear thrift-store threads, smoke Marlboro Lights and save up for Lollapalooza tour tickets.

In reality, this generation is far more culturally diverse, just as likely to harbor a preppy neo-conservative as a grungy slacker. But, like the media, Hollywood goes for the stereotype. For decades, it has viewed rebellious youth as lucrative box-office fodder, supplying a new icon for each generation, from James Dean and Jack Nicholson to John Travolta and Tom Cruise.

As teens in the mid-’80s, Generation X-ers were ardent film consumers, making hits out of such adolescent fantasies as “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” “Risky Business,” “Pretty in Pink” and “The Breakfast Club.”

But today something seems amiss--both economically and culturally. In an era where every other youth culture trapping is booming--be it MTV, alternative rock, Fox TV, Reebok or the Gap --Hollywood’s Generation X movies are, with rare exceptions, underperforming at the box office.

Despite the presence of such appealing young actors as Ryder, Johnny Depp, Christian Slater, Brad Pitt and Juliette Lewis, the films often have trouble connecting with their core audience, much less crossing over to older or more mainstream moviegoers. Even the most high-profile films, most notably “Reality Bites” and “Singles,” hit the wall short of a $20-million box-office gross.

Of equal concern is the nagging sense that many Generation X-ers--loyal moviegoers all through their teens--are dropping out of the box-office equation as they reach their 20s, preferring to buy CDs or stay home and rent videos. It’s hard to say whether they are turned off by movies in general or just movies about themselves. Either way, they seem deeply skeptical of Hollywood’s attempts to market nonconformity--and suspicious of the way their age group is portrayed on screen. When it comes to pop icons, they prefer Pearl Jam and Soul Asylum to Ethan Hawke or Christian Slater.

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Whatever is happening, it is beginning to worry top film executives. “We are going to be in big trouble if we can’t find a way to reach this audience,” says Caravan Pictures chief Joe Roth. “As a generation, they don’t feel a part of the tribal rite of going to the movies. The habit just isn’t there, which doesn’t bode well for the future of movies.”

Roth believes Generation X-ers are going to see big hits like “Jurassic Park” or “The Fugitive,” but not movies about themselves.

“It’s troublesome, because a big part of filmgoing has always been using movies as a way of identifying with your personal experience--of wanting to see movies that speak directly to you,” he says. “But that’s not true for today’s young audience. If it was, ‘Reality Bites’ would have had the kind of impact of ‘American Graffiti.’ ”

Why does Pearl Jam, MTV’s “The Real World” and even “Melrose Place” seem to connect with a generational sensibility that has so far eluded Hollywood’s cinematic reach? Are today’s filmmakers out of touch with their own generation? Or are young moviegoers wary of any generational portraits, regardless of how grungy or gloomy the sketch?

To find some answers--or at least hear some intriguing theories--we sought out a variety of Generation X commentators (and a few token baby boomers) from the cutting edges of popular culture. They volunteered some savvy--and startling--opinions about their generation’s disquieting sense of malaise about moviegoing.

Too Much Reality

“Why on Earth would you want to sit in a movie theater in your checkered shirt and Army boots and watch movie characters sitting around complaining in their checkered shirts and Army boots?,” says Toby Hood, 26, national manager of college radio promotion at MCA Records. “Why not just walk out the door, go down the street and see it for yourself?”

“I have close friends who really resemble that Ethan Hawke character,” says Kalle Matso, 26-year-old film critic for the weekly Manhattan Beach newspaper the Beach Reporter. “But if they have time to catch a flick, they’d go see ‘Belle Epoque’ or ‘Die Hard 3.’ The last thing they’d want to see is Hollywood’s take on Generation X.”

“At 25, I’ve got to deal with a delinquent American Express card, car payments--I’m living beyond my means,” says Damon Lee, an assistant to the producer on John Singleton’s “Higher Learning.” “Johnny Depp’s a great actor, but when I go to a movie, I don’t want to see someone with more problems than me.”

The Video Alternative

“I never go to movies--there’s too much emotional intensity in seeing things on the big screen,” says Shann Nix, 27, a San Francisco-based novelist and talk-show host. “We’re VCR babies. We’re very fragile. We like to hold things at a distance. With video, the impact of movies isn’t so overwhelming. You can be in control. You can stop, start, fast-forward. You can’t do that in a movie theater.”

“This is the first generation that grew up without having to go to a theater to see a movie,” says Andy Fleming, 31, director of the new Generation X film “Threesome.” “When I was growing up, if you didn’t see a movie right away, it disappeared. Now you can find it anywhere--on cable, on home video. There’s no urgency to seeing it in a theater.”

“I was in a theater the other night when a trailer came on for a film that’s probably going to be the No. 2 summer movie at a major Hollywood studio,” recalls Joe Roth. “And when it was over, some guy in the back of the theater yelled out, ‘Video!’ And half the theater applauded. I got a chill down my spine, because I was thinking--that could’ve been one of my films.”

X Economics

“Everything about the economics of our core-audience demographic points to our movie being a smash on home video,” says “Reality Bites” producer Michael Shamberg. “Maybe we can’t get them to pay $7 to see a movie in a theater. But I bet they’ll pay $2 to see it on video.”

“I only go see movies if I don’t think they’re ever going to show up on home video,” says Jim Barber, 31, an Atlanta-based A&R; executive at Geffen Records. “Some of it’s just economics. If I buy a CD, I have it forever. A movie’s a one-time thing. Sometimes you remember it the next day and sometimes you don’t.”

“When we analyze material,” says Michael De Luca, 28, president of production at New Line Cinema, “the first thing we ask is, ‘Why would someone pay $7.50 to see this?’ ”

The X Brand

“Our generation doesn’t exist--that’s why no one’s going to see these movies,” says Nix. “Today’s kids have rap and Thrasher magazine and the jeans-hanging-down-to-your-knees street stuff. That’s a genuine subculture that horrifies adults. We were just cute and confused. We never had an aesthetic of our own.”

“It’s pretty dubious who Generation X really is,” says Nina Jacobson, 28, vice president of production at Universal Pictures. “Just because we have a name for it doesn’t mean it actually exists. Mostly, I think it exists in the mind of the media.”

“It was a cultural phenomenon that was labeled before it actually happened,” contends Fleming. “Remember what Nietzsche said: ‘If you name something, you kill it.’ ”

“We never refer to our audience as Generation X-ers,” says Doug Herzog, MTV’s senior vice president of programming. “They don’t want to be categorized. They really resent it. If they feel overanalyzed by the media, they rebel against it.”

“We cringed when we saw all the advance articles talking about our movie as a Generation X statement,” says Bruce Feldman, senior vice president of marketing and promotion at Universal. “We were aiming for a much broader audience. But once the press labeled it that way, it became a picture only for the X Generation.”

Too Hip

“Movies like ‘Kalifornia’ and ‘True Romance’ were too hip for their own good,” says De Luca. “The kids in movies like ‘Reality Bites’ are white, upscale and a little whiny. I don’t see the young Axl Roses out there in Indiana feeling that they can share in that experience.”

“The Ethan Hawke character in ‘Reality Bites’ was a total phony,” says Stan Evans, 30, a producer of E!’s “Talk Soup.” “It turned me off. It was as if the only way to be cool was to be totally detached--you know, the nobility of sitting on a couch, full of deep, pretentious phrases.”

“Maybe the ‘slacker’ character is a little off-putting,” says producer Shamberg. “In retrospect, if the Ethan Hawke character had been conceived of as more of an everyman, it might have struck a chord with a broader male audience.”

Immediacy

“The soundtracks to ‘Singles’ and ‘Reality Bites’ speak to what the movies are about much better than the movies do,” says Barber. “Music is more immediate. No matter how personal his movie is, Ben Stiller needs hundreds of people and $10 million or $20 million to make it. Our hottest record right now, ‘Loser’ by Beck, was done in one night on an eight-track machine in the guy’s house.”

“When a band makes a record, they don’t have four executives show up in the studio and say, ‘So, what are the marketing possibilities?’ ” says Hood. “When too many people have too much input in the creative process, it loses what makes it personal and intuitive.”

“People connect a lot more with the Wednesday-night TV shows--’Melrose Place’ and ‘Beverly Hills, 90210,’ ” says Mark Lewman, 26, editor of Dirt magazine. “They just seem more timely, more in touch with people our age. The next day it’s all we talk about--everyone has a morbid fascination with them.”

Don’t Believe the Hype

“Having a movie made about us automatically gets our back up,” says Nix. “We’re like jeans--we come pre-faded and pre-jaded. We hate being labeled. So by definition, anything designed specifically for us is offensive.”

“If your movie looks anything like a Hollywood movie, the Gen X audience will be a hard sell,” says De Luca. “The marketing on ‘Reality Bites’ just smelled of Hollywood trying to be hip. I liked the movie. But did you see its poster--with the graffiti on the wall saying, ‘movie poster’? It said: Look how hip we are. It made me immediately not want to see the movie.”

“The way Hollywood handled ‘True Romance’ was typical,” says Hood. “They wouldn’t let Quentin Tarantino direct it. Instead, they took a movie that was aimed at a generation that totally loathes commercials and hired a guy to direct it (Tony Scott) who makes millions doing what--making commercials.”

“To me, ‘Reality Bites’ was so ersatz--it’s a TV version of my reality,” says Barber. “It was like a Hollywood attempt to take my life, package it and sell it back to me.”

Baby-Boomer Anxiety

“There’s as much a wall between Generation X and the baby boomers as there was between the boomers and their parents,” says Shamberg. “It’s almost like the boomers’ motto is: Don’t Trust Anyone Under 30.”

“A lot of these movies scare off older audiences,” says Herzog. “They look at the characters and say, ‘Who are these people?’ ”

“It was really interesting to see how totally irritated Siskel and Ebert were that Winona Ryder went off with Ethan Hawke instead of Ben Stiller,” says De Luca. “They kept saying--he lies on the couch all day, he’s a slob, he doesn’t have a job. Why didn’t she go off with the responsible guy? They didn’t see the movie as critics. They saw it as parents.”

Prognostications

“The Gen X movie that will probably go over the top won’t be one that’s authentic and has all these brooding guys in goatees,” says Matso. “It’ll probably be like ‘Jurassic X Park.’ A movie with X-ers, but with special effects by ILM.”

“It’s sort of nerdly to go to a Hollywood film these days,” says Nix. “When you think of Hollywood, you think of Exxon and Coca-Cola. It’s much more cool to stay home and watch a black- and-white ‘50s movie on video.”

“It all depends on how you define the movie,” says Jacobson. “ ‘Indecent Proposal’ was about the economic struggles of a young married couple. ‘The Firm’ was totally about being twenty-something in the ‘90s. They were both big hits. I don’t think our batting average is different from any other generation.”

“You make movies about people, not about generations,” says Fleming. “It was probably a lot easier before it occurred to people that there was a generation between being in high school and getting married.”

“Ben Stiller and Ethan Hawke are going to go on to make lots of movies that’ll be big successes,” says Shamberg. “It may be that there’s a box-office ceiling on this generation’s subject matter. But I don’t think there’s a ceiling on their sensibility.”

Benchmarks, Dude?

The iconography of Generation X, as defined by some of the sights and sounds of the ‘70s depicted in “Reality Bites”:

Rerun of “The Brady Bunch”

Rerun of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”

“Charlie’s Angels” lunch box

Poster of “Saturday Night Fever”

Poster of John Travolta

Ceramic statuette of Dr. Zaius from “Planet of the Apes”

Rerun of “One Day at a Time”

The Knack’s “My Sharona”

Peter Frampton’s “Baby, I Love Your Way”

Rerun of “Good Times”

Dialogue reference: Gary Coleman

Poster of Sean Cassidy

Rated Gen X

A look at how Generation X films have fared at the box office :

Film (Distributor) Release Date Gross Screens* (Millions) Heathers (New World) March 31, 1989 $ 1.1 54 sex, lies, and videotape (Miramax) July 28, 1989 24.6 534 Edward Scissorhands (Fox) Dec. 7, 1990 54.2 1,372 Slacker (Orion Classics) July 5, 1991 1.1 50 Singles (Warner Bros.) Sept. 18, 1992 18.5 1,330 Untamed Heart (MGM) Feb. 12, 1993 18.8 783 Bodies, Rest and Motion (Fine Line) April 9, 1993 0.7 49 Benny & Joon (MGM) April 16, 1993 23.1 1,314 Three of Hearts (New Line) April 30, 1993 5.5 792 Poetic Justice (Columbia) July 23, 1993 27.5 1,285 Kalifornia (Gramercy) Sept. 3, 1993 2.4 359 True Romance (Warner Bros.) Sept. 10, 1993 12.3 1,254 Dazed and Confused (Gramercy) Sept. 24, 1993 8.0 282 What’s Eating Gilbert Grape? (Paramount) Dec. 17, 1993 8.9 611 Reality Bites (Universal) Feb. 18, 1994 19.5 1,732 Threesome (TriStar) April 8, 1994 7.8 1,218

* Number of screens at film’s widest release.