Chuck Klosterman

1 sketch, 6 claims, and 5 fun items attributed to them. What was said about them.

Personality, episode by episode

The Rewatchables: ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan (guest)

Obsessed with how the 90s defined selling out, indie rock ethos, and how art and commerce collided; dislikes the English-major Troy type. Loves Kicking and Screaming over Reality Bites.

Stances

Selling out was the central 90s tension
Kicking and Screaming is superior
Hawke won the movie

Humor: Deadpan cultural analysis that turns personal.

In their words

“I do think in a way, like, the 90s, in some way kind of damaged me” (0:12:44)
“I kind of liked the Hawk argument.” (1:30:12)

Their shows' recurring bits

Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.

The Rewatchables

Apex Mountain: The moment a star peaks; where on the mountain a performance sits.
Who Won the Movie: The hosts name the person who came out of the film best off.
The Ebert review: Roger Ebert's original review and star rating read aloud. Ebert is cited, never on the show.
Casting what-ifs: Who was almost cast, or who should have been.
Most rewatchable scene: The scene each host would stop on while flipping channels.
Aged best / aged worst: What holds up and what does not.
Picking Nits: The little things in a film the hosts love that they don't think totally work: the nits.
Double feature: The film each host would pair it with; a programming pick.

Their claims

Showing 1–6 of 6 claims.

lineage (lineage): Slacker → Reality Bites. Klosterman says Slacker belongs in the Gen X group because its script appears in the Gen X Reader.
“there's a anthology book called the Gen X Reader, and some of the slacker script is in that book.”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:03:37 · Chuck Klosterman (0.70 sure it was them)
craft (craft): Dazed and Confused → Reality Bites. Two kinds of generational movie: looking back at a past era (Dazed, Graffiti) versus real time (Reality Bites, Saturday Night Fever).
“And then there are the movies where they actually try to do it in real time, like Saturday Night Fever is like this, and reality bites is like the clearest example.”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:08:35 · Chuck Klosterman (0.50 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Reality Bites → Slacker. Reality Bites was seen at the time as the sellout, mainstream version of Slacker.
“this is the most mainstream version of what a movie like Slacker was.”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:15:24 · Chuck Klosterman (0.50 sure it was them)
theme (theme): Reality Bites → High Fidelity. Frampton Comes Alive as a signal of mainstream taste echoes a Frampton cover scene in High Fidelity.
“In the book High Fidelity,”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:20:06 · Chuck Klosterman (0.50 sure it was them)
industry (industry): Ethan Hawke → The Purge. Blumhouse movies like The Purge make Hawke financially best-positioned now.
“Financially, he's probably in the best position because he made the purge”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 1:05:14 · Chuck Klosterman (0.40 sure it was them)
contrast (contrast): Reality Bites → Kicking and Screaming. Kicking and Screaming ends with a futile romantic gesture, which makes it the superior movie.
“kicking and screaming has such like a powerful ending precisely because the great romantic gesture is just ultimately futile.”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 1:28:22 · Chuck Klosterman (0.50 sure it was them)

Their fun items

Showing 1–5 of 5 fun items.

fun, about Siskel and Ebert: They said Lelaina picked the wrong guy; viewers now might agree.
“when this movie was reviewed by Siskel and Ebert at the time, that their takeaway was, well, she picked the wrong guy, okay?”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:13:15 · Chuck Klosterman (0.55 sure it was them)
fun, about Chuck Klosterman: Got booed at a show for a band placing a song in a Volkswagen ad (Velocity Girl); Jawbreaker was 'dead to me' for signing with Geffen.
“they placed a song in a Volkswagen ad, and they, we, I was at a show where that song got like booed.”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:19:33 · Chuck Klosterman (0.55 sure it was them)
fun, about Troy Dyer: Hey, That's My Bike is a band name Klosterman says captures how 90s bands named themselves to signal no intent to be popular.
“the kind of name you give your band to tell people we don't intend to be popular.”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 0:48:38 · Chuck Klosterman (0.60 sure it was them)
fun, about Ethan Hawke: Simmons overheard Hawke at a Brooklyn pasta shop asking a writer whether a character was Nick Cave or Jeff Tweedy.
“the thing is, I don't really know who this character is, is he Nick Cave?”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 1:06:12 · Chuck Klosterman (0.50 sure it was them)
fun, about Reality Bites: The best exchange: Troy defining irony as the actual meaning being the opposite of the literal meaning.
“And he's like, it's when the actual meaning is the complete opposite from the literal meaning.”
The Rewatchables · ‘Reality Bites’ 25th Anniversary With Bill Simmons, Chuck Klosterman, and Chris Ryan · 1:13:20 · Chuck Klosterman (0.50 sure it was them)