But no. This is, in fact, footage for a documentary that the film's heroine is shooting about her friends and their current situation in life. And she continues to shoot throughout the film, while her pals oblige her with the kinds of sound bites that will make them cringe if they see this footage in five years.

The documentary-in-progress is supposed to record the passage of Generation X from college into an unfriendly job market, but actually what it records is callow and superficial behavior by kids who do not inspire us to wish we knew them better.

The would-be documentarian, named Lelaina, is played by Winona Ryder as an intense, chain-smoking class valedictorian (so smart that when she misplaces a page of her speech at the graduation ceremonies, she is unable to continue, and has to escape with a lame ad lib). Now it's summer, and she has a job at a local TV station. Her roommate Vickie (Janeane Garofalo) has found a temporary job as an assistant manager at a White Hen Pantry, and they move into an apartment together. Not long after, they are joined by Troy (Ethan Hawke), who just needs a place to crash until he finds a job. Uh-huh.

Lelaina resents Troy for moving in, and expresses a lot of hostility toward him - a sure sign, in a film like this, that she's attracted to him. But then she encounters another guy, in a Meet Cute that even a 1930s movie would have found problematic. Stopped at a red light, she throws her lighted cigarette out of her car, and it lands in his convertible, after which he crashes into her, etc., and it turns out this is Michael (Ben Stiller), an executive with an MTV-like cable channel.

Lelaina and Michael begin dating. He's a nice guy. Troy resents him. Troy is a familiar type, well-played by Hawke: He cultivates an air of languorous superiority toward everyone with plans, ambitions or a job, and spends most of his time lounging in an easy chair, cultivating scraggly facial hair.

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