Ethan Hawke

Whatever happened to the 90-minute movie? Ethan Hawke is mulling that over, slouched in a dining chair inside a small empty ballroom at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles, slightly rumpling his light brown three-piece suit. He's not playing the slacker anymore; at 39, he's a film veteran and he talks with a certain cinematic weariness. "I don't know what has happened to movies, but lately every movie is at least 20 minutes too long," he said. "It used to be that if you were three hours long it was because it was epic -- a movie about Gandhi; something with very important subject matters.

Whatever happened to the 90-minute movie? Ethan Hawke is mulling that over, slouched in a dining chair inside a small empty ballroom at the SLS Hotel in Los Angeles, slightly rumpling his light brown three-piece suit. He's not playing the slacker anymore; at 39, he's a film veteran and he talks with a certain cinematic weariness. "I don't know what has happened to movies, but lately every movie is at least 20 minutes too long," he said. "It used to be that if you were three hours long it was because it was epic -- a movie about Gandhi; something with very important subject matters.

"Reality Bites," a new film about a quartet of twentysome-things coping with life and love, was a marked departure from his previous cinematic outings, says its star Ethan Hawke, who at 23 is emerging as one of Hollywood's hottest young talents. With virtually the entire cast, a first-time feature film director and a first-time screenwriter all under the age of 30, the movie not only deals with Generation X but was created by it.

WILLIAM (Mark Webber) is a 20-year-old actor born in Texas and raised in New York after his parents divorced when he was a child. Some 15 years later, the trauma is still fresh in his mind, sparking flashbacks to his conception and, later, to his father's advice never to stray too far from Texas in his heart. William dutifully follows the tip, incorporating down-home elements in his hipster (hickster?) wardrobe and affecting a mopey cowboy demeanor.

Chat with teen dream Ethan Hawke and the subject of Bob Dylan will definitely blow into the conversation. "I am such a fan," Hawke gushes. "I got like the bootleg series in my CD, an album sitting on my turntable and some weird tape of his in my tape player." And Hawke is trying to get the courage to head to his local video store to rent the classic 1967 Dylan documentary, "Don't Look Back."

WILLIAM (Mark Webber) is a 20-year-old actor born in Texas and raised in New York after his parents divorced when he was a child. Some 15 years later, the trauma is still fresh in his mind, sparking flashbacks to his conception and, later, to his father's advice never to stray too far from Texas in his heart. William dutifully follows the tip, incorporating down-home elements in his hipster (hickster?) wardrobe and affecting a mopey cowboy demeanor.

Congratulations to everyone who was born on Nov. 6. As birthdays go, it's certainly turning out to be a red-letter one, at least for Ethan Hawke. This year, the stars have been unusually generous to Hawke, so shouldn't his fellow Scorpios be enjoying a mach 2 ride as well? "It's the kind of year that makes me believe in astrology," Hawke says, and then he ticks off the heavens' economy pack of good fortune, a string of important firsts and a couple of seconds not to be sneezed at.

Ethan HAWKE tossed his trucker hat atop the plants in the cafe window and kissed the stunning waitress on both cheeks, French style. It was a Chelsea morning after the first preview of the off-Broadway revival of David Rabe's 1984 play "Hurlyburly," and Hawke was absolutely rumpled, the flagrant bed-head definitely not a result of over-styling. He still smokes. He still looks as he did in his early 20s, somehow both anxious and mellow.

Actor Ethan Hawke is set to appear on stage in Dublin this month when he takes part in a season of readings of American plays. Hawke, who starred in "Dead Poets Society" and in recent years has turned his hand to writing novels, will be the main attraction at the "Americana" festival at the Abbey, the National Theater of Ireland. He will be appearing in a reading of Sam Shepard's "The Late Henry Moss." Other works featured during the two-week run that starts today include Charles L.

In this age of brand-enhanced, franchise-fattening "media events," when inane sequels, incomprehensible prequels and unjustifiable remakes seem to be replacing original films like the pods replaced the real people in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (which, by the way, is being remade for the third time), there may be scant room for a film like "Before Sunset."

Ethan HAWKE tossed his trucker hat atop the plants in the cafe window and kissed the stunning waitress on both cheeks, French style. It was a Chelsea morning after the first preview of the off-Broadway revival of David Rabe's 1984 play "Hurlyburly," and Hawke was absolutely rumpled, the flagrant bed-head definitely not a result of over-styling. He still smokes. He still looks as he did in his early 20s, somehow both anxious and mellow.

In this age of brand-enhanced, franchise-fattening "media events," when inane sequels, incomprehensible prequels and unjustifiable remakes seem to be replacing original films like the pods replaced the real people in "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (which, by the way, is being remade for the third time), there may be scant room for a film like "Before Sunset."

ETHAN HAWKE, who stars in the new movie "Taking Lives" with Angelina Jolie, has been doing the rounds of the glossy magazines and TV shows, talking about life and his split from actress Uma Thurman. The 33-year-old broodingly handsome actor has broodingly appeared in such films as "Dead Poets Society," "Before Sunrise" and "Training Day," and he has written two novels. Might relationship guru be in his future?

Actor Ethan Hawke is set to appear on stage in Dublin this month when he takes part in a season of readings of American plays. Hawke, who starred in "Dead Poets Society" and in recent years has turned his hand to writing novels, will be the main attraction at the "Americana" festival at the Abbey, the National Theater of Ireland. He will be appearing in a reading of Sam Shepard's "The Late Henry Moss." Other works featured during the two-week run that starts today include Charles L.

"Chelsea Walls" is a beautiful, poetic film that captures the aspirations and struggles of a group of creative residents of Manhattan's landmark Chelsea Hotel, legendary home to artists and writers for whom it was built, a haven for such giants as Mark Twain, Thomas Wolfe, Tennessee Williams, Arthur Miller, Dylan Thomas and many others.

Ethan Hawke is animated and chatty. He wears characteristic mussed hair, scruff on his chin and a casual gray suit, no tie, with a wide-collared shirt. His wife, Uma Thurman, is elsewhere, tending to their two children, while Hawke oversees the quiet premiere of his directorial debut, "Chelsea Walls." It's Monday night. The sun is setting behind the Laemmle Sunset 5 theater on Sunset Boulevard as a modest crowd of reporters and photographers awaits the parade of Hawke's celebrity friends.

For Ethan Hawke, acting in "Dead Poets Society" and sharing a floor of a Delaware hotel with six other young actors felt a bit like going off to camp. "All of us got along so well," the 19-year-old Hawke says. "A lot of times when young actors get together, it turns into this incredible competition, but (director Peter) Weir didn't let that happen. . . . It really did seem like such an ensemble thing. Nothing anybody did would have been as good without one of the guys." The Texas-born Hawke plays painfully shy Todd Anderson in the critically acclaimed film about a charismatic English teacher who inspires a group of prep school students to appreciate poetry.

ETHAN HAWKE, who stars in the new movie "Taking Lives" with Angelina Jolie, has been doing the rounds of the glossy magazines and TV shows, talking about life and his split from actress Uma Thurman. The 33-year-old broodingly handsome actor has broodingly appeared in such films as "Dead Poets Society," "Before Sunrise" and "Training Day," and he has written two novels. Might relationship guru be in his future?

Congratulations to everyone who was born on Nov. 6. As birthdays go, it's certainly turning out to be a red-letter one, at least for Ethan Hawke. This year, the stars have been unusually generous to Hawke, so shouldn't his fellow Scorpios be enjoying a mach 2 ride as well? "It's the kind of year that makes me believe in astrology," Hawke says, and then he ticks off the heavens' economy pack of good fortune, a string of important firsts and a couple of seconds not to be sneezed at.

"Reality Bites," a new film about a quartet of twentysome-things coping with life and love, was a marked departure from his previous cinematic outings, says its star Ethan Hawke, who at 23 is emerging as one of Hollywood's hottest young talents. With virtually the entire cast, a first-time feature film director and a first-time screenwriter all under the age of 30, the movie not only deals with Generation X but was created by it.