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Much has been made of the tangent approach to the story telling. But I recommend this film for its originality and understated comedic themes. The Madonna pap-smear girl gets more annoying with every viewing. That's a lot of sophistry and navel gazing to be sure! Not every character is a gem. Nearly every conspiracy theory in modern pop-culture is paid lip service during the film. I also enjoyed the menstrual-cycle stone garden and the fortune-telling hippie chick with the black eye who was having 'a breakthrough day'. I loved the loser with the TV strapped to his back and the older guy who found an armed robber in his house, only to take him for a stroll and a friendly chat (about Charles Whitman). Remember the traumatized yacht owner in the greasy-spoon diner or the older dude with the toupee from the coffee shop? 'We've been on Mars since the 50's', he says. These offbeat characters and wonderful dialogue make this film memorable. If you've ever been to Austin, or spent a sleepy summer in a college town like Lawrence, KS or Madison, WI, then you'll appreciate the parade of pseudo-intellectuals and good-natured conspiracy theorists that provide much of the grist for the script. You'll either be bored to tears or fascinated to no end. Like sands in the hourglass so is this day in the lives of several bohemians living in Austin, TX in 1990. A more modern notion would be people who are ultimately being responsible to themselves and not wasting their time in a realm of activity that has nothing to do with who they are or what they might be ultimately striving for.” – Richard Linklater.Extreme boredom leads to fascination. The dictionary defines slackers as people who evade duties and responsibilities. “ Slackers might look like the left-behinds of society, but they are actually one step ahead, rejecting most of society and the social hierarchy before it rejects them. If you are a fan of Linklater’s work but haven’t had a chance to see Slacker, I highly recommend it, if only to see a snapshot of what college life was like before the internet. Linklater’s eye for nuance, his freewheeling, documentary-style approach, and his natural gift for dialogue make Slackeran honest reflection of a community of twenty-somethings from a decade long gone.
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Looking back, it’s easy to see why Linklater emerged as the reluctant messenger for a generation labeled, packaged, and sold as a defiant demographic dedicated to shredding whatever classification society tried to mark them as. While it initially seemed like a gimmick, Slacker proved to be a perfect way of capturing a place, time, and lifestyle. I especially love the final shot when the film appropriately cuts to the point of view footage of a gang of teens roaming about with Super-8 cameras. In a way, its mise-en-scène parallels its characters, but unlike the narrative structure, there is a focus on his visual approach. The camera is constantly moving amidst a diverse set of characters lingering just long enough to get a feel for what’s going on before moving away. There is a very distinct rhythm to his style, and the few cuts only further add to the documentary feel. Linklater shoots scenes in long takes, allowing his characters the freedom to roam about, trusting his camera to follow along. What really caught my eye when rewatching the film is how remarkably photographed it is. It’s a movie best described as a micro-budget comedy about media-obsessed young Americans not interested in the American Dream but instead preoccupied - or at least satisfied - with the now. It’s about being true to yourself, even if that means settling for less to follow your dreams. But thematically, Slacker is really about finding yourself and about rejecting the status quo for something more personally rewarding. In terms of its narrative, Slacker falls somewhere between Jim Jarmusch’s Stranger Than Paradise and Robert Altman’s Nashville, with a structure similar to Twenty Bucks. Slacker may be every bit as meandering and directionless as the characters who populate the film, but that was sort of the point. And worse, it had nothing meaningful to say. I remember thinking how pointless it was - a low-budget mess with little-to-no direction.
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Unfortunately, I wasn’t as big of a fan of the movie when it was first released. In 1990, his debut feature, Slacker, put Linklater and Austin, Texas in the spotlight when Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, writing, “ Slacker is a movie with an appeal almost impossible to describe.” It was hailed as something of a manifesto for Generation X, and the film was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991. Richard Linklater was one of those filmmakers. While Generation X sometimes seemed to lack direction, its filmmakers began to rise in prominence by making powerful statements about contemporary society and their generation’s role in it.