Richard Linklater is, in my opinions, one of the best filmmakers currently working. His most recent film, Boyhood, was just astounding – famed for its 12-year filming period, telling the story of a life that grows up with the actual actors, it is a work of pure brilliance which pays off as a truly moving film experience. Linklater excels at exploring the human condition, both grounded in realism (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Before Midnight), and in more abstract, existential manners (Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly). It all started, however, with lower budgets and pure vision – Slacker, his first commercially-released feature, is essentially plotless, instead giving us glimpses into the lives of several disparate and enigmatic characters. This was followed by another [also generally plotless] portrait of various peoples: Dazed and Confused.
Dazed and Confused takes place over the course of a 24-hour period: the last day of school in 1976. Freshmen boys take flight as seniors chase them with paddles (an annual tradition); the girls submit more thoroughly to hazing perpetrated by, also, the seniors; teenagers drive around, smoking weed, drinking, relishing the night and all its potential. Through it all is a zest for youth, for possibility, for the fact that some people are still young and, despite their potential naïve cruelty, are innocent as to the harsh realities of the world; these people will live forever.
Dazed and Confused plays tomorrow, Saturday, May 23 at Baxter Avenue Theater at midnight. Baxter Avenue Theater is located at 1250 Bardstown Road. Further information can be found at the theater’s website.
Image: IMDB