Dazed and Confused

for so long its not true

I only saw it once. I dare not watch this again. For some reason it was playing at a dingy burlesque-haunted cinema on old Granville Street in Vancouver on a Sunday afternoon in 1993 where wasted men usually shuffle in to deposit their sperm. (Not enough credit goes to internet porn for cleaning up the streets). Richard Linkater wasn't a story at the time. The guy who made Slackers. The bastard love child of Jim Jarmusch and Chrissie Hynde for all I knew. No clue he'd be the chosen one to eventually deliver us to Boyhood. I went in with a friend on a lark and floated out on a psilocybin cloud of joy. I was awestruck. I know these guys! I wanted to endlessly sing its praises but my friend didn't get the same charge out of it. (Although months later at a Christmas party of wayward misfits, he couldn't stop playing the sound track). Maybe it was me. But this was exactly how I remembered High School in the 70's. Was I hallucinating the whole thing? Indeed I was stoned much of the time, but all that was brilliantly accounted for. All that was missing was a bit of Pink Floyd and a whole lot of Led Zeppelin as alluded to in the title. _Dazed & Confused_ isn't merely the best movie about High School in the 1970's. It is the best movie about High School, and the best movie about the 1970's, and perhaps the best movie about male adolescence (yes, yes, IMHO, of course, what else). I dare not watch it again for what if I burst the bubble of such virgin memories to forever spoil my love and admiration for it. Or was it the dingy cinema I have fond nostalgic feelings for? Something. I'll have to watch it again, probably soon, once Linklater finally gets the grand red-carpet treatment along with the golden trinkets he so long deserves.

Really solid sophomore effort by Linklater.

Loved his Hitchcock homage, especially.

The final day of the school, but it's just the beginning!

I won't lie that I watched it after I saw 'Everybody Wants Some!!' from the same director. Because I liked that film and I heard that was a spiritual sequel to this one. So there goes my reason. I usually love the 80s and 90s teen films, you can't compare them to what they make now. The film was from the edge of before my generation began, but I'm very related that time than the other end. So I felt very familiar and enjoyed it thoroughly.

The film focused on the final day of the high school. It opened in the afternoon during the final class and followed by night where a party was arranged by the seniors that does not take off after their parents suspected it. Between the freshmen and the seniors, a tradition follows. Some of them escape, but those who got caught, struggles to way out. Not everyone, some make it their best time in high school. So who gets what and how everyone's night turns out revealed in the remaining.

We can see some of the big names of the today's cinema in this 23 year old film. Matthew McCanaughey, Milla Jovovich, Ben Affleck and many more. Though the film never focused one particular character, it was neutral and stayed that way till the end. But it told the story of the final day of the high school about the individuals and their intentions. You do not have to be a youngster to enjoy it, it will work for everybody. So I hope you watch it, especially before to try 'Everybody Wants Some'.

7/10