Saturday, June 26, 2010

Dazed and Confused (1993)

Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused is a outstanding movie taking us along with a wide character gallery for the last day of school in 1976. Unlike so many other teen movies, this one doesn't focus on life-changing drama, an overshadowing plot or a lot of morale. This movie rather take us along for a joyride as school's out and everybody is looking forward to the end of school party, becoming seniors, or freshmen or whatever.

The beauty is in the lack of story, and along with a highly interesting cast Linklater can smugly look back at another high quality movie. Between the kids we find actors and actresses like Milla Jovovich, Joey Lauren Adams, Adam Goldberg, Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey and Jason London to mention those who should be most familiar to those keeping an eye on movie since this was made back in 93. The variety in both characters and cast is still its biggest strength, and the acting isn't what set this apart from the masses of teen movies.

What helps setting it apart though, is the soundtrack. there's a lot of great music and especially well chosen music to help make scenes complete. And then there's is the recognizable feel you get from following these kids, no matter when you graduated yourself. It's not narrowed down to the mid 70's. It's timeless, it captures the youth feel and it sure bring back memories. For the runtime of the movie I mostly found myself dreaming of being there as the 18 year old myself. Dazed and Confused is a diamond in the rough, but still most definitely a diamond.

No comments:

Post a Comment