Dazed and Confused
by Richard Linklater
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Jason London, Joey Lauren Adams, Matthew McConaughey, Rory Cochrane, Wiley WigginsDirector: Richard Linklater
Cinematographer: Lee Daniel
Producer: Richard Linklater
Writer: Richard Linklater
Editor: Sandra Adair
Producer: Anne Walker-McBay
Producer: James Jacks
Producer: Sean Daniel
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Letterboxed, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 102 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-07-01
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Universal Studios
Movie Reviews of Dazed and Confused
Movie Review: Still one of the best high school films ever made
Summary: 5 Stars
It is amazing in 2003 to realize that when DAZED AND CONFUSED it was filmed with a cast of unknown actors and actresses. Although very few of the performers had many parts on their resumes in 1993 when this was made, most of the principals have worked steadily in film since then, and several have become prominent performers, including Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck, and Matthew McConaughey, while performers like Nicky Katt, Adam Goldberg, Marisa Ribisi, and Rory Cochrane turn up in a host of projects. As if this were not enough, I have read that Renee Zellweger can be spotted at some point in a nonspeaking part, but I have failed to see her. That is a lot of talent for a low budget film featuring a group of unknowns. Even Wiley Wiggins, who winsomely plays Mitch Kramer, one of the new freshmen and who has been in few films since, managed a memorable turn as the real life model for the animated main character in Linklater's superb WAKING LIFE.All this talent combined with a great script means one of the best films about life in high school ever made. Like a Greek drama, the entire film takes place in less than 24 hours, beginning on the last day of the school year and the first evening of summer vacation. Tension is provided by the future seniors harassing the new freshmen in one form or another. There are also a host of individuals either drifting or attempting to rethink the roles they are playing in their time in high school. The debt to AMERICAN GRAFITTI is obvious, but Linklater is so deft in his direction that the film never feels derivative, despite the fact that he borrows the device from the Lucas film of having a continuous soundtrack of some of the most recognizable hit tunes from the period.
The greatest thing about this film is the way it takes you back to high school, even if that has been quite a few years. All the characters remind you of someone you have gone to school with, and so many details seemed to have been drawn from my own set up memories of school. For instance, at one point Milla Jovovich is strumming a song on the guitar, and stops for a second to light a cigarette, but as the burning lighter gets closer to her face she becomes mesmerized by the flame and slowly moves it back and forth before her face, transfixed on the flame. I could have sworn I saw someone do that at some point. A great moment from a great teen film.
Summary of Dazed and Confused
You remember high school? Really remember? If you think you do, watch this film: it'll all really come racing back. After changing the world with the generation-defining Slacker, director Richard Linklater turned his free-range vérité sensibility on the 1970s. As before, his all-seeing camera meanders across a landscape studded with goofy pop culture references and poignant glimpses of human nature. Only this time around, he's spreading a thick layer of nostalgia over the lens (and across the soundtrack). It's as if Fast Times at Ridgemont High was directed by Jean-Luc Godard. The story deals with a group of friends on the last day of high school, 1976. Good-natured football star Randall "Pink" Floyd navigates effortlessly between the warring worlds of jocks, stoners, wannabes, and rockers with girlfriend and new-freshman buddy in tow. Surprisingly, it's not a coming-of-age movie, but a film that dares ask the eternal, overwhelming, adolescent question, "What happens next?" It's a little too honest to be a light comedy (representative quote: "If I ever say these were the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself."). But it's also way too much fun (remember souped-up Corvettes and bicentennial madness?) to be just another existential-essay-on-celluloid. --Grant Balfour
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