DAZED AND CONFUSED
A film review by Jon A. Webb
Copyright 1993 Jon A. Webb
DAZED AND CONFUSED is the story of the last day of school in 1976 for a collection of Austin, TX teenagers. It's Richard Linklater, who also made SLACKER, which has much the same style though DAZED AND CONFUSED is more coherent and has a plot.
This film does not evoke Austin's atmosphere as much as SLACKER. There are few references to special features of Austin, except for the Moonlight Tower. These could be students at almost any high school in the country.
The point of this film is to evoke the feelings and atmosphere of 1976; it is Yuppie nostalgia. It works petty well on this level. There are some minor anachronisms: I don't think the drug culture was still that strong in 1976, some of the clothing styles are wrong (bell-bottoms were out, straight legs were in), music was beginning to have a disco influence, and the reference to urine tests is, of course, wrong. But I think most people of age thirty or older will see this movie as fairly accurate. People younger than that will be surprised to see how playful and unthreatening the drug culture was then.
If this film has a political point, it is that there are other, better ways of handling drugs and teenage rebellion than our current approach. The recent discussion of drug legalization at various levels of the government make this message timely.
The plot is coming-of-age; there are many good performance, but the best is the central character of the film, a junior-high school student who is initiated into the traditions of high school. He really takes control of the film; it's remarkable how someone so young can display such depth.
I was mainly struck by the wide range of good performances from unknown actors. Linklater has a special talent for creating a whole raft of believable characters from material that in another director's hands would look amateur and second-rate. Undoubtedly his next film will be a big-budget production, with real actors; I hope he survives the transition.
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