First time watching

“Dazed and Confused” is a breeze- a coming of age tale of the 1970’s that coasts on reefer, mischief, and an overwhelming sense of freedom. I wasn’t around in the 70’s but no matter, much like George Lucas did with “American Graffiti”, Richard Linklater seems so keyed into the teenage zeitgeist of the time that it feels more than authentic.


The film takes place on the last day of school in a Texas town. Everyone is ready for summer, no one really cares anymore, mindless debates about “Gilligan’s Island” being a male fantasy rage on.


Some get a jumpstart on the initiations for next year. The football team arrives at the junior high with paddles, ready to swat incoming male freshmen on the ass. Senior girls have something even crueler in store for Freshmen girls- they are demeaned and run through the car wash. The surprising thing about this is all this hazing can be a ticket into bigger and better things in High School. In the 90’s it just left you with a swollen ass.


We follow a bunch of different groups- the football players, the potheads, the nerds, the junior high kids, and a Junior high kid named Mitch (Wiley Wiggins), who might be the easiest to identify as he feels like the audience’s POV into the High School world. All these kids celebrate the end of the school year by driving around, playing pool, drinking, hanging out, finding girls, fighting, and ending at a party in the woods.


Much of this can be seen as rebellion by people who never really knew what life was like before the 1960’s, and I guess what the 70’s were all about was basically keeping that going, even if there wasn’t much to fight against.


Still, there’s a running thread here of kids knowing they have to rebel now or face an adulthood where they’ll never face up to anything at all. In that way, football players spitting in the face of the school’s code of conduct form, nerds standing up to a bully, or not letting anyone tell you who to be friends with seem like bigger rites of passage.


Bigger, still, is the idea that these are meant to be the best times of their lives and they’re going to live it up to the best of their abilities, reveling in a carefree vibe. Linklater captures that time from the clothes, cars, and a great soundtrack featuring everyone from Kiss, The Runaways, Aerosmith, and more.


But this movie also has a cast that’s probably more recognizable today than they were back then. Joey Lauren Adams, Parker Posey, Jason London, Cole Hauser, Ben Affleck (playing an asshole football player who gets some comeuppance in the movie’s best scene), and Adam Goldberg all have some before-they-were-famous roles here.


Much like his first film “Slacker”, Linklater hands the ball off, so to speak, so that we move from one of these characters to another. Unlike that film, he usually comes back around to the same ones again, which is best here because these off-beat people are more fun to be around, especially Mathew McConaughey, stealing scenes as an older dude who still hangs out with the high school crowd to relive his glory days.


There is a lot of thought in the dialogue- from the student who wonders if High School is all just a minor, insignificant preamble to something better to the more stoner-centric truths that come out during a late-night toke. George Washington’s love of weed and Martha having a big bowl for him when he gets home standing as most hilarious.


With so many characters trying to follow “Dazed and Confused” at times can feel like just that but once it settles in it’s hard not to like these characters and their worldview- that doing what you feel is usually the best you’re going to get out of this life. And no one understands that better than the young.