Dazed And Confused

Though it builds to nothing more consequential than scoring Aerosmith tickets after a bitching party at the Moontower, Richard Linklater’s Dazed And Confused owes its enduring cult-classic status to how simply and perfectly it evokes the last day of school in small-town Texas in 1976, not to how it appeases the narrative gods. Linklater has always insisted that Dazed And Confused is about painful memories, which is visible in the characters’ cringe-worthy interactions with authority figures, the cruel hazing rituals forced on incoming freshmen, and the general uncertainty of growing up. And yet it’s a tribute to Linklater’s generous spirit that he (and we) can still laugh about it.

Updated 06/08/2011