New at BOP: Review: Matrix Resurrections Movie Review: Moonfall Movie Reviews: Scream The #1 Movie in America November Forecast The Many Saints of Newark October Forecast New Trivia Question All site updates Share & Save   Tweet Print this column

Richard Linklater’s freewheeling adolescent boozefest centers around three groups of friends in Austin, Texas on the last day of school in the summer of 1976. Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London) and his friends Don (Sasha Jenson), Benny (Cole Hauser), O’Bannion (Ben Affleck) and Melvin (Jason O. Smith) are about to enter their senior year. As members of the football team they pretty much have the run of the school socially and can do no wrong. But this year, the party might be over – they have been required by their coach to sign a “morality pledge” for their senior campaign. Pink enjoys hanging out with his crew, boozing it up, smoking weed and chasing girls, so needless to say, he’s more than a little conflicted about being a role model.

At the bottom of the food chain, young Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins) and his friends Carl (Esteban Powell) and John (Jeremy Fox) are incoming freshmen. By tradition, the seniors spend the summer chasing the incoming "frosh" with paddles, welcoming them to high school with a good old fashioned beating. The younger kids are expected to play along good naturedly but Mitch wants no part of this ritual for himself or his friends. As a result, he butts heads with the seniors, particularly the sadistic O’Bannion.

In the middle of all this are a handful of juniors to be – Mike (Adam Goldberg), Tony (Anthony Rapp) and Cynthia (Marissa Ribisi) are all brainy, analytical types who question authority as readily as the older kids yet despise the established pecking order as much as the freshmen do. They fret and scowl about the insular fishbowl that is adolescence, but they dispense judgment from the social periphery, just as eager as everyone else to find a way in. It’s really no different from any high school; despite where they are on the totem pole every kid wants the same thing every other kid wants – to be accepted for who they are.

The one exception might be Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey, in perhaps his greatest role). He’s the sleazy cradle robber in the Camaro I mentioned who should serve as the poster child for lazy parenting. His tight pants, over the top muscle car and porn star moustache serve as comic relief, but he’s also a walking public service announcement; the sort of rudderless punk YOUR kid could become if you don’t put your foot down. So on this, the last night of school, each child is about to embark on the next chapter of their lives and together they discover how much fun it can be, how scary it often is and how none of them really all that different. They all drink, smoke pot, and cruise around in their cars breaking things and making a lot of noise for no reason. They’re all just children, trying to figure out how life works.

Needless to say, this isn’t exactly the first film to open the lid on being a teenager and take a peek inside. But what makes Dazed and Confused a little different than most is that it spends absolutely none of its running time glamorizing or rhapsodizing about the teenage condition. The kids aren’t portrayed as valiant martyrs, fighting back against the oppressive, insensitive monolith of Adult Supervision. This movie is not trying to tell us that the hardest things you’re ever going to do, the greatest struggles you’re ever going to face will be from 8:30 to 3:30, five days a week between the ages of 13 and 19.

Continued:       1       2       3