"slacker" (the movie) c or d?

xpost - i'm not sure how much i'd like it if i saw it now for the first time, but it's given much joy throughout the years to remember it.

BUT AS LAUREN SAID UPTHREAD....POSTMODERN PAUL REVERE MAKES IT ALL WORTH IT.

"what a day, what a day."

much better: "You should never traumatize a woman sexually." i love the expression on the guy's face when she says this to him.

then in a mood totally unlike anything else in the film, these tripping kids show up with their super 8 camera and listening to music, etc, then they throw the camera off the cliff...

i just feel it's the perfect ending to the movie, i don't see how else he could of done it. taken ALONE, it's a sprite commercial. within the context of the rest of the film, it's an ENDING.

'Profiles in Cowardice.'

My girlfriend and her ex are "friends"

what is that, slacker?

-- cutty (holle...), July 25th, 2004.

Mark Cuban got a haircut!

Use your imagination, slacker.

-- NA (naamm...), April 30th, 2004.

Where the heck is nickalicious?

Slacker!

-- jaymc (jmcunnin...), June 27th, 2003.

people who reject friendsterships - whats up w/ them?

slacker.

-- Kingfish (jdsalmo...), October 11th, 2003.

What have you done today to make you feel proud?

Slacker.

-- luna (luna_cee...), July 13th, 2003.

Summer Pressure

Pah, what kind of slacker ARE you?

-- Archel (rp3...), September 1st, 2003.

Zoolander.

Well, to be fair, I haven't made much of an effort.

-- Allyzay (slacke...), January 19th, 2004.

My favorites are the whole Steve/nighttime progression, you should not traumatize, tape recorder man and oblique strategies/menstruation artist.

Of all the movies I love as much as this one, this is the one I most understand how it can be hated.

that's linklater himself!

oh, the guy coming back from his stepdad's funeral died. so did the woman handing out the oblique strategies cards. :-(

my favorite linklater film is "before sunset"; i have no idea nor do i care which one is "best."

I can't imagine any of the ones I haven't seen being worse

Even though I love Sunrise, Sunset and Slacker, I can understand why the often-frustrating and annoying characters (quirky for quirky's sake, often an affected intellectual air) would turn some people off. Dazed & Confused has everything great about Linklater - his sense of place and time, a rambling structure without being too spread out, perfectly realized characters (what gabbneb said about the characters from Slacker goes for D&C) and their groupings/interactions - minus the affectation. It's just so damn smooth. (Also, I think it makes a strong argument that sometimes being forced to accept commercial norms can be good for a more arty director. Having to work in teen/stoner norms rather than completely subvert the genre makes it stronger.)

I'm surprised no one has quoted the anarchist's "Guy Fawkes" line about the Texas legislature. Maybe you have to live here to identify with that.

But now Charles Whitman... there was a man. Twenty-three years this summer. This town has always had its share of crazies...I wouldn't want to live anywhere else.

Rosenbaum disagrees with you, calling the characters and place mostly anonymous. I certainly agree with him about place - the movie could easily be set in New England. Character - well cartoons are perfectly realized, aren't they? At the end, I don't think I've learned anything about these people that I haven't learned from any other movie in the genre. Freaks and Geeks is better realized. And seems to recognize that people also learn things in high school. Fast Times and American Graffiti were a hell of a lot more entertaining. I'll say that part of my objection is that I don't like any of the characters in D&C that I can think of. Maybe it's just me, but does he really want me to find nothing of redeeming value in them? I kinda doubt it. And if he doesn't, I think it's too flat an indictment. Is the 'affectation' you see in his other movies a product of the filmmaking or the characters? I'm not going to call the D&C characters 'affected', but I think the characters in his other films are much more like the people I know and encounter every day.

it's an issue with all of his movies. but at least in Sunrise they have some interesting things to say, and in Slacker they're more entertainingly crazy than the average.

Well, I'll be.

given just that info, itd be impossible to choose. There are some great movies that center around people I'd hate in real life.

D&C sense of place is suburbia (to which he returns in... subUrbia), high-school adolescence, football as your peak, etc.. If that kind of suburbia isn't unique to Texas, it is prevalent. What would make for a greater sense of place re: Texas? Shitkickers and chawin' tobacky?

The cartoon factor is kind of ridiculous, given the point of comparison here is Slacker. Conflicted high-school quarterback vs. "Madonna Pap Smear Lady"?

I'll say that part of my objection is that I don't like any of the characters in D&C that I can think of. Maybe it's just me, but does he really want me to find nothing of redeeming value in them
I'm pretty sure he intends for you to like all of them main cast except for Affleck (even Wooderson's pedo-lechery is in good spirit)(and apparently the quarterback is meant to resemble a youthful Linklater.

What was wrong with them?

I'm not going to call the D&C characters 'affected', but I think the characters in his other films are much more like the people I know and encounter every day
You encounter crazed faux-anarchists and people selling celebrity pap smears more often than potheads and power-mad (former-)cheerleaders?

The cartoon factor is kind of ridiculous, given the point of comparison here is Slacker. Conflicted high-school quarterback vs. "Madonna Pap Smear Lady"?

I didn't know there were many Madonna Pap Smear Ladies in cartoons.

I'm pretty sure he intends for you to like all of them main cast except for Affleck (even Wooderson's pedo-lechery is in good spirit)(and apparently the quarterback is meant to resemble a youthful Linklater.

That's what I thought for a while, but I'm starting to think you're wrong. I don't think there's much affection for the characters, and what affection there is is mostly for the biggest losers - Wooderson and Clint.

What was wrong with them?

They're all one or more of: stupid, boring, marginally undifferentiated, or assholes?

I don't mind affectation for the most part and there are good arguments about the affectations being central to each character and story. I'm saying I can understand why it turns some people off (see the threads where people bash Waking Life).

milo, dude, all characters are "contrived" by definition, they're characters. the question is whether they successfully resonate with you. i don't think what happens in "before sunset" is actually likely to happen in 90 minutes but everything in there relates strongly to things i know and feel IRL... all the rhetorical gambits, the body language, everything. it's like real life, condensed.

They're all one or more of: stupid, boring, marginally undifferentiated, or assholes?
Which covers most of humanity and probably everyone at ILX at some point. Wasn't Dan's argument about Eyes Wide Shut that he hated the characters (spec. Tom Cruise's)?

I don't see how any of them were stupid or undifferentiated.

amat. - I don't disagree. And as I said, I don't mind any of their contrivances or eccentricities (more than a little weird myself) - just that the issues do exist and turn people off of Linklater (as does the supposedly pseudo-intellectual quality of his dialogue).

That's the point - his character has a contrived personality. Or at least he does at the beginning (and slowly loses it over the course of the movie, as referenced by the fortune teller). You're supposed to find him somewhat annoying, at least in the Director's mind. The difference in Sunset (which I haven't seen yet) is the result of the growth/aging of the character and perhaps the actor, as I understand. At least in that movie the characters are somewhat aware of their typicality.

level and pitch doesn't seem like something a real person would do 45 minutes after meeting up with the

in your range of experience. mine is different and I disagree.

How does he show his disdain for the quarterback, Wiley Wiggins or, say, the redheaded girl (Beck's wife)?

absence of affection /= disdain. Wiley Wiggins ends up pretty much getting along with everyone in the movie, but if you don't like the people in the movie that doesn't say much in his favor. my charm-bar is raised a lot higher. I don't know who the redheaded girl is - the curly-haired dorky one? does she actually do or say anything interesting? she becomes one of Wooderson's little girls, leaving her friends behind. is that some sort of exercise on her part? no, she's on an assembly line. the quarterback? how about that there's not enough there there that you have no idea whether he'll sign the contract or not, and it doesn't say much about him that he doesn't. even his friends get pissed off at his character-lessness.

Which covers most of humanity and probably everyone at ILX at some point.

i'm talking about fundamental character, not temporal behavior. and even in the latter case, it's irrelevant. a 2-hour movie /= at some point.

I don't see how any of them were stupid or undifferentiated.

I don't see how any of them were smart or marginally interesting.

how about that there's not enough there there that you have no idea whether he'll sign the contract or not, and it doesn't say much about him that he doesn't.
It's open-ended, yes. Why is his ambivalence toward signing a drug-free contract a bad thing?

I don't see how any of them were smart or marginally interesting.
Which, again, makes them kind of like most people (if we accept that premise). What would have identified them as 'smart'? Did someone need to cure cancer after drinking a sixer?

What did you want the movie to do? I sense that you expect the film to do something no one involved intended.

you may be mostly right as to both of us, but you're conflating two points and misreading my argument, which is, "it's not like New York - they're not normal"

Why is his ambivalence toward signing a drug-free contract a bad thing?

misreading again. i'm not saying it's a bad thing. i'm saying that it's not especially revealing for its offhandedness and what led up to it.

Which, again, makes them kind of like most people (if we accept that premise).

I don't. Not most people I know.

What would have identified them as 'smart'? Did someone need to cure cancer after drinking a sixer?

Thoughtfulness (as displayed in his other films)? Not drinking a sixer?

What did you want the movie to do? I sense that you expect the film to do something no one involved intended.

No, I want the movie to be more explicit about its intention, which, as per above, I provisionally disagree with you about.

i.e., it obviously says something about his character - and the intent of the movie - that he made the choice he did, but his character - and the movie - is shallow enough that it wouldn't have been the faintest surprise if he had gone the other way

Thoughtfulness (as displayed in his other films)? Not drinking a sixer?
What, Ethan Hawkes' "I want to get laid" thoughtfulness? What would make someone 'not stupid'?

Your arguments against D&C are rather frustrating "People aren't like that - see, Rosenbaum agrees with me" "OK, that was a capsule review and maybe people are like that" "Well, I don't know any people like that and boy am I glad!" Why did you watch a film about suburban Texas circa 1976 if you don't like the area, people who inhabited it and so on?

Yeah, you're constantly surrounded by brilliant, shining minds who are never 'assholes' and never 'boring.' I'm sorry, I was expecting something more than half-assed exceptionalism in your argument.

again, you're ignoring my point or it's not getting through in some other fashion. i am constantly surrounded by bright minds. those in the movie are rarely more than dull. whether they are assholes or boring or irrelevant, as i said above - these characters are not occasionally assholish or boring, they're defined by these things.

What, Ethan Hawkes' "I want to get laid" thoughtfulness?

that's thoughtful, as I'm using it. i'm not sure it's not thoughtful, even as you're using it?

"People aren't like that - see, Rosenbaum agrees with me" "OK, that was a capsule review and maybe people are like that" "Well, I don't know any people like that and boy am I glad!"

no, Rosenbaum agrees with me that these characters aren't fully-inhabited people, whatever those people are supposed to be like. i never disagreed with his review, or diminished its capsule nature - you did. yes, people are like that, caricaturally. i want them to be more people, less caricatures. i know people who share the caricatures, but most people i know, whether they fit the caricature or not (and most don't, and i'm glad), are more interesting than these characters. most potheads i've known, for example, are really interesting, or really funny, or really annoying. this one is just really a pothead.

Your arguments against D&C are rather frustrating

i don't think you're even arguing, just volleying

that's thoughtful, as I'm using it. i'm not sure it's not thoughtful, even as you're using it?
What's the difference in 'I want to get laid' and 'I want to get high.'

no, Rosenbaum agrees with me that these characters aren't fully-inhabited people, whatever those people are supposed to be like
Where? Like I said, a capsule from 1993 isn't an indictment of any film. Why aren't they fully-inhab

i don't think you're even arguing, just volleying
I've been given nothing to argue with. Your statements on the film have been devoid of specific problems - the characters are 'stupid,' and Linklater dislikes them, but you can't say how other than 'I'm constantly surrounded by brilliance." Your attack on its sense of place and character is grounded in one paragraph from an alt-weekly by a critic whose word shouldn't be gospel (esp. when it says nothing else).

And you still haven't said what you wanted it to be, or what the characters should have done or what would redeem them in your eyes. Other than to be more like you, I guess.

Maybe I should toss in 'half-baked elitism,' too.

yes, all of the high-paid attorneys I work with are dim bulbs. same goes for my family and friends, virtually all of whom have post-collegiate degrees. "bright" is an intentionally lesser adjective than brilliant.

What's the difference in 'I want to get laid' and 'I want to get high.'

it's more honest.

Your attack on its sense of place and character is grounded in one paragraph from an alt-weekly by a critic whose word shouldn't be gospel (esp. when it says nothing else).

no, i used the paragraph (by, imo, the best critic in the country) to back up my identical, and equally summary, position

It's like one of those government programs
You just come and fucking get anything you want
We're gonna give away all the fuckin' automatic weapons
All the side-loaders, clip-loaders, shoot-em-backs,
Saturday night specials, Colt 45s, shotguns,
anything you want, chains, knives, straight-razors, bottles,
brick bats, baseball bats, any jagged kinda thing.
I wanna see a goddamn big mutherfuckin shoot-em-up,
killing bang stabbing crush slice kill muthafuckin,
catapults throwin rocks and shit,
and blowin up, undercover shit, yeah,
I wanna see people puttin secret things in fuckin cars
and fuckin explode and you see the people explode in 'em,
I wanna see knife cuttin, slice cutting, choppin,
blowin up, aw yeah.
A free fuckin' weapons giveaway program.
I see it - it's gonna solve all these goddamn problems.

So it needs to be judgemental?

yes, all of the high-paid attorneys I work with are dim bulbs. same goes for my family and friends, virtually all of whom have post-collegiate degrees. "bright" is an intentionally lesser adjective than brilliant.
A significant portion of the time, are they 'boring' and even 'stupid'? Yes. Do we know that Pink and Wooderson didn't go on to become 'high-falutin' Noo York lawyers'? No. If they didn't, does that make them lesser people or necessarily less-interesting? No.

Yep, half-baked elitism and half-assed exceptionalism. "My people are special" - yawn.

it's more honest.
Howso?

no, i used the paragraph (by, imo, the best critic in the country) to back up my identical, and equally summary, position
Uh-huh, argument from authority. "Rosenbaum said it too, so I don't need to explain it" - even though Rosenbaum's reasoning is also nonexistent.

Rosenbaum's review of Mystic River was one of the most bizarrely-wrongheaded I've seen (Eastwood championing vigilanteism and violence? Jimmy was the hero?) - and that was in one he spent enough time with to fashion a long review. Even one of the best critics in the country is off-the-mark on occasion.

you insist on wildly misreading me in ways that make you feel better so i'm done.

xpost: I think high school life where I'm from is more superficially similar to that in the movie than it is similar at a deeper level.

It looks like you're stuck in an endless loop of circular reasoning - for reasons I can't fathom. Outside of your disdain for the characters (which does boil down to what Colin said), I have no idea what you wanted from the film or how Linklater failed.

Fair enough, but you haven't pointed to where Linklater's vision fails you. Looking for a specific vision is, I think, part of your problem. I don't know how driven you were or how clear your life's purpose was to you at the beginging or end of high school, but a good chunk of the movie is about the characters looking for (and not finding) a vision. Which is why it's so much more effective than Slacker, where the characters are equally purposeless and don't really care (or, rather, Linklater doesn't really care).

maybe i am trying to shoehorn it inappropriately and like his existential approach better in other contexts. but i'm not convinced of this at all by what I bring to the primary texts.

Criticism founded on "well, the movie should have been completely different in this way..." always seems inherently flawed to me. (Kill Bill got this a lot - "too much violence and bloodshed" which sort of defines the movie) If you went in desiring or expecting something Linklater never sought to deliver, it's not much of a failure on his or the film's part.

for the thousandth time, i'm not saying this

....carry on

I think the filmmakers should have done more to help me answer that question. What's there is too vague for me to have a specific problem. Is that intentional? Is this is a Kiarostami-inspired stoner comedy? I don't think so.

this very nice essay presents a grand unified theory of linklater and takes Ebert's take on D&C a step further in satisfying fashion. but it backs up my sense that the movie is both a failure on its own terms - its audience largely misprises it - and useless for me - it tells me something i know well enough that i didn't even understand it was telling me it (though it follows from my comment about Wooderson and the redhead above). it's in the latter situation that I find Ebert, as here, is usually most helpful.

and useless for me - it tells me something i know well enough that i didn't even understand it was telling me it (though it follows from my comment about Wooderson and the redhead above).
What does Slacker tell you that you didn't "know well enough"? Or Before Sunrise? How many films tell us anything we "didn't already know"? It's about how the film "tells you something" where Linklater excels.

Which, again, goes to the question about what you were asking of the film - you complain of the film's vagueness, but your complaints are so vague as to be meaningless.

Sure it is. He failed to deliver what I wanted. Just because a film (or song, or whatever) does what its creator intended doesn't mean I have to be happy about it.

Frankly, this whole back-and-forth has been baffling to me. Gabbneb says "I hated D&C, I found all the characters really boring and didn't like spending 2 hours with them." Isn't that a valid complaint? That doesn't make him an elitist.

And for the record, I think D&C is probably Linklater's best film.

I don't really like the idea of a film of "A Scanner Darkly", either. I don't think it's the sort of book that would make a good film.

Hello Julio!!

I love 'a scanner darkly' the bk - the first bk I read by PKD and so far (haven't read them all) my fave...I think PKD and Linklater seem to fit. I saw clips of linklater's stuff in that doc and the characters seemed vague, he has this european sensibility, he did talk abt how his movies seemed more like normal life bcz its most dramatic points are not filmed. It will be interesting to see how he handles PKD's philosophy and the ending.

'tape' is so fucking great.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/madaboutmovies/2009/03/sxsw_oldnew_indie_tweetybloggy.html

TH recalls "Poison" playing at NuArt in LA w/"Slacker" trailer (Madonna came by to see "Poison" & didn't know about pap smear gag).

TH: "It was a largely gay audience, and they could just smell Madonna there."

TH: "The pap smear joke comes on, and the entire audience turns and looks and her, and she leaves."

RL: "Madonna should be grateful for that; I picked her because I thought she would last."

watched last night for 1st time in eons, holds up

i like this movie was v taken w/it @ 15

Yeah when I was in HS I thought this was the best movie ever. HAven't seen it in years.

Blew my mind when I first saw it, but doesn't hold up as well as I would like. Still classick tho.

holds up just fine and is still very quotable and entertaining

i would still agree with that

saw as a teenager, blew mind. saw again a few years later, kind of letdown. picked up criterion anyway last year, shocked how much I really enjoyed it.

overall: A

http://www.salon.com/ent/movies/feature/2006/07/05/slacker/index.html

Little more recent: http://www.metafilter.com/89010/Slackers

I always assumed that "Withdrawing in disgust is not the same as apathy" was an actual Oblique Strategy, but Linklater made it up for the movie.

"It's not building a wall, but making a brick"

"Every single commodity you produce is a piece of your own death"

You should quit traumatizing women with sexual intercourse. I should know -- I'm a medical doctor. I own a mansion and a yacht.

Loving that '15 years later' article. It's funny this just got bumped cos my roommate was watching this yesterday and I stopped and joined him. My favorite part is the guy talking about the Smurfs. You're thinking he's going to go into the conspiracy about them being communists or something, but he's really convinced it's preparing kids for when Krishna incarnates again, for us to 'get used to seeing blue people'. LOL

everyone agrees waking life is better, right?

i mean, i love slacker but

Very few people agree with that, I'd say.

No one gets it when I quote the Old Professor/Anarchist about pulling a Guy Fawkes on the Lege.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OiMW-pcw2fk&feature=player_embedded#at=130

Interesting. That seems to be the same "Quit traumatizing women..." woman, right?

everyone agrees waking life is better, right?

― united arab amirites (samosa gibreel), Tuesday, February 9, 2010 2:30 AM (1 year ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

waht

haha NO

I'm moving back to Austin at the end of the year, I hope.

So, I revisited this tonight in anticipation of seeing Slacker 2011 tomorrow (if the rains aren't too bad).

Still holds up. It's kind of funny about how we're still having these end of the world discussions 20+ years on while all that really died was most of the Austin that's in the film (or at least it mutated beyond recognition).

Shocking Future Flash: in the scene were we meet the old anarchist at the corner grocery, there's a cube van w/a "Ron Paul for President" sign (from one of his early campaigns) displayed prominently.

out on the road today, i saw a ron paul sticker on a cadillac
a little voice inside my head said, "don't look back, you can never look back"

i should know. i'm a medical doctor. i have a mansion and a yacht.

^^Ron's first campaign slogan.

my name is elmer j fudd, millionaire. i own a mansion and a yacht.

anti-solyndra screed: the sunlight is so oppressive these days. all that nature? fuck that shit!

need to watch this again. loved it at the time, but it's been soooooooo long. have a much clearer memory of waking life.

Soooo, Slacker 2011 was kinda beautiful. I tried to go in blind (only skimmed the lit, didn't watch the trailer), but was still skeptical that the project would work.

But it does...for the most part. This new movie finds a bevy of Austin-area filmmakers each taking on one of the vignettes from the original film and remaking them for 2011. So we get updated props (computers, cell phones, tablets) and references (W., 9/11, film-racing, the 99%), plus some surprise celebrity cameos and good looks at how some of the original locations have changed. Also, one of the iconic characters is now a guy, and another is a puppet.

Some of the stories have been improved, others not so much. And one of the transitions is really terrible. But the overall effect is rather splendid.

BTW, S-T-E-V-E remains a douche.

so this is linklater's latest movie? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1704573/

does it have a release date?

boy, he's in the wilderness these days. it's been almost 7 years since he had a successful movie.

i'm gonna re-watch slacker for the 1st time in 7 years this weekend, i think.

oh man i forgot about the big ron paul ad on the semi.

plus ça change...

https://mapsengine.google.com/map/viewer?mid=zdUzSnTCNE0s.kmW0z3VvDICc

This drunk girl at the bar has such madonna Pap smear vibes

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/22/arts/music/teresa-taylor-dead.html

This news hit me hard

Recentish interview. His new one, Hit Man was picked up by Netflix -- I went looking for a trailer and was mixed-up by the trailer for the action trash Hitmen (also 2023) which briefly gave me hope that he gave up curdled nostalgia for a Guy Ritchie knockoff. Oh well.

IMDB upcoming projects (Merrily We Roll Along, "Untitled John Brinkley Biopic", "Untitled Bill Hicks Biopic") continues the long streak of "meh"

(sorry, meant to post that on the general Linklater thread). I did rewatch Slacker last year and I still like it, but that's just my nostalgia for early 90s indie film talking

I saw it when it was released, I don't think I've given it more than five minutes' thought since then.

Slacker hits different if you're from Texas, and especially if you have memories of Austin from that time.

No doubt. I'm from Colorado, I've always tried to avoid Texas as much as I could.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Part of Slacker 2011 is on YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aRmEhJZhjI

My best friend & her husband got to go to this 30th Anniversary screening at the Paramount...they said the whole place erupted when old anarchist talked about his plans for the Texas Senate.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4KxO-ApEeA

“It’s a Madonna pap smear”

I just found a used copy of the "Slacker" book, which has some good stuff in it. Basically almost like a production scrapbook.

Slacker hits different if you're from Texas, and especially if you have memories of Austin from that time.

Isn't this how Alex Jones ended up in "Waking Life" and "Scanner Darkly"? Like, lol, look at this eccentric keep-Austin-weird dude!

Pretty much. Linklater has distanced himself from Jones.

I meant more like in a 'Hey, remember when downtown was empty and wasn't full of skyscrapers' or 'Wow, that the old Half-Price on The Drag!' nostalgia way.

Yeah he was a fixture on local radio and public-access tv back then.

In 1999, Jones tied with Shannon Burke for that year's poll of "Best Austin Talk Radio Host", as voted by readers of The Austin Chronicle.[36]

Yeah, there have been conspiracy weirdos in Austin for as long as there have been conspiracies to get weird about. Of course, that led to Jones, and eventually draws in your Rogan's, your Musk's etc.

That and the Abbott era loosening of all protections and regulations.

...which comes out of the fusion of anti-thought between conspiracy heads and white exceptionalism & Christian exceptionalism--plus the friction buzz of getting away with it all in Austin.

Plus breakfast tacos.

Slacker still has that long pause on the Ron Paul billboard