When it comes proper right down to it, there actually aren’t many films as effortlessly enjoyable and fulfilling to observe as Dazed and Confused. The film that gave director Richard Linklater his huge break — and a movie that comprises early starring roles from Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, and Parker Posey — it’s been labeled one of many funniest comedy movies, finest highschool films, and usually finest “hangout” films by everybody from Leisure Weekly to Esquire to Quentin Tarantino, and virtually undoubtedly inspiring later similarly-veined sitcoms like That ‘70s Present. Seeing it’s like touring again in time not solely to the late Nineteen Seventies, but in addition to your individual carefree late adolescence the place the one belongings you needed to fear about had been the place the subsequent occasion was going to be (properly that, and cricket bat-wielding Ben Afflecks, technically).
Set in suburban Texas in 1976, Dazed and Confused takes place over the course of a single day, following a number of completely different teams and cliques of associates on the official final day of faculty and the unofficial first day of summer time trip. Many of the motion is centered round 14-year-old Mitch (Wiley Wiggins), a just lately graduated eighth-grader and incoming freshman. Mitch begins the movie — alongside together with his fellow freshman — dodging the makes an attempt of the senior class who’re bent on welcoming them to highschool via hazing rituals, resembling hitting boys’ butts with a hardwood paddle repeatedly and overlaying ladies in mustard, ketchup, uncooked eggs, and flour.
After his punishment has been absolutely meted out, Mitch is invited to accompany the seniors on an evening of consuming, smoking, cruising round, going to events, and simply usually having the time of their younger lives. Interspersed all through are scenes revolving round Mitch’s different classmates, all of whom are equally hanging out collectively, frequently assembly up at events, burger factors, arcades, and different teen-populated hangout spots round city throughout the course of the evening.
To boil it right down to its easiest premise, Dazed and Confused is a film about completely nothing. Like so many Linklater films (Boyhood, the Earlier than trilogy, and his latest Apollo 10 ½), there’s no total plot and even a lot in the way in which of the story — if hard-pressed to explain it to a buddy, somebody who’s seen the film would in all probability shrug their shoulders, “I don’t know, it’s only a film about youngsters having enjoyable.” Not like the John Hughes coming of age dramas films of the Nineteen Eighties, the film doesn’t discover the darker, angsty emotions most youngsters have in highschool, nor does it have the raunchiness or gross-out humor of different ‘90s and 2000s teen comedies like American Pie. It’s not whilst over-the-top or story-driven or chaotic as one thing like Animal Home.
However like all nice films and exhibits about nothing, such simplicity permits for pure, unadulterated enjoyable as we watch these ‘70s teenagers interact in so many stress-free actions and get into all kinds of shenanigans (resembling angering a ridiculously intense, gun-toting outdated man after smashing his mailbox). It’s like ASMR earlier than ASMR was even a thought at the back of some YouTuber’s thoughts. Watching it’s simply so calming and fulfilling, it actually feels such as you’re there with Mitch and his newfound associates within the backseat of McConaughey’s Chevy Chevelle, ZZ High blaring on the radio and the limitless prospects of what the evening has to supply forward of you.
On the floor, Dazed and Confused is a captivating and wholly entertaining snapshot of youngsters within the Nineteen Seventies’, proper right down to the period-accurate music (a number of Alice Cooper, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Kiss, Deep Purple, Foghat, and so forth), spectacular costume design, and nonstop colloquial use of the phrase “man” to handle just about everybody (to not point out these incredible, shoulder-length hairstyles 90% of the solid is rocking).
What George Lucas achieved in 1973 with American Graffiti’s nostalgic portrayal of the ‘50s, Linklater accomplishes right here — each films make sentimental use of their administrators’ childhoods, each concentrate on a number of teams of teenagers navigating their suburban communities over the course of 1 evening, and each are just about plotless. And in each films, you actually really feel such as you’re there within the decade the film is about, the appear and feel of the movies being so immersive and meticulous, you possibly can virtually really feel your self reliving the ‘50s and ‘70s even for those who weren’t born but or actually taking note of what was occurring round you.
Whereas its depiction of the ‘70s is unquestionably enjoyable to see, although, the appeal of Dazed and Confused isn’t its portrayal of the last decade the movie is about in — reasonably, it’s how fondly it appears to be like again on adolescence and highschool, no matter whether or not they went to high school within the ‘70s, ‘80s, 2000s, or 2020s.
As you may anticipate from a film set within the ‘70s, a lot of the movie is free and enjoyable, however that’s simply as a lot a mirrored image of how worry-free our teenage years are, as it’s solely exploring how laidback and carefree the ‘70s themselves had been. As McConaughey’s character says to one of many fundamental characters, Randall “Pink” Floyd close to the film’s finish, “The older you do get, the extra guidelines they’ll attempt to get you to observe. You simply gotta maintain livin’ man, L. I. V. I. N.”
That’s what the film is primarily about — dwelling and having enjoyable and having fun with life to its fullest when you nonetheless can. And amazingly, watching the film transports you again to that point in your life surrounded by associates, having enjoyable doing probably the most mundane actions, like driving round city or getting greasy burgers at your native quick meals place. You don’t see the film and go, “Oh, man, I want I used to be a teen once more.” Watching Dazed and Confused, you are a teen once more, the identical means you’re feeling your self reverting again to childlike giddiness if you stroll via Disney World, let’s say. It’s an incredible feat to perform, and one of many few films that I do know that may really pull this little miracle off so flawlessly and organically.
And even for those who’re a kind of individuals who hated highschool — I do know I positive did — the film explores these teenage years with such fondness and sincerity, it’s prefer it fully washes over all these dangerous highschool reminiscences you have got, leaving solely the most effective and most cherished reminiscences behind as a substitute.
It’s the quintessential summer time film, good for any weekend you’re feeling nostalgic for an easier time in your life — a time when the climate was heat, the vibes constructive, associates plentiful, and when the most effective, most enjoyable evening of your life was proper there in entrance of you.
Dazed and Confused is at present streaming on Peacock
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Richard Chachowski is a contract author based mostly in New Jersey. He loves studying, his canine Tootsie, and just about each film to ever exist (particularly Star Wars).
