Dazed & Confused (1993)

Richard Linklater is a prime example of a filmmaker, i try to get into but never can. I feel like there's always something remote about his work despite the underlying themes that interest me, like the psycho-social intellectualism of Waking Life and Slacker. He's experimental like the rotosvoping in Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly and he was an early user of digital, when he made Tape; he made a critical and commercial success, when he made School of Rock but i feel like sometimes his films can get so wordy, it can be exhausting but Dazed & Confused doesn't really suffer from that.
It plays like 70's version of American Graffiti (probably every hack reviewer has said that.) becuase it has a massive ensemble cast and licensed pop music soundtrack; it's a recent historical period piece. The movie criss-crosses through a school on the last day before summer and all the various cliques within; from the jocks to the nerds and the cheerleaders and junior kids.
It appears to me, that there must be somewhat of a Dazed & Confused casting curse as by a strange twist of fate, a lot of the cast be came recognisable actors... For a minute.
People like Milla Jojovich, Joey Lauren Adams, Jeremy London, Cole Hauser were really popular at the one time and but their celebrity fell in. The 2 exceptions being Matthew McConaughey and Ben Affleck but in saying, that i think Linklater how precisely how to best McConaughey -sparcely- I'm certainly no fan of his but I'll say he has charisma like no one's business and after a while that gets to be smarmy and irritating but this is the best thing you'll ever see him in and he's in it for a total of maybe 7mins - less than 10% of the film. I don't mean that to sound backhanded- i just mean a lil McConaughey goes a long way.
I think it's probably the best thing that Linklater has written because it feels believable and all the characters and there must be about 20+, feel 3 dimensional. Yeah, they do that sorta-conversional philosophical rap that comes in most Linklater movies but it reigned in by a focused story and narrative and it doesn't go off on tangents.
This was his 2nd film after his debut, Slacker and at the time, it must have seemed like the guy only made that loose narrative - talk movie because of his budget and given a bigger canvas he'd turn in more structured fare but his next film was Before Sunset, another talk movie albeit with 2 good looking actors and set in Europe and until School of Rock,  he kept making those kinds of pictures. But Richard Linklater always comes original and inventive so I'm sure I'll always be curious to see what he does next...

I watched Dazed & Confused (1993) on DVD, via LoveFilm.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Stakeland (2011)...