Slacker (1991)

The most unique and original movie of 1991. A stream of conciousness on celluloid. What is remarkable about Linklater's film is his ability to take us on so many excursions into so many levels of reality in only 95 minutes. He touches upon dreams, conspiracies, pop culture, disillusionment, paranoia, reality, hyper-reality, violence, rock'n'roll and at least 20 other topics here. His unique segues between these thoughts makes the ideas themselves even more memorable.

Linklater sets the stage for this film and all it's ideas in the opening sequence which has him rambling, seemingly incoherently, to a cab driver. But it is in this short, seemingly improvised, moment that Linklater foreshadows his ultimate message: That reality, as we each individually know it, has no basis in reality whatsoever. A heady topic for a low-budget, seemingly plot-less film to make.

The film is saturated with numerous characters that make one realize the enormity of the project. Linklater, who used many of his friends as actors, must know everyone in Austin's underground scene. He takes us into the homes and hideaways of these "Slackers" as well as letting us follow them through the tree-lined city streets of their native Austin, Texas. Almost everyone in the film has a remarkable moment but Linklater's set-up is only overshadowed by one: a young, gangly looking female "Slacker" attempting to sell an intimate property of a pop culture icon. At this moment "Slacker" reaches it's apex. It is all downhill from there.

The last 20 minutes or so of this film are not as exceptional as those moments that come before them but this is an excusable fault. Linklater has crafted a marvelous film that has the unique distinction of being more than a sum of it's parts. The glimpse at underground culture that we get here is startling and funny. This is a film that goes where no other film has ever gone and comes back with more stories to tell than most of it's contemporaries. "Slacker" revels in the ennui of human existence and glows in it's subdued light. Note: Review written in 1993, after my second viewing of the film.

The film has a scene that uses Brian Eno's "Oblique Strategy" cards. (I think that's what they are called).

Report Card

Script: A

Acting: A+

Cinematography\Lighting: B

Special Effects\Make Up:C

Music:C

Final Grade: A+