Dazed and Confused

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🎙️ EPISODE 449: 04.20.22 This movie is so ingrained in me. I didn't even realize how much. It's been so many years since I last watched it and yet I felt like I knew every scene, every moment, every beat. There are very few films I've seen this many times. Do the scenes work so well because of my memory of them or because they fucking whip? I can recognize pieces of dialogue that seem cheesy but I am equally quick to forgive it of these sins. Still, there were countless times when I felt it simply ruled. Period. A few examples... Slater the entire time when the party gets snuffed out (there's so much great subtle stuff happening throughout this film)...

Basically every single time Parker Posey is onscreen...


And this is probably favorite line/line delivery (I legit LoL'd)...


For the podcast, I did a minor deep dive on all the actors not named Ben Affleck or Matthew McConaughey — "Where Are They Now?" / "What Else Have They Done?" style. So be sure to check that out.

Main character Jason London (Randall "Pink" Floyd) has probably had the most curious career. He seemed poised for big things after this role as the mythical Most Popular Kid / Football Star / Hippie Stoner / Legitimately Friends with Everyone. But his career has been the most Direct-to-video/TV/Television Movie Hell you'll ever see...



That's really neither here nor there; I just find it fascinating, because I think he's very good in this movie. But also: good for him just fucking sticking with this bullshit — I might have to do a Year of London after my Year of Cage decade is over. It does beg the question, would this movie have been even more popular/iconic if a more notable name portrayed the lead? Or did it/does it benefit from its cast of largely unknowns? (Affleck and McConaughey were not at all famous when this was made.) I would bet the latter, but I'm not 100% sure.

Ultimately, whatever the reason(s), it was no accident this film has been absorbed by the unconscious of so many. It's a classic whether you like it or not. Without anything resembling a traditional plot (what even is the central conflict? Whether or not Pink signs a piece a paper?), the movie just FLOWS. I hardly ever dip my toes into the classic rock catalog, but there's something about the choices and the timing of the many, many hits littering this soundtrack which is pure bliss.

I felt an odd variation of nostalgia as this came to an end, almost sadness. I really do love this movie. It reminds me both of watching it in my 20s and my own senior year of high school, which was two decades after these 'events' and in New Jersey (not Texas), but — and maybe this is lame to say — was filled with a similar wild abandon (pre 9/11, pre social media, yeah... I'm turning into that guy now, ugh sorry). It's funny because I don't sit around and pine for those days often at all, but when they're triggered — and Dazed and Confused really fucking triggers it — I feel all those bittersweet emotions race back in. What I'm saying is that I can't wait to watch this exactly once every five years until die. Check ya later!

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 448 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 450A ⫸

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Dazed and Confused is a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film features a large ensemble cast of actors who would later become stars, including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Nicky Katt, Joey Lauren Adams, Renée Zellweger and Rory Cochrane. The plot follows different groups of Texas teenagers during the last day of school in 1976. It was released on September 24, 1993.