Dazed and Confused

[School of Movies 2024]

What is a "hangout movie"?

It's a film that concerns itself far less with telling one grand, overall story of one or two people's development or journey, and far more on literally spending time with the ensemble cast of characters. In this show I draw the comparison between the characters we see here and animals in a safari park, but I don' mean they are simply placed there for our amusement, and don't matter. What I mean here is that we are experiencing a world based on memory and authentic experiences being described to us through the medium of what might be a dopey comedy where nothing happens.

It is the last day of school in Texas 1976, America is at a fragile place and the young people, following the mess of the Vietnam war, the betrayal of their government and under increased scrutiny from adults just itching to banish them from Civilisation if they so much as inhale a wisp of pot smoke. This is Richard Linklater's second film, his first under the critical eye of a studio with financial priorities... and it is a sweltering, comforting place to return to, filled with characters both lovable and scummy, jut trying to party before life breaks them.

It also has one of the top five curated soundtracks of all time.