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The Beat December 2002 Dazed
& Confused 5 Ojingas (out of 5) Some things in life simultaneously invite & confuse us. Russian Philosophy. Belly buttons. The songs of Michael McDonald. Fan Death. The Fall Guy. Especially The Fall Guy. Heather Thomas, Colt's hot tub, pink bikini. This is inviting. But do you expect anyone outside the head injury ward to see Lee Majors on screen & not think "Steve Austin?" He‘s cruising Hollywood solving mysteries & crimes in a monster truck. He carries a gun that shoots blanks. For Christ sakes, he was the Bionic Man & now he can‘t have live ammo? The character's name is “Colt Severs” but he doesn‘t get real fuckin‘ bullets? These are paradoxes of titanic proportions. Zen Buddhists should ponder The Fall Guy in lieu of the sound of one hand clapping. After so many mixed emotions aren‘t you ready for something simple, straightforward and brilliant? I invite you to dig into your video wish-bag and produce a copy of Dazed and Confused. Dazed and Confused, like Fast Times At Ridgemont High before it and Kids after it, works because it is accurate. It‘s like watching a documentary about a day in the life of every suburban middle-high school in North America, circa 1975-1990, told from every scalable perspective. Most of the elements and characters are timeless, which means no matter who you watch it with it registers high on the “I know a dude exactly like that” scale. The players are shown without the condescension of exaggeration or censure with which most directors treat high school subjects. There are jocks, cheerleaders, budding feminists, dorks, 8th cum 9th graders, tuff-guy-beer-drinkers and potheads. Especially potheads. The cast includes Parker Posey, who‘s never made a bad movie, as the Uberbitch head cheerleader. Ben Affleck as the obligatory Total Dick Who Flunked Out and Repeated the 12th grade (in my school this part was played Dave Everingham, who can piss over busses and on second story windows from street level). Adam Goldberg plays Mike Newhouse, the dork who‘s been a pussy his whole life but decides to finally fight back (sort of). And Rory Cochrane, in a command performance, as Ron Slater, who after making this masterpiece is in a dead-heat battle for the title of “greatest stoner in a movie” ever: Ron Slater (see
previous) 9.9 But Matthew McConaughey steals the show in his supporting role as David Wooderson, the 20+ year-old guy who‘s still hanging around with high school kids. Priceless. Everyone on earth knows this guy. You remember the one you let hang around and buy you beer? Who had a really shitty job and said fuck the long way (fuuuuuuuuuck man...)? Yes, picture him, only with great dialogue and without the mullet. The technicals are also astounding. The sound track is the glue that makes the glitter stick. All pre-disco rock. Love it or hate it, songs like “School‘s Out” by Cooper for a film about the last day/night of school and Frampton for a first kiss are dead-on. I‘d put this up there with Goodfellas for its use of contemporary artists to set the exact mood. It‘s one of those cases where more money was probably spent scoring the soundtrack than on film (stock) quality. It‘s also purposely shot grainy; great call by Linklater fitting his art into the budget available. I‘m surprised more indie films aren‘t shot using the 70‘s as the period given the authenticity it lends to the storytelling. Lastly, I love seeing unstructured storytelling works so well. This kind of film succeeds at straddling the old saying about reality being more interesting than fiction by blurring the difference and making things look the way you remember them. And by defying conventional plot structure you get a movie without preachy, overdrawn points. There‘s no aggrandizement or waxing prolific about the good ol‘ days here. This isn‘t American Graffiti. The message seems to be “This is what it really looked, sounded and felt like.” Remember overdone muscle cars? Your first kegger? Parties getting busted? Buying concert tickets? Smoking out? Smoking out and buying concert tickets? Smoking out and looking at the pyramids and eyes on a dollar bill? Your friend‘s dad cutting the lawn wearing black socks and shorts? You will after this. Rent it. Download it. Buy it. Whatever. Just watch it. Note
1: This isn‘t widely available here in Korea but you can download it from
Kazaa & play it at your leisure or, if so persuaded, buy it from home. |
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© 2002 Busan Beat |