Review of Dazed and Confused (1993) by Jesse B — 03 Nov 2010

If there is one thing that I am sure of in life it is that everyone hates the place in which they grew up, only to perhaps come back to a nostalgic remembrance of it later in life (when they hate the place they now live). Dazed and Confused spends much of it's character's times attempting to live up to its post rock & roll title. Everyone is either high, or buzzing, and nobody quite knows what their next move is until it's staring them right in the face. After all, its the last day of school before summer starts and everyone's off doing their own thing and moving on and such.

The film reminds a great deal of George Lucas' harkening back to the good old days of the early sixties with fast cars and no cares -- women and friends to go around, and just enough of that adolescent whimsy to keep everyone up for the remainder of the evening, talking about good times and what the future holds. If I may misquote Neil Sedaka lyrics, "Growing up is hard to do." And for some of the characters in Mr. Linklater's film, growing up is so hard that they've given up on it all together.

Thrust back into an era of music which had just recoiled from incendiary fires of the radical movements of the sixties, the "bubblegum-pop" of the fifties was reinvented with power chords and eye makeup. However you look at it, the music was just as unnecessary. It was all about having fun and being around those who wanted to have as much fun as you did (kind of like today, accept without the slant toward snarky, ironic cynicism). Urban legends of fates more interesting than death and reasoning behind reasons exist as an ever present backdrop in this 24-hours-in-the-life-of story of youth. Hazings which seem cruel and unusual give an outlet to the frustrated Cro-Magnon men who feel the days of a carefree lifestyle coming to a quick reality. Those unfortunate enough to be up and comers find themselves at the butt end of the games of their piers.

Dazed and Confused waltzes about freely between the lives of its characters, almost as if the film had no desire to cut, but only float from here to there, picking up what good material that it may -- and it does, a lot of good material. Some of the music could have been toned down, but this is coming from a person who does not particularly care for the loud balls to the walls music of the seventies. Overall, I can't say that this film qualifies for "great" but I'm sure as you look back upon it five, ten, fifteen years from now, the memories will have aged a like wine and all the bitter elements which seem so prevalent at the time will take a back seat to the wind in your hair as you road through the night with only the whole world at your disposal.