Review of Slacker (1990) by Spencer S — 26 Nov 2011

Ambling indie classic patiently follows a stream of philosophical burnouts crossing paths over the course of a day in Austin, Texas. The twist is that we never see any of these people ever again, their experiences do not contribute to any central plot and the story is told in what seems like real time.

The main character is the town itself, and the lack of any true story momentum is a statement on its residents. They have plenty to say, but never seem to do anything. That's their charm, and it's also the charm of this movie.

But unlike many of the films that this breakthrough cult classic inspired (namely Kevin Smith's Clerks) first-time director Richard Linklater exhibits an impressive mastery of cinematic motion rare in low-budget films which rely mostly on dialogue.

Linklater shoots many of his scenes in long takes with infrequent cutting, reminiscent of the opening shot of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil or Scorsese's nightclub scene in Goodfellas. This kind of technique is incredibly difficult to achieve even for experienced filmmakers with a large budget to work with, making it especially astounding that Linklater managed to choreograph such sequences with limited resources and even less experience.

But at the end of the day, the existential conundrums which this film wrestles with are what will hold your interest and its unique philosophical insights are what made Linklater one of the wisest cinematic sages of the 1990s independent film boom.