Dazed and Confused

One night in the 1970s that can give a hint of where life tracks will lead in the next few turns. And it's not American Graffiti. On the contrary, Richard Linklater is much closer to carefree episodic comedies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High than to George Lucas' monument to youth. It took me maybe an hour before I could even slightly empathize with those few characters and start feeling interested in their plans or failures. But until the end, I couldn't get rid of that annoying feeling that the characters were mere figuratines and caricatures. Entertaining, thanks to the impeccably listenable soundtrack, but two years before this, I would have expected something much more lasting from this director. (2008-02-11)

A narrative that relies on the viewer establishing a bond with each of the characters and, in particular, the soundtrack, which is one of the 10 best ever. Unfortunately, the characters are too many and there’s hardly any cliffhanger that would bring them together, which means that we don’t have much of a chance to live the story with them in any significant way. American Graffiti had a much more complex development of the protagonists and a strong ending, Dazed and Confused, in contrast, is just an easygoing and pretty superficial portrayal of the adolescence of the time – other than the music, the most memorable things are the bully played by Ben Affleck and the playboy with a weakness for redheads played by Matthew McConaughey, who here started honing his trademark “Alright”. 65% (2019-10-14)

This is exactly like listening to a classic rock radio whilst watching possibly the worst 1970s brats in America. This movie isn’t afraid of bullying. Everything is on full blast. But despite all of that, some of the brats turned out to be interesting actors; Matthew McConaughey, Milla Jovovich and Ben Affleck are definitely names that I noticed right away. But I’d slap the sense into some of those brats; for example, Matt is a jerk right and proper. (2014-04-04)