Dazed and Confused
Rent/Purchase
The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a "no drugs" pledge.
What critics thought
Richard Linklater's portrait of a single Texas high-school day in 1976 landed as a near-consensus success, with critics responding to its anthropological precision and refusal to moralize as much as to its comedy. The main point of debate was its loose, plotless structure — some found that formlessness the whole point, others felt it left the film drifting — but its ear for adolescent ritual and its ensemble of then-unknowns (McConaughey especially) drew consistent admiration.
“Dazed and Confused has an enjoyably playful spirit, one that amply compensates for its lack of structure”
Janet Maslin·The New York Times
“He is a character we're all too familiar with in the movies but McConaughey nails this guy without a hint of condescension or whimsy, claiming this character for all time as his own”
Marjorie Baumgarten·The Austin Chronicle
“sly and formidable talent, bringing an anthropologist's eye to this spectacularly funny celebration of the rites of stupidity. His shitfaced American Graffiti is the ultimate party movie – loud, crude, socially irresponsible and totally irresistible”
Peter Travers·Rolling Stone
“Yet if Linklater captures the comic goofiness of the time, he also evokes its liberating spirit. The film finds its meaning in the subtle clash between the older, sadistic macho-jock ethos and the follow-your-impulse hedonism that was the lingering legacy of the '60s”
Owen Gleiberman·Entertainment Weekly
“Linklater is surely no ham-fisted moralist, and his film has lots of attitude to shake a finger at. But it also has enough buoyant '70s music to shake anybody's tail feather, and a kind of easy jubilance of narrative and character”
Richard Corliss·Time
Genres
Comedy
Cast & Crew
DirectorRichard Linklater
StarringJason London, Matthew McConaughey, Joey Lauren Adams, Rory Cochrane, Wiley Wiggins
Dazed and Confused
The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a "no drugs" pledge.
What critics thought
Richard Linklater's portrait of a single Texas high-school day in 1976 landed as a near-consensus success, with critics responding to its anthropological precision and refusal to moralize as much as to its comedy. The main point of debate was its loose, plotless structure — some found that formlessness the whole point, others felt it left the film drifting — but its ear for adolescent ritual and its ensemble of then-unknowns (McConaughey especially) drew consistent admiration.
“Dazed and Confused has an enjoyably playful spirit, one that amply compensates for its lack of structure”
Janet Maslin·The New York Times
“He is a character we're all too familiar with in the movies but McConaughey nails this guy without a hint of condescension or whimsy, claiming this character for all time as his own”
Marjorie Baumgarten·The Austin Chronicle
“sly and formidable talent, bringing an anthropologist's eye to this spectacularly funny celebration of the rites of stupidity. His shitfaced American Graffiti is the ultimate party movie – loud, crude, socially irresponsible and totally irresistible”
Peter Travers·Rolling Stone
“Yet if Linklater captures the comic goofiness of the time, he also evokes its liberating spirit. The film finds its meaning in the subtle clash between the older, sadistic macho-jock ethos and the follow-your-impulse hedonism that was the lingering legacy of the '60s”
Owen Gleiberman·Entertainment Weekly
“Linklater is surely no ham-fisted moralist, and his film has lots of attitude to shake a finger at. But it also has enough buoyant '70s music to shake anybody's tail feather, and a kind of easy jubilance of narrative and character”
Richard Corliss·Time
Genres
Comedy
Cast & Crew
DirectorRichard Linklater
StarringJason London, Matthew McConaughey, Joey Lauren Adams, Rory Cochrane, Wiley Wiggins
Rent/Purchase