Tag: Gramercy Pictures

Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993) Review

Spoiler Warning: This discussion has very few spoilers: some set up from the first act, a general idea of the narrative at hand.

Rating: 5 out of 5.
"I think they're just worried that some of us are having too good a time."

Anytime someone asks for my favourite film, it’s like asking what my favourite Beatles song is. It changes week to week, but there is always an answer that I am married to as a default answer. It’s Something, by the way. However, more importantly, right now, Dazed and Confused is always my reply to that daunting question. I literally got a Dazed and Confused tattoo yesterday, so there felt like no better time than right now to tune in to Linklater’s very best yet again.

I’ve already said so much about this movie; I love every frame. I think the best way for me to get this across is by enthusiastically saying that I had the best time sitting reciting lines with Pink, Wooderson, Mike, Darla, both Kramers and the rest of this class of Texan teens. The screenplay is just so brilliant, managing to balance so many characters who all have different dynamics with each other and embody different characteristics of high schoolers, all without seeming like dull stereotypes or generalisations of groups. The athletes smoke as much weed as the stoners and dropouts. The freshmen try and keep up with the seniors. The nerds get invited to the parties and get along with the star quarterback. It moves away from the John Hughes outlook of the 80s and moves into this new vision of what adolescence could be.

It’s also the best needle drop movie of all time. I have 3LPs worth of soundtrack music to Dazed and Confused and despite all of that, it’s still missing Hurricane. I mean, setting your opening credits scene and establishing the text’s environment to Sweet Emotion doesn’t get much better for a movie set in ’76. It keeps the whole film moving at this really comfortable pace that manages to make the 100-minute runtime feel like less than an hour. The costume is some of my favourite of all time; the way that Pink’s purple shirt slowly becomes more and more unbuttoned as the night carries on or Wooderson’s white shirt/pink pants combination with his cigarettes rolled into his t-shirt sleeve.

I will always come back to Dazed and Confused, and I don’t think it will falter me over time. I’ve marked my body with this movie for the rest of my life, so I know that it’s never leaving me. It’s my ultimate comfort film; there’s a part of me in it; there’s a part of it in me. I honestly already can’t wait for the next day in my life that feels like a Dazed and Confused day. It could be tomorrow, for all I know.

Previous Reviews of Dazed and Confused:
Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993) Review
Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993) Review
Check out the soundtrack here:

The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998) Review

Spoiler Warning: This discussion features some important narrative information that could spoil the text for you. It does not necessarily spell out the film’s conclusion, but it does talk about events in detail.

Rating: 5 out of 5.
"That rug really tied the room together."

To mark my birthday, I decided to return to a classic; The Big Lebowski is inarguably one of the funniest comedies of all time. The Coens’ wandering little stoner bowling movie come farcical kidnapping thriller is so relentlessly entertaining that it is difficult to compare to anything else out there.

There is rarely a week that I go without quoting something out of this, sometimes inadvertently before I realise what I’ve done. Rugs, opinions, Lenin being the walrus, abiding, aggression not standing are just a small selection of the moments that make me howl on every watch. It’s so disgracefully funny, viciously vulgar, and so innately laid-back at the same time. I’ve never seen a film treat a kidnapping with such laxness, never mind putting it into a film where a character’s ashes are spread from a pot of instant coffee and spliced between multiple trip sequences.

Everyone embodies their roles with such joy; it was clearly such a fun shoot, and it comes across in every scene. Jeff Bridges creates his most iconic role out of a college-dropout hippie bowling enthusiast in a catalogue of performances other actors would die for. John Goodman and Steve Buscemi bounce off of each other wonderfully; Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, John Turturro, Sam Elliott, Peter Stormare and a few others add rich features to these strange unforgettable supporting roles. This is one of the all-time great comedy casts.

I would highly recommend watching The Big Lebowski on any celebratory day of the year – the only thing that could have made my birthday a little better is if I had a White Russian to sip on whilst I watched this. It’s one of my favourite movies on the planet, almost a yearly excursion at this point, and long may that tradition continue. The Dude abides.

Previous Reviews of The Big Lebowski:
The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998) Review

Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993) Review

Spoiler Warning: This discussion has very few spoilers: some set up from the first act, a general idea of the narrative at hand.

Rating: 5 out of 5.
"You just got to keep livin' man. L-I-V-I-N."

I handed in my last two assignments for my second year of university today and rewarded myself with a re-watch of potentially my favourite film of all time. It’s still as brilliant as I remember.

The soundtrack is truly perfect. The use of each song strengthens the scene that it accompanies, and it feels perfect for the spirit that the film is emulating. Needle drops would continue to be something that Linklater would use with expert precision in his career, but this features numerous perfect ones. The performances are fun, Affleck plays the bully particularly well, but I think everyone is taking advantage of the masterful screenplay, costumes and settings.

The screenplay is where this film shines. It still has some of the funniest lines I’ve ever heard in a film, and a lot of the interactions and mini-monologues feel particularly autobiographical and authentic. The general spirit that this evokes is what I love the most, there’s a vibe throughout that resonates with me. I love stories about people at this volatile and unpredictable stage of their lives, deciding where to take it next. This is exactly that but almost without the story; we just wander through Texas with these different groups on the final day of school. It’s an excellent tale that benefits from Linklater’s distant perspective and careful framing.

Dazed and Confused is a film that I will forever be able to watch, no matter the mood. The soundtrack, the cars, the ‘alright, alright, alrights’, the weed, the aimlessness, the attitude, the ease of it all. L-I-V-I-N.

Previous reviews of Dazed and Confused:
Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993) Review
Check out the soundtrack here:

The Big Lebowski (Joel Coen, 1998) Review

Spoiler Warning: This discussion contains some spoilers. It could be an entire gag from a comedy or in-depth conversation concerning events in the second act.

Rating: 5 out of 5.
"Nihilists; fuck me. I mean say what you want about the tenets of national socialism, Dude. At least it's an ethos."

The Big Lebowski is one of the greatest films ever made. It’s, by some distance, the Coen’s best film and easily some of the performers’ best work too. Insanely hilarious from start to finish with a polished visual style that makes this an even easier watch.

It’s pointless for me to go over every joke, but I could do it with ease. I’ve seen this countless times, and it gets funnier and funnier with every rewatch. It’s primarily because a lot of the comedy is character and dialogue-based rather than narrative-based or gag-like. It’s a testament to the writing really, and the performers for managing to pull that off.

The soundtrack is superb, any use of The Man in Me is more than welcome, and this uses it a couple of times. The fantasy sequences are amongst some of my favourites in the film, allowing the Coens to get really playful with huge sets, trippy visuals, cool images and extravagant sets. I always forget how oddly sad the ending of the film is, and just how much it decides to tie up none of its loose ends. In a lot of films, that would feel lazy, but it is exactly what The Dude would do.

From the constant swearing, the hilarious characters and the ridiculous fun that this film encapsulates, I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of it. From the costume to the rug, it’s iconic from top to bottom. This has gone beyond a cult film, in my opinion, but it certainly still has that vibe to it.

check out the soundtrack here:

Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993) Review

Spoiler Warning: This discussion has very few spoilers: some set up from the first act, a general idea of the narrative at hand.

Rating: 5 out of 5.
"I didn't think drugs and alcohol were such a big deal they had to resort to Neo-McCarthyism to get rid of it."

Dazed and Confused is a film that I waited a long time to see. I’m not sure what I was waiting for other than what I felt was the right time to watch it. One of my favourite films, Everybody Wants Some!!, is a Linklater movie, and was hailed as the spiritual successor to this film. So, it’s no surprise that I thought this film was outstanding.

I love films that create an atmosphere, a sense of life and Dazed and Confused is one of the best examples of this that I think I’ve ever seen. The high school environment and the mixing of intrinsic social classes in 1976, surrounded by timeless music and changing values on drugs, alcohol, and other such values, exposed to this generation at a much younger age served the film its greatest credit as they traversed through their feelings and attitudes. There’s little to no plot, but it’s so interesting to watch them wander around on the last day of school: from inaugurating the new kids to a cancelled party and vandalism.

It’s an ensemble cast filled with rich characters that you’ve seen a thousand times before, but it’s clear now that they were inspired by this. No other 70s set teen film ranks close to the authenticity that these actors generate. A good example of this is Empire Records, which I watched a few weeks ago, but the characters are in this instance played by the same actors but with less inspiration and style.

Dazed and Confused has no direction, much like Pink, and it revels in its spirit of the 70s. The dialogue is unrivalled, which is to be expected from Linklater, but I laughed audibly more times than I could count. This film has joined the canon of my favourites, with the unique ability that I think I could return to watch it again at any time.

Mallrats (Kevin Smith, 1995) Review

Spoiler Warning: This discussion contains some spoilers. It could be an entire gag from a comedy or in-depth conversation concerning events in the second act.

Rating: 4 out of 5.
"You know, I think you ought to get him some help. He seems to be really hung up on superheroes' sex organs."

Mallrats is a strange film; it’s Kevin Smith’s first foray into larger budget film production, and for the most part, he does little with that budget. However, I think that’s what I love the most about it; it’s a lot of Kevin Smith 90s comedy which just so happens to be a niche that I enjoy.

The fact is that Mallrats is not his best work and relies completely on its dialogue and characters because its premise and technical execution are basic, although still suitable enough. I like a lot of the comedy, primarily from Brodie. He provides all the classic Kevin Smith monologue type moments he became so famous for in Clerks, yet he integrates some nice genuine ideas with the execution of that romance in this film; the primary romance is, fairly basic. The Kevin Smith voice announces itself in every scene from comic book references to witty dialogue and stoner comedy. It’s not everyone’s cup of tea, I am sure, but it is a good amount better than some of the comedies I’ve had to endure.

There’s a lot of nostalgia here and reminiscing, thinking I was something special for liking indie films by Kevin Smith; regardless Jay and Silent Bob shine and only a few moments have aged poorly. Hot take: it also features the best Stan Lee cameo in a film to this day.