Slacker

A hit on the cult film circuit, director Richard Linklater's maiden effort Slacker is a film with a methodology that is more interesting than the film itself. The opening sequence has Linklater getting off a bus in Austin, Texas, and taking a cab. During the cab ride, he delivers a monologue to the cab driver on alternate universes--using the crossroads in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy meets the scarecrow as a metaphorical example ("...all those directions and they go in just one direction. All those other directions, just because they thought about them, became separate realities....but we'll never see it because we're kind of trapped in this one reality restriction type of thing.") After Linklater leaves the cab and meets with student friends, the camera begins to follow one of the students on a walk--who, in turn, is joined by a guy who talks about the fact that we've had colonies on Mars for decades now. A good 100 people are featured in the film, the camera never staying with one person for too long. And perhaps as much as one-third of the skits are truly interesting: a discussion about the ideological differences between Scooby Doo and the Smurfs; a muse upon the question: "can one escape the fear of rejection?;" and a disturbing monologue by a TV/video addict who sees a dead man fall to his feet--and criticizes the "real" death because the color's off and there's no option to rewind and examine more closely the event. But most of the "slackers" are either boring (keeping in mind that they're really actors working with a script) or too overdone, satire-wise. A segment featuring a kid trying to sell a Madonna pap smear as a collector's item, for instance, comes off as consciously perverse, as does a longwinded gag about JFK conspiracy books. While individual stories catch our interest, the problem with Slacker is that--without a central story to tell--the constant shifting of people and situations doesn't allow the viewer to settle in with the material (which increases the burden on the writer/director to keep the vignettes intriguing, something which Linklater is not able to consistently do.) Libraries with larger video collections may want to consider this as a definite alternative to traditional Hollywood fare--one just wishes it would have lived up to its promise. An optional purchase. (R. Pitman) [DVD Review--November 16, 2004--Criterion, 2 discs, 98 min., R, $39.95--Making its debut on DVD, 1991's Slacker receives the red-carpet treatment in this handsome double-disc edition featuring a spiffy new transfer (as spiffy as a film originally shot on 16mm for a budget under $25,000 might be expected to look, anyway) and a fine Dolby Digital mono soundtrack. The extensive extras include--on disc one--three audio commentaries (director, cast, and crew), cast interviews, behind-the-scenes footage, and a long trailer for a documentary about the legendary Austin café Les Amis featured in Slacker. Disc two includes Linklater's first full-length feature film It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (shot on Super-8, and likely to be of interest to completists only) accompanied by Linklater's commentary, Linklater's short film "Woodshock," deleted scenes, footage from a 10th anniversary reunion, the working script, text essays, stills galleries, and more. Bottom line: a seminal independent film, if not necessarily a truly good one, Slacker receives showcase treatment here, and is recommended for both fans and history of cinema collections.] [Blu-ray Review—Sept. 10, 2013—Criterion, 100 min., R, $39.95—Making its first appearance on Blu-ray, 1991's Slacker sports a nice transfer and DTS-HD stereo audio. Extras are identical to Criterion's earlier DVD release, including three audio commentaries (the first with director Richard Linklater; the second with various cast members, and the third with Linklater, cinematographer Lee Daniel, and assistant cameraman Clark Walker), Linklater's 1988 film It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books with optional commentary (85 min.), deleted scenes and alternate takes (29 min.), '…End of Interview!' footage from the film's 2001 reunion (20 min.), a 'Showing Life' section with casting tapes and interviews (15 min.), 'Taco and a Half After Ten' home movies (12 min.), a trailer for the 2005 documentary on the café Viva Les Amis (10 min.), Linklater's 1985 short 'Woodshock' (7 min.), 'No Longer/Not Yet' original script treatment pages, trailers, and a booklet featuring essays by author and filmmaker John Pierson and Sony Pictures Classics co-president Michael Barker, reviews by critics Ron Rosenbaum and Chris Walters, production notes by Linklater, and an intro to It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books by director Monte Hellman. Bottom line: an excellent extras package for an uneven, albeit seminal, independent film.]