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It’s been years since I was a part of the slacker society—sitting around with friends in coffee shops or in the dorm lounge, discussing and debating our philosophies on the world as we saw it. But watching writer/director Richard Linklater’s rambling 1991 indie breakout, Slacker, brought all of those coffee shop conversations and late-night dorm lobby sessions flooding right back.
Slacker is like the Seinfeld of indie movies—just without the outrageous comedy. It’s random and rambling—and, throughout its 100 minutes or so, nothing really happens. It’s a movie with no real genre—and no real point. Yet it’s still strangely mesmerizing and even hypnotic.
The film wanders through the streets and bars and coffeehouses of late-‘80s Austin, briefly coming into contact with all kinds of misfits and outcasts—the kind of characters who spend their days doing little more than hanging out and debating their bizarre philosophies. It floats lazily from one conversation to another, picking up conspiracy theories and various viewpoints from hitchhikers, grease monkeys, aging anarchists, and starving artists—most of them bored 20-somethings who have nothing better to do.
Slacker is a love-it-or-hate-it kind of movie. You’ll either be amused and fascinated…or you’ll be bored and annoyed. You’ll either be entertained by the collection of Austin’s finest slackers and their jumble of philosophies…or you’ll find them pathetic and obnoxious. Or, if you’re like Kevin Smith, it could inspire you to go out and make your own oddball indie films (and just look where it got him).
As the action drifts from one character to the next and one conversation to the next, you might find yourself trying to predict where it’ll go next—which character the camera will choose to follow when it’s time to move on. In fact, that’s what held my attention: the regular focus shift. Sometimes the focus stays on one character for a bit too long, and it’s easy to lose interest and zone out. But once the camera breaks away and picks up another character, it’s as if the film starts over. There’s a whole new focus, a whole new story, a whole new main character—and even if you’d checked out for a while, it’ll grab your interest again as it reboots and heads in a new direction.
My personal favorite character in the film, however, is the one girl who just doesn’t buy it—and after listening to her boyfriend’s rants about his own personal beliefs and viewpoints, she finally calls him, accusing him of pasting together a bunch of philosophies that he’s read somewhere, without actually thinking about them and deciding for himself. It seems that she’s the real voice of reason in the midst of the film’s conspiracies and philosophies.
Sometimes, Slacker is perplexing. Sometimes, it’s amusing. And, sometimes, it’s just plain sad. You might find it slow and dull, or you may find it endearingly odd—maybe even both. But it’s an intriguing and unexpected film nonetheless—one that’s worth adding to your Netflix queue.
Ed. Note: Want to watch Slacker right now? It’s currently available for free on Hulu.com.
