Slacker: Not Pointless

Cormac Clune

 It'd be easy to watch Slacker and think that the film is pointless. The film doesn’t have a main character, it comes off as aimless, and it doesn’t have a story.  I think that hidden behind its uneventful exterior is an example that showcases real filmmaking craft, accomplishing exactly what it sets out to do. Slacker is a movie that seeks to document a specific place at a specific time, this time being Austin Texas in the late ’80s and early ’90s. However, unlike a documentary, Slacker is entirely fiction. It's through great attention to detail with fantastic writing and performances that the film can transport the viewer. Despite the film's mundane exterior, scenes are written, rehearsed, and acted out with a kind of effortless precision. You get the sense that these scenes were blocked and rehearsed well. attention This style would later be further developed by Linklater’s subsequent movies. ‘Dazed and Confused’ and the ‘Before Trilogy’ are great examples of this. These films are a bit more plot-focused than Slacker, but they still maintain Linklater’s trademark conversational style. Slacker is a great example of a director’s debut film serving as a kind of thesis statement for their entire career. You can see the DNA represented in most of his later films.  When saying that Linklater films in this style are “pointless”, I don’t think this statement is true. The Before trilogy is about falling in love, Dazed and Confused is about growing up, and Slacker is about documenting an area and it’s citizens. Life in Austin had a specific feel to it during the early ’90s. Linklater wanted to make a movie about this feel and rhythm. in this way, the film works as a sort of ethnographic study of a certain place and time. I feel that all of these characters could have existed, even if some of them are heightened to absurdity. But even so, almost every character is believable, no small feat as most of them were performed by non-actors. My personal favorites are the moon landing conspiracy guy and the man who could care less about his dead step-father. I’ve known a lot of people in my life that won’t shut up about Conspiracy theories, some as ridiculous as the stuff he’s peddling. The way that he follows and drones into his uninterested friend's ear is very funny to me. Even with such a bizarre character, the film manages to make it seem believable to me.