Slacker: Setting a Scene

The fun thing about rules and structure is when they can be played with, toyed around, broken just because it can. A change of pace, setting, lighting, camera work, script anything that typically has a formula to it can at times benefit by being messed with. Experimenting with what's already there to mix things up, especially when a story can be further expanded by these changes helps to change pace of something that can be repetitive or known. I don't think Slacker as a movie would have worked if the director Richard linklater had the film set up differently. Slackers didn't have a main character or story line that it followed. Instead choosing to bounce from person to person in this Texas town, you'd get passed onto another individual as the previous one came into contact with them or was near them. I've never seen a pass the torch kind of narrative, but it worked for this case, the focus to me was more on in a way world building. We got to see little bits of these people's lives in this small town and it gave it a naturalistic sense to what was portrayed. I found a sense of familiarity in how people unprompted would just start talking to others whether that person wanted to listen or not. Almost every single interaction that was shown was played out like that. So the fact that those kinds of interactions aren't uncommon in real life and for this dialogue it was consistent, almost all conversations started like that no matter the person. So the town and film felt put together even if on the surface it may not seem it. I’ve personally haven't seen a film like this where there wasn't really a plot and more so just a way for an audience to get a feel for it's setting and people. Even if it lacked that traditional narrative of a story flow, that didn't make it a bad film. I may have been confused about it for a bit while watching, but it's a nice approach and it's cool seeing people challenge a medium of entertainment and mess with part of it. Also choosing to focus on misfit type people and ones who speak on that time’s political climate and pop culture, it helps to assist in the naturalistic feel as we were passed on from one person’s little snippet of that day to the next. Also when out of pocket things for people to do or say happens, you start to feel normalized by it, due to the lack of reaction or urgency from other people in how they react to what they saw or heard. The person who saw and found the mother that got run over by her son sure went to help but also wasn’t in a rush to see if she was okay or how to get help. That would have stood out more if the next two people who went to help reacted with great urgency and stress, but they were weirdly calm and just acting as if it’s another daily occurrence as this poor lady could be dead on the street. Instead the man who pulled over is more concerned about asking out the attractive jogger who keeps telling him to phone the police, but also not getting mad he’s not focused on the body on the road. It only continues from there on how these people interact with one another and their town, yes they do and say a lot of weird or not normal day to day things at times, but the film treats it as though they are right along with getting coffee in the morning.