Dazed and Confused

Director Richard Linklater (right) on the set of the film

 

DAZED AND CONFUSED             B+              
USA  (103 mi)  1993  d:  Richard Linklater

You know, the ‘68 Democratic convention was probably the most bitchin’ time I ever had in my life.  Hey guys, one more thing:  This summer, when you’re being inundated by all the American bicentennial Fourth of July brouhaha, don’t forget what you’re celebrating, and that’s the fact that a bunch of slave-owning aristocratic white males didn’t want to pay their taxes. 

—Ms. Stroud, teacher (Kim Krizan)

All I’m saying is that if I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself. 

—Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London)

Linklater’s first successful film SLACKER (1991), an unconventional narrative made on a budget of just $23,000, along with Soderbergh’s earlier SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE (1989), made for just over $1 million dollars, helped usher in a new era of low budget, independent filmmaking of the 1990’s, opening the doors for other newcomers like Kevin Smith who was able to make CLERKS (1994) for $230,000, but also Quintin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs (1992) or Larry Clark’s KIDS (1995), altering the concept of what it costs to make good films.  A decade later Soderbergh had a similar effect by going digital, redefining the filmmaking process by significantly lowering the expenses, in effect, permanently altering the look of films today.  Much like his predecessor, DAZED AND CONFUSED represents another near plotless film that takes place in less than 24 hours on what is essentially the last day of high school on May 26, 1976, using a slew of undiscovered or non-professional actors on a free-wheeling, multi-layered expedition throughout the day and night looking for something to do.  Reflective of small town values in the heartland of Texas, kids will go to any extremes to avoid boredom, the common denominator in just about every kid’s life at this age, turning it into a hilarious road movie of sorts, using a potent, electrically charged rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack that to some may sound like heavy metal shitkicker music, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Black Sabbath, etc, bands that shortly afterwards went into a sharp decline from their decadent, drug-tinged road activities, where the excess was a prelude to punk, though War and Dr. John are the only featured bands that are not all-white, as there’s an absence of R & B or soul music that otherwise dominated the times in urban cities, like Al Green, Stevie Wonder, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Earth, Wind, & Fire, or Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes.  But that’s a whole other story, as the only black kid featured in the cast is Melvin (Jason O. Smith), a guy seen playing craps in the hallways that also plays football and hangs with a white crowd.   

Shot in Austin, Texas, the film is one of the few that actually provides a window into the way its residents live, especially those living on the economic margins feeling an apathy or cultural disconnectedness from mainstream society.  With a rich mix of characters, and choice dialogue, the film takes a rather absurdist glimpse into the social rituals of high school, especially the existing power dynamic that pits upper class seniors against lowly freshmen, two groups that in many other parts of the country simply ignore one another, as freshmen would never be worth the time of day to many seniors.  But here, seniors get a chance to prey on a weaker species, using an age-old hazing tradition to pounce on young freshmen, chasing them down in cars, singling them out for sadistic thrashings, attacking in organized groups, using wooden paddles to whack their backsides, where freshmen are expected to take their medicine as a rite of passage.   While the freshmen view it as an idiotic ritual, the seniors feel as if it’s their just rewards for finishing high school, as they’re finally liberated from spending untold numbers of hours in wretchedly boring classes with teachers they simply had no interest in, where most of the time it felt like drudgery.  On this final day of school many seniors aren’t even in the classrooms, yet they’re wandering the halls at will discussing what they’re going to do this summer.  Free of the 50’s nostalgia of AMERICAN GRAFFITI (1973), the film uses a similar structure, bringing together a large gathering of kids in search of a party, spending most of the time following groups in cars or walking down the street, meeting at local hang-outs, like burger joints, drive-ins, pool halls, bars and liquor stores, all the while listening to blaring music coming out of the car radios.  While it reverts back to simpler times, the film could almost be described as an anthem to drunk driving, as it shows little regard for the hazards of driving while stoned or intoxicated, where this kind of behavior is deemed as just another one of the male rite of passages.  Most of the time, however, nothing is happening, with no plots, or even subplots, as instead they drive around aimlessly and congregate in small groups waiting for something to happen, where they’ll drink beer, smoke a joint, and hope they run into someone who can tell them where a party is. 

Opening with a slow-motion shot of an orange muscle car pulling into a high school parking lot to the sounds of Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion” Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion - YouTube (4:40), the idea of cruising sets the film in motion, with Alice Cooper’s “School’s Out” Alice Cooper - School's Out - YouTube (4:33) igniting a mad rush of freedom, leaving behind the empty hallways and lockers that are suddenly turned into dead zones.  With boy seniors spreading out in all directions searching for incoming freshmen to flog, we witness the particularly obnoxious and domineering behavior of the senior girls, none more authoritarian than Parker Posey as Darla, ordering the incoming freshmen girls to the ground in the school parking lot where they can be covered with ketchup, mustard, flour, and raw eggs, with some forced to propose to senior boys.  While it all unravels in a confusing and haphazard manner, with a host of characters continually entering and exiting the screen, two characters initially stand out, Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London), the star quarterback who will be back for another year, who basically plays football in order to get laid, ordered to sign a pledge prohibiting the use of alcohol or drugs over the summer, which all the other players apparently signed, but not Pink, so he continually gets berated by his football coach.  The other is a mirror version in the younger Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins), an 8th grade star pitcher who wonders with his friends what high school life will be like, dreaming of high school girls “putting out,” where he is singled out by the seniors for paddling after his sister tells the boys to go easy on him, where the worst of the offenders is Ben Affleck as O’Bannion, a pathetic figure of a dimwitted senior that had to repeat his senior year.  After they lay in wait for Mitch after a game, running him through the ringer, Pink gives him a ride afterwards, feeling sympathetic, inviting him to a party afterwards where one of his friend’s parents are expected to leave for a vacation.  But when a beer keg arrives before they leave, his parents grow overly suspicious, changing their plans, which seemingly alters the plans of every kid in town, as the party will have to be relocated.  Kids just drive around, cruising aimlessly, until finding out the new destination.  Reportedly one-sixth of the film’s budget was spent on acquiring the rights to the array of 70’s musical songs, where the word “man” is said 203 times in the film, while the word “fuck” is used 59 times.

The notable pothead is Rory Cochrane as Ron Slater, an easygoing, likable guy who is lit up throughout the film, who is willing to do just about anything so long as weed is present, who goes on a few crazed philosophical tangents, while a Woodward and Bernstein duo of intellectuals, Adam Goldberg as Mike and Anthony Rapp as Tony, over-analyze just about everything, usually accompanied by the redhead Cynthia (Marissa Ribisi, married a decade later to American musician Beck), who inquisitively asks, “Which one of you had the theory about how president Ford’s old football head injuries is affecting the economy?”  After deciding on the need for more alcohol, while swigging beer in the backseat, Mike decides he doesn’t want to go to law school anymore, coming up with one of the memorable lines of the film when he confesses abruptly, “I wanna dance!”  Matthew McConaughey as Wooderson is the older master of ceremonies, the ultimate party animal who coined the phrase “all right, all right, all right” in this film, a phrase he has used throughout his career, even at the Academy Awards, making it sound downright sleazy, a guy who trolls high school years after he’s done with it still searching for young girls, “That’s what I love about these high school girls, man.  I get older, they stay the same age.”  Standing in front of the Emporium, a local pool hall and arcade for teenagers that is a central meeting point, kids simply coalesce while drinking beer and listening to music, including Mitch, who is welcomed by an older crowd, drinking beer and smoking marijuana for the first time, where they go on a drunken neighborhood spree destroying mailboxes.  To the sounds of Nazareth - Love Hurts - YouTube (3:36), there are also inevitable boy/girl link-ups, where Mitch gravitates to a sophomore girl Julie (Catherine Morris), Tony becomes linked with an attractive incoming freshman girl Sabrina  (Christin Hinojosa), seen earlier getting humiliated by Darla, while Wooderson has a thing for redheads, exchanging phone numbers with none other than Cynthia, much to the surprise of Woodward and Bernstein, as she’s the smartest and most literate girl around.  Running into his middle school friends at the Emporium afterwards, they come up with a plan to get revenge on O’Bannion, subjecting him to his own paint smear, dumping a can of paint all over him, leaving him not only surprised, but embarrassed and utterly humiliated.  It’s the type of prank that perfectly mirrors the same type of adolescent humor found in AMERICAN GRAFITTI. 

Once the Emporium closes, the mythical keg party finally materializes on the outskirts of town outdoors in a park area under a Moon Tower, which, of course, kids climb up for a sense of daring adventure.  With a feeling of reckless abandon, heightened by a clever musical soundtrack that includes the funky swamp music of Dr. John, Dr. John - Right Place Wrong Time - YouTube (2:54), kids finally have something to celebrate with an anything goes kind of beer bust, where drugs of all nature instantly appear, as kids literally spill onto the screen into a stream-of-conscious mosaic of drug chatter and drunken machismo, where sloppy drunks inadvertently fall to the ground in hysterics and psychedelic flower children sing spacey songs, like Milla Jovovich as Michelle plunking her acoustic guitar while gazing at the stars singing “The Alien Song,” MILLA JOVOVICH-"The Alien Song (For Those Who Listen)" LIVE ... YouTube (4:27).  While the party sequence is broken down into several haphazard moments, Cynthia spouts philosophic about her every other decade theory, “The fifties were boring.  The sixties rocked.  And the seventies—oh my God, they obviously suck.  Come on!  Maybe the eighties will be radical,” Mitch Kramer is seen wandering aimlessly through the crowd, eventually hooking up with Julie, before being called a little Casanova by the seniors, actually a bit envious at the little man’s smooth prowess with the ladies.  The two are seen making out under the stars later that night, while Mike (“I feel like I’m being stalked by a Nazi.”) goes all ape-shit over an obnoxious taunt, deciding he’s Mike Tyson for an instant, getting in a single punch before being pummeled by a drunken redneck.  Once the beer runs out, Tony drives Sabrina home, giving her a sweet kiss good night, while Pink and the football gang decides to relive old times smoking a joint on the 50-yard line.  Of course, they are interrupted by security, handed over to the coach, who berates Pink for hanging out with a bunch of losers, reminding him of his priorities to the team.  Pink gracefully exits back to his comrades in crime, crumples up the pledge and tells the coach he might play football next year, but his top priority of the summer is actually getting Aerosmith tickets with his loser friends.  With the dawn already upon them, Mitch returns home only to find his mother still waiting up for him, but despite the smell of alcohol she decides to be lenient this time as he falls into his bed, with thoughts of everything that happened still swirling around his head, putting on headphones playing Slow Ride- Foghat (Full Version) - YouTube (8:16), while the football gang of stoners decide to head up the road and buy the Aerosmith tickets while they can, where their future is an open book of blank as yet unwritten pages. 

Newlyweeds

NEWLYWEEDS      C+                     

USA  (87 mi)  2012  d:  Shaka King

A black stoner comedy that attempts to get into the mindset of stoner culture, especially as exhibited by an attractive young black couple in love, Lyle (Amari Cheatom) and Nina (Trae Harris), who spend their waking hours smoking large doses of ganja weed, often philosophizing in each other’s arms, dreaming of one day going to the Galapagos, where they display a warm affection with each other.  Lyle literally smokes it all day long as well, as it steadies his nerves, going into an anxiety ridden crisis whenever he’s without it.  As a result, he continually hides and hoards a secret stash that he keeps in reserve.  Accidentally discovered by Nina at some point, he’s forced to admit this is “their” secret reserve which they can share.  At least initially, however, their lives together are the picture of bliss, as they appear well suited for each other and couldn’t be happier. 

While living in an unpretentious Bedford-Stuyvesant apartment, both have jobs, but they spend whatever they earn to buy more drugs, keeping them on the societal fringe, as this couple lives paycheck to paycheck.  Lyle has a horrific job repossessing rented furniture, working with a constantly criticizing white partner Jackie (Tone Tank), where the two of them have to figure out ways to out-connive people from their possessions, often resorting to underhanded and sleazy methods that often contrast absurd situational humor with the dire economic circumstances in the lives they’re dealing with.  Much of it plays out like street theater, resorting to various disguises to outsmart their customers.  When they realize at one point they made a mistake, that they took the wrong guy’s furniture, Jackie is cool with it and refuses to return it, claiming it’s just a job, and they got what they came for, while Lyle feels a moral obligation to do things right, but instead gets sucked into the moral void of street survival. 

Nina works as a tour guide at the Brooklyn Children’s Museum, where she’s continually upbeat, providing a smiling face to the arriving kids, where she exhibits an inviting mood of playfulness.  She catches the eye of Chico (Colman Domingo), the dapperly dressed black museum curator who offers to share his stash of Mongolian hash, but insists it needs to be taken with weed, ingratiatingly inviting himself to her apartment where they blissfully smoke the last of what’s left in the baggie, so there’s nothing left when Lyle returns home from work.  Frantic after a particularly dreadful day, made even worse by the loss of his remaining stash, with his girl laughing her head off with some strangely condescending, overly literate guy in a suit, his frazzled nerves can’t take it.  Forcing Chico out the door in a mindless rage, his mind is focused only upon scoring more drugs.  Without it, their lives spill out of control, both in different directions, in a nightmarish blur of things only getting worse.  Jackie convinces Lyle to come to a drinking party where he’s the only black guy, taking some other powerhouse drug that leaves him waking up under a bench on the subway train, unable to recall how he got there. 

Laughter grows tragic, however, as before the day is done, both Lyle and Nina will have made misfortunate choices that land each of them in jail, and while Lyle imagines a hilarious blaxploitation fantasy, Nina’s parents bail her out and bring her back home, protecting her with a kind of tough love grounding.  Lyle, of course, is at a loss, but Nina’s parents get a restraining order to keep him away from their daughter, sending mixed messages about moral consequences.  In fact, the film begins as an intriguing character study, exploring a segment of society rarely seen in the movies, where the characters are humorously and imaginatively drawn, arousing interest in this lower fringe netherworld.  But when the director decides there must be a consequence for taking drugs, all the naturalness of the picture suddenly becomes heavy handed, ultimately altering the enjoyment and effectiveness of the picture, becoming the imposed adult moral voice.  In the end, through the smoke and mirrors, it’s as if we needed to be taught a lesson, where the preachiness aspect literally derails the picture, taking all the life and joy out of it.  This is a gentle comedy with likeable people and unique insights, but in the end drowns in stereotypes.   

The Big Lebowski

 

THE BIG LEBOWSKI            A-                   

USA  Great Britain  (117 mi)  1998  d:  Joel Coen

 This isn't 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.    —Walter Sobchak (John Goodman)

A zany, constantly inventive, laid back charmer that features witty dialogue, madcap characters, drugs, sex, and plenty of profanity, not to mention terrific use of music that intrudes almost like a Greek chorus as the voice of one’s conscience.  Perhaps the greatest tribute to bowling ever committed to celluloid, this is a film about a perfectly relaxed and ordinary stoner guy, Jeff Bridges known as “The Dude,” who likes to hang out with his friends, drink white Russians and bowl at nights.  However, trouble ensues, interrupting his mellow slacker’s life, when the Dude (aka Jeff Lebowski) gets mistaken for the “big” Lebowski, a high society Lionel Barrymore type who claims to have millions, who apparently owes some gangsters a shitload of money and they’ve come for a collection, showing they mean business by peeing on his rug before they realize it’s a case of mistaken identity.  But clearly irritated by that rug incident, the Dude decides to hit the real Lebowski up for a little replacement rug money, but instead he gets wrapped up in the middle of a kidnapping-gone-wrong caper, as Lebowski’s young porn starlet girlfriend turns up missing.  Wacko Vietnam vet John Goodman plays his best friend Walter, a big man who has an opinion on just about everything, where at least in his view, everything in life is related to Vietnam, usually setting off his hair-trigger temper leading to a stark raving mad rant, but then he tones it back down to fine and mellow.  John Buscemi plays Donny, always late in entering a conversation, where Walter inevitably barks at him:  “Shut the fuck up, Donny.” 

The film is basically a non-stop, run-on conversation between Walter and The Dude, as despite being best friends, they also continually get on each other’s nerves.  There’s actually a cowboy tumbleweed introduction by an offscreen character known as The Stranger (Sam Elliott), who places the setting in Los Angeles and proceeds to deconstruct the whole Raymond Chandler romantic view of the City of Lights, as this dark and constantly frustrating view of the city is meant to be discouraging, where things are never what they seem.  However, from the luminous interior glow of the bowling alleys, you’d think the city cherished bowling as much as they do movie emporiums.  While not a private eye movie, the Dude is thrust into the middle of one volatile situation after another with a myriad of goofball characters that requires a certain amount of self-reflection to continually find his way out of dead ends.  From high flying feminist artist Julianne Moore, real daughter of the “big” Lebowski, who triggers nudist expression, procreation, along with key plot revelations, or John Turturro who has an all-too brief appearance as a trash talking bowler named Jesus Quintana dressed in color coordinated lavender, who goes through sexual gyrations and a good luck kiss as he delivers the ball, to the three Nihilists who are easily the mosty bizarrely dysfunctional kidnapping team, as they continue to demand ransom money even after they’ve lost the kidnapped girl, while suave and debonair Ben Gazzara, porn producer supreme, relies on old-school methods and traditional heavies to get his point across. 

With surrealistic Busby Berkeley bowling dream images that occasionally flood the screen to the music of Kenny Rodgers and the First Edition singing “Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In)” Big Lebowski Dream Part - YouTube (3:18), including a bowling ball-cam that only sees out of the rotating holes as it rolls down the lane, the pace of the film is pure anarchy where anything goes, where the Dude just goes with the flow, ocasionally arguing with Walter over each other’s strange interpretations, but each new set of circumstances is central to the film having the feel of a mysterious road movie, where the Dude’s car gets a workout following one ridiculous journey after another.  Like an apparition, The Stranger shows up in the middle of a bowling sequence, expanding on his narrative observations directly to the camera even as the Dude is embroiled in his next adventure, where he’s heard near the end proclaiming “The Dude abides.”  John Goodman, however, is the true revelation in this film, as he’s just a giant lug of a man who insists on being the Dude’s right hand protection, a guy who lays it all on the line out of true friendship wherever he goes, where he’s just as likely to fuck things up as save the day.  But what matters is that they’re a team, where the ultimate insult is to threaten quitting the bowling team.  To these guys, that’s heresy.  An exquisitely heartfelt live performance of Townes Van Zandt singing “Dead Flowers” Townes van zandt - Dead Flowers - YouTube (4:48) brings down the curtain to the final end credits.  This is the Coens delivering sheer lunacy.