Basic plot: It’s 1976 in some high school in some city in some state. And school is out for the first night of summer.
I went to see the awesome Adventureland last weekend with a friend of mine. Afterwards when we were talking about just how great it was, he said it reminded him a lot of Dazed and Confused, which I had never seen though I had been meaning to for quite a while. So figuring I’d enjoy it if it was even sort of as good as Adventureland, I bumped up on my priority list (aka Netflix Queue).
A couple weeks ago, I made a pretty bold statement that I generally didn’t care for high school movies. Following the last couple movies I’ve watched, I’d like to adjust that statement to the following:
I generally don’t care for high school movies that mostly take place inside a high school during normal school hours.
A nit-picky complaint? Yes. But that isn’t the point. It’s going to take a hell of a lot more than two movies to make me completely back-pedal a statement. If you can’t tell where this is going, I loved Dazed and Confused. Also, Dazed and Confused does not take place during school hours. Loop-hole.
I think one of my favorite things about this was the way people treated each other. Maybe the 70s were awesome or maybe this is one of those fantasy high-school movies I mentioned in The Breakfast Club review, but either way I liked that for once, things seemed way less clique-y. Sure, the seniors are complete dicks to the freshman in the name of tradition, but at the end of the day when everyone’s having a beer and a game of pool, they’re all just kids hanging out. It felt like more of a college attitude than high school to me.
I also loved the fact that there isn’t a main character. It’s just about all these different kids enjoying the first night of their summer vacation together. Most of the cast is great – in fact, the only person that annoyed the living shit out of me was the little brother baseball player kid. Everyone else sold the setting with little trouble.
The writing is really funny in a subtle, realistic way, and the soundtrack was absolutely perfect. If it wasn’t for that stupid kid, I don’t think I’d have one single complaint about this movie. The movie seems to market itself solely as a movie for potheads, and while there is pot throughout, it’s definitely not a prerequisite to have a good time with this.
I need to buy it.
April 19th, 2009 at 7:33 am
You should’ve came with me and Fiedler to the Enzian that one time in Florida. It was pretty cool watching it up on the big screen.
Why don’t you like the little brother? I can’t see him doing anything THAT annoying.
I think you need to give “high school movies” another chance. You’re judging them all based on a few, then making exceptions and rules and it’s just easier to say you like some and hate some.
I think this movie didnt seem cliquey bc it was the first day of summer and everyone was just happy to party. When I was in high school, we had the same sort of comradary, where we’d all be hanging out (athletes, freaks, and geeks alike) in the back of Bay Park on the baseball bleachers. But I bet after the movie is over, the rest of that summer would be more cliquey that first party night.
April 19th, 2009 at 8:37 am
See, though, with seeing at the Enzian I figured fans weren’t the best people to watch it with for the first time and even you said that there were quite a few people talking. That would have driven me crazy.
The little brother was just a horrible actor. The character and the writing behind him were fine, but that was awful casting. My bigger question is whether “Shake your head in disbelief, constantly” was his own idea or the best the director could give him.
As for high school movies, I’m really just being stubborn about going against my word at this point. I think the problem is less that I dislike the genre as a whole and more that it’s an easy genre to make a movie I won’t like in. Like Sci-Fi – there are a dozen sci-fi movies I absolutely love and consider among my favorite movies ever, but as a genre it’s still way towards the bottom for me.
April 21st, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Great film. I saw this for the first time at a run-down Dollar theater with a few friends and few others, and it really captured me in a weird way. I really dig it everytime I see it.
“Do you have a joint?”
“No”
“You’d be a lot cooler if you did”
“That’s why I love these high school chicks: I get older, they stay the same age”