Slacker (film)

Last updated

Slacker
Slackerposter.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Richard Linklater
Written byRichard Linklater
Produced byRichard Linklater
Starring
Cinematography Lee Daniel
Edited byScott Rhodes
Distributed by Orion Classics
Release dates
  • April 21, 1990 (1990-04-21)(USA Film Festival)
  • July 5, 1991 (1991-07-05)(United States)
Running time
97 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$23,000 [2]
Box office$1.2 million [2]

Slacker is a 1990 [3] American comedy drama film written, produced, and directed by Richard Linklater, who also stars in it. Filmed around Austin, Texas on a budget of $23,000, the film follows an ensemble cast of eccentric and misfit locals throughout a single day. Each character is on screen for only a few minutes before the film picks up someone else in the scene and follows them.

Contents

Slacker premiered at the USA Film Festival on April 21, 1990,[ citation needed ] and was released in the United States on July 5, 1991, by Orion Classics. The film received positive reviews from critics and grossed over $1 million against a production budget of $23,000. In 2012, Slacker was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". [4]

Plot

Slacker follows a single day in the life of an ensemble of mostly under-30 bohemians and misfits in Austin, Texas. The film follows various eccentric and misfit characters and scenes, never staying with one character or conversation for more than a few minutes before picking up someone else in the scene and following them. [5]

The characters include Linklater as a talkative taxi passenger, a UFO buff who insists the U.S. has been on the moon since the 1950s, a JFK conspiracy theorist, an elderly anarchist who befriends a man trying to rob his house, a television set collector, and a hipster woman trying to sell a Madonna pap smear. The woman selling the pap smear appears on the film poster, and was played by Butthole Surfers drummer Teresa Taylor. [6]

Most of the characters grapple with feelings of social exclusion or political marginalization, which are recurring themes in their conversations. They discuss social class, terrorism, joblessness, and government control of the media.

Cast

Production

Conception and pre-production

Richard Linklater had founded the Austin Film Society in 1985 with a group of collaborators, including filmmaker Lee Daniel. [9] Despite initial success, the Austin Film Society's business dwindled. Linklater's disappointment was compounded by not being able to distribute his recently completed first feature, the experimental It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books. Linklater began to plan a second feature, to be shot in Galveston, although plans fell through for it when he could not secure funding. He began to consider an idea in which multiple characters are followed by a camera in a relay-race style, an idea he had considered for five years. [10] [11] The earliest treatment of the film comprised linked scenes with different characters, and was tentatively titled No Longer/Not Yet. [12]

Most of the scenes in the treatment grew out of experiences that Linklater had either gone through or was told about by others. For instance, the episode in which a son runs over his own mother was inspired by an incident that occurred near Linklater and Lee Daniel's Austin house. Linklater explained that these ideas were "inspired by or adapted from bookish ideas of pre-existing texts," such as his friend Jack Meredith's short stories, or another friend, Sid Moody's, conspiracy theories. [12] The final scene was inspired by an afternoon Daniel had spent atop the Twin Peaks in San Francisco. Linklater gathered a crew from among the film society. Due to his 16mm Arriflex camera and experience, Daniel became the director of photography, and helped secure a dolly for the film's production borrowed from KLRU, a local TV station. [13]

Slacker did not have an organized casting process. Rather, Linklater employed friends and approached people in the street with off-beat looks or personality. He carefully worked with each actor to shape their roles, carefully constructing the improvisational look of the film. Linklater also cast notable Austinites of the era, such as Louis Black, Abra Moore, and Teresa Taylor of the band Butthole Surfers. [11]

The film was shot in 1989 with a 16 mm Arriflex camera on location in Austin, Texas with a budget of $23,000 ($49,000 in today's dollars [14] ). [2] According to Linklater, the film was shot without permits. They were approached by the police at one point, but were allowed to proceed when Linklater explained they were making a movie. [15]

Release

Slacker premiered at Austin's Dobie Theater on July 27, 1990. [3] [16] [17] Orion Classics acquired Slacker for nationwide distribution, and released a slightly modified 35mm version on July 5, 1991. [17] [18] It did not receive a wide release but went on to become a cult film bringing in a domestic gross of $1.2 million ($2.39 million in today's dollars [14] ). [2]

Critical reception

Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, "Slacker is a movie with an appeal almost impossible to describe, although the method of the director, Richard Linklater, is as clear as day. He wants to show us a certain strata of campus life at the present time". [19] In his review for The New York Times , Vincent Canby wrote, "Slacker is a 14-course meal composed entirely of desserts or, more accurately, a conventional film whose narrative has been thrown out and replaced by enough bits of local color to stock five years' worth of ordinary movies". [20]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an "A−" rating, writing, "Slacker has a marvelously low-key observational cool ... the movie never loses its affectionate, shaggy-dog sense of America as a place in which people, by now, have almost too much freedom on their hands". [21] In his review for the Washington Post , Hal Hinson wrote, "This is a work of scatterbrained originality, funny, unexpected and ceaselessly engaging". [22] Rolling Stone 's Peter Travers wrote, "What Linklater has captured is a generation of bristling minds unable to turn their thoughts into action. Linklater has the gift of a true satirist: He can make laughter catch in the throat". [23]

In his review for the Austin Chronicle , Chris Walters wrote, "Few of the many films shot in Austin over the past 10 or 15 years even attempt to make something of the way its citizens live. Slacker is the only one I know of that claims this city's version of life on the margins of the working world as its whole subject, and it is one of the first American movies ever to find a form so apropos to the themes of disconnectedness and cultural drift". [18] Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, "Though set in the '90s, Slacker has a spirit that is pure '60s, and in this loping, loopy, sidewise, delightful comedy, Austin is Haight-Ashbury". [24]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 82% based on 45 reviews, and an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Slacker rests its shiftless thumb on the pulse of a generation with fresh filmmaking that captures the tenor of its time while establishing a benchmark for 1990s indie cinema." [25] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". [26]

American Film Institute recognition:

Home media

Slacker was released on VHS in June 1992 by Orion Home Video. An estimated 7,000 copies were shipped (it was also released on LaserDisc, but a reliable estimate of units shipped is lacking). A book also titled Slacker containing the screenplay, interviews, and writing about the film was published by St. Martin's Press, also in 1992. The film was re-released on VHS on March 7, 2000, by MGM. The film was released to DVD worldwide on January 13, 2003.[ citation needed ] A two-disc Criterion Collection boxed-set edition was released on August 31, 2004, in the US and Canada only. The set has many "extras", including a book on the film and Linklater's first feature film, It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books , released on home video for the first time. Entertainment Weekly gave this edition an "A−" rating. [28]

Impact and legacy

The release of the film is often taken as a starting point (along with the earlier Sex, Lies, and Videotape ) for the independent film movement of the 1990s. Many of the independent filmmakers of that period credit the film with inspiring or opening doors for them, including Kevin Smith, who has said that the film was the inspiration for Clerks . [29]

Linklater has said that he wanted the word to have positive connotations. For example, in a self-interview in the Austin Chronicle, Linklater stated: "Slackers might look like the left-behinds of society, but they are actually one step ahead, rejecting most of society and the social hierarchy before it rejects them. The dictionary defines slackers as people who evade duties and responsibilities. A more modern notion would be people who are ultimately being responsible to themselves and not wasting their time in a realm of activity that has nothing to do with who they are or what they might be ultimately striving for." [30]

In the early 1990s, Slacker was widely considered an accurate depiction of Generation X because the film's young adult characters are more interested in quasi-intellectual pastimes and socializing than career advancement. Linklater—who is a member of the "Baby Boom" generation—has long since eschewed the role of generational spokesperson. Moreover, Slacker includes members of various generations, and many of its themes are universal rather than generation-specific. [31]

Slacker 2011

In 2011, to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Slacker's release, Daniel Metz and Lars Nilsen of the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain developed a remake of the film, titled Slacker 2011, which is an anthology film in which each segment of the original film is remade as a segment written and directed by a different filmmaker or filmmaking team. [32] Altogether 26 directors were involved in the film, including Bradley Beesley, Bob Byington, Michael Dolan, Jay Duplass, Geoff Marslett, PJ Raval, Bob Ray, Duane Graves, Ben Steinbauer and David Zellner. [33] Some segments are word-for-word remakes, while others are only loosely based on their source material. [32] The film was produced by Alamo Drafthouse and the Austin Film Society. [32] Linklater was not involved in the project, although he approved of the idea, saying, "It would be against the slacker ethic to not give one’s blessing to someone else's weird inspiration." [32]

Works cited

See also

Related Research Articles

A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic.

<i>Waking Life</i> 2001 American film

Waking Life is a 2001 American animated film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film explores a wide range of philosophical issues, including the nature of reality, dreams and lucid dreams, consciousness, the meaning of life, free will, and existentialism. It is centered on a young man who wanders through a succession of dreamlike realities wherein he encounters a series of people who engage in insightful philosophical discussions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Johnston</span> American musician (1961–2019)

Daniel Dale Johnston was an American singer, musician and artist regarded as a significant figure in outsider, lo-fi, and alternative music scenes. Most of his work consisted of cassettes recorded alone in his home, and his music was frequently cited for its "pure" and "childlike" qualities.

<i>Dazed and Confused</i> (film) 1993 film by Richard Linklater

Dazed and Confused is a 1993 American coming-of-age comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater. The film follows a variety of teenagers on the last day of school in Austin, Texas in 1976. The film has no single protagonist or central conflict, rather following interconnected plot threads among different social groups and characters, such as rising ninth graders undergoing hazing rituals, a football star's refusal to sign a clean living pledge for his coach, and various characters hanging out at a pool hall. The film features a large ensemble cast of actors who would later become stars, including Jason London, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich, Cole Hauser, Parker Posey, Adam Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey, Nicky Katt, Joey Lauren Adams, and Rory Cochrane.

<i>Austin Stories</i> American TV series or program

Austin Stories is an American sitcom that aired on MTV from September 10, 1997 until January 7, 1998. It aired Wednesday nights at 10:30 pm. The show aired twelve episodes filmed on location in Austin, Texas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Linklater</span> American film director, producer and screenwriter (born 1960)

Richard Stuart Linklater is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is known for making films that deal thematically with suburban culture and the effects of the passage of time. His films include the comedies Slacker (1990) and Dazed and Confused (1993); the Before trilogy of romance films: Before Sunrise (1995), Before Sunset (2004), and Before Midnight (2013); the music-themed comedy School of Rock (2003); the adult animated films Waking Life (2001), A Scanner Darkly (2006), and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022); the coming-of-age drama Boyhood (2014); and the comedy film Everybody Wants Some!! (2016).

<i>Before Sunrise</i> 1995 film by Richard Linklater

Before Sunrise is a 1995 romantic drama film directed by Richard Linklater and co-written by Linklater and Kim Krizan. The first installment in the Before trilogy, it follows Jesse and Céline as they meet on a Eurail train and disembark in Vienna to spend the night together.

<i>A Scanner Darkly</i> (film) 2006 American film

A Scanner Darkly is a 2006 American adult animated science fiction thriller film written and directed by Richard Linklater; it is based on the 1977 novel of the same name by Philip K. Dick. The film tells the story of identity and deception in a near-future dystopia constantly under intrusive high-tech police surveillance in the midst of a drug addiction epidemic.

Slacker rock is a loosely defined genre of indie rock and lo-fi music that originated in the United States in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

The Austin Film Society (AFS) is a non-profit film society based in Austin, Texas. Founded in 1985 to exhibit independent, experimental, foreign and various other non-mainstream art films, the film society has grown from just film exhibition to fostering independent filmmaking in Texas and has served as a cornerstone in building the film industry in Austin. The film society also owns and maintains Austin Studios, hosts the annual Texas Film Awards gala, and oversees the Austin Film Society grant program. The film society was founded by film director Richard Linklater, who currently serves on the board as artistic director. Other notable members on the board and advisory board include Tim McCanlies, Robert Rodriguez, Charles Burnett, Guillermo del Toro, Jonathan Demme, Mike Judge, John Sayles, Steven Soderbergh, Paul Stekler and Quentin Tarantino.

Teresa Taylor, also known as Teresa Nervosa, was an American musician and actress. She was best known as a drummer for the American experimental rock band Butthole Surfers.

<i>Boyhood</i> (2014 film) 2014 film directed by Richard Linklater

Boyhood is a 2014 American epic coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Richard Linklater, and starring Patricia Arquette, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater, and Ethan Hawke. Filmed from 2002 to 2013, Boyhood depicts the childhood and adolescence of Mason Evans Jr. (Coltrane) from ages six to eighteen as he grows up in Texas with divorced parents. Richard Linklater's daughter Lorelei plays Mason's sister, Samantha.

Ed Hall was a noise rock band formed in Austin, Texas, United States in 1985. The band played a mix of post-hardcore and psychedelic rock and was described by Trouser Press as "Austin's resident heirs to the Butthole Surfers' weird-rock crown". Ed Hall was a trio not containing any member of that name; Gary Chester handled guitar duties, with Larry Strub on bass. Drumming on the band's first two albums was handled by Kevin Whitley, who was replaced by Lyman Hardy until the group dissolved.

Lee Cavender Daniel is an American cinematographer. He was born in Dallas, Texas. His best known films are Boyhood and Dazed and Confused, both directed by Richard Linklater. Daniel has worked on many of Linklater's films and worked with Linklater as a co-founder of the Austin Film Society. He is a graduate of the University of Texas at Austin. He helped his brother Bill Daniel on the underground hobo culture film Who is Bozo Texino?.

Glass Eye were an influential art rock group based in Austin, Texas, and were primarily active from 1983 to 1993. Popular in Austin, and on the college radio and tour circuit, the band's unusual and unique musical style, blending melodic hooks with dissonance and occasional tendencies for the avant-garde, delighted critics. Considered "one of Austin's most popular and influential bands", their commercial success never matched their critical acclaim. Through self-release, and being signed to Wrestler and Bar/None Records, they released four LPs, two EPs and one single, and when the band regrouped in 2006, they released their previously lost final LP, Every Woman's Fantasy, on their own label, Glass Eye Records.

<i>Bernie</i> (2011 film) 2011 American film

Bernie is a 2011 American biographical black comedy crime film directed by Richard Linklater, and written by Linklater and Skip Hollandsworth. The film stars Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine and Matthew McConaughey. It is based on Hollandsworth's January 1998 article, "Midnight in the Garden of East Texas", published in Texas Monthly magazine. It explores the 1996 murder of 81-year-old millionaire Marjorie Nugent (MacLaine) in Carthage, Texas, by her 39-year-old companion, Bernhardt "Bernie" Tiede (Black).

<i>Everybody Wants Some!!</i> (film) 2016 film by Richard Linklater

Everybody Wants Some!! is a 2016 American teen comedy film written and directed by Richard Linklater, about college baseball players in 1980s Texas. The film stars Blake Jenner, Zoey Deutch, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Glen Powell, Will Brittain, and Wyatt Russell. It had its world premiere at South by Southwest on March 11, 2016, and was theatrically released in the United States on March 30, 2016, by Paramount Pictures. The film grossed $5.4 million against a $10 million budget, making it a box-office bomb, but was critically acclaimed.

<i>Before</i> trilogy Romance trilogy by Richard Linklater

The Before Trilogy consists of three American romance films directed by Richard Linklater, and starring Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy. Beginning with Before Sunrise (1995), and continuing with two sequels, Before Sunset (2004) and Before Midnight (2013). The films were all written by Linklater, along with Kim Krizan on the first film, and with Hawke and Delpy on the last two.

<i>Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood</i> 2022 animated film by Richard Linklater

Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood is a 2022 American animated coming of age comedy-drama film set during the events preceding the Apollo 11 Moon landing, loosely based on the childhood of writer, director, and producer Richard Linklater. It presents a fictional tale of a fourth-grader who becomes the first person to land on the Moon and stars Glen Powell, Jack Black, Zachary Levi and Josh Wiggins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Duane Graves</span> American film director, screenwriter, and editor

Duane Graves is an American film director, writer, producer, cinematographer and editor who has produced a body of work spanning multiple genres. In 2023, Deadline Hollywood announced he was named one of Coverfly's best up and coming screenwriters. His career began with the documentary Up Syndrome, which premiered at the Slamdance Film Festival in 2001. A portrait of his childhood friend born with Down syndrome, Up Syndrome won numerous awards, including the National Media Award from the National Down Syndrome Congress in 2002, and the Grand Prize at the 2006 Movies Askew Film Festival hosted by Clerks (film) director Kevin Smith. He formed Greeks Films with film school peer, actor and filmmaking partner Justin Meeks in 2001.

References

  1. ↑ "Slacker (15)". British Board of Film Classification . November 16, 1992. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Slacker at Box Office Mojo
  3. 1 2 Whittaker, Richard (July 24, 2020). "In 1990, Austin Audiences Watched Slacker... and Saw Themselves". Austin Chronicle . Austin, Texas: Austin Chronicle Corp. Retrieved October 13, 2022. It's a conspiracy. Whatever IMDB or Wikipedia tells you, don't believe it. Slacker did not open on July 5, 1991. That's the corporate line they want you to swallow.… On July 27, 1990, Slacker opened on one of the two screens at the now-defunct Dobie Theater, in the food court on the second floor of the 27-story Dobie Center dorms, just off the UT-Austin campus at the end of the section of Guadalupe known as the Drag.
  4. ↑ King, Susan (December 19, 2012). "National Film Registry selects 25 films for preservation". Los Angeles Times . Los Angeles, California. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
  5. ↑ "Slacker". The Criterion Collection .
  6. ↑ Raftery, Brian (July 5, 2006). "Slacker: 15 years later". Salon.com . San Francisco, California: Salon Media Group . Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Frank Orrall". IMDb. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
  8. ↑ "Sarah Harmon". IMDb. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
  9. ↑ Macor 2010, p. 90
  10. ↑ Macor 2010, pp. 93-94
  11. 1 2 Horton, Robert (1990). "Stranger Than Texas". Film Comment. 26 (4): 77–78. ISSN   0015-119X.
  12. 1 2 Macor 2010, p. 95
  13. ↑ Macor 2010, p. 96
  14. 1 2 Johnston, Louis; Williamson, Samuel H. (2023). "What Was the U.S. GDP Then?". MeasuringWorth . Retrieved November 30, 2023. United States Gross Domestic Product deflator figures follow the MeasuringWorth series.
  15. ↑ O'Neal, Sean (July 20, 2021). "Thirty Years After 'Slacker,' the Film Is an Austin Time Capsule—And a Hopeful Tribute to Its Spirit". Texas Monthly. Retrieved June 24, 2023.
  16. ↑ Black, Louis (October 3, 2003). "'The Austin Chronicle' and Richard Linklater". Austin Chronicle . Austin, Texas: Austin Chronicle Corp. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  17. 1 2 Baumgarten, Marjorie (June 29, 2001). "Slack Where We Started". Austin Chronicle . Austin, Texas: Austin Chronicle Corp. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  18. 1 2 Walters, Chris (July 5, 1991). "Slacker (review)". Austin Chronicle . Austin, Texas: Austin Chronicle Corp. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  19. ↑ Ebert, Roger (August 23, 1991). "Slacker". Chicago Sun-Times . Chicago, Illinois: Sun-Times Media Group . Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  20. ↑ Canby, Vincent (March 22, 1991). "Some Texas Eccentrics and Aunt Hallie". The New York Times . New York City. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  21. ↑ Gleiberman, Owen (August 2, 1991). "Slacker". Entertainment Weekly . New York City: Meredith Corporation . Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  22. ↑ Hinson, Hal (August 23, 1991). "Slacker". Washington Post . Washington DC: Nash Holdings LLC. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  23. ↑ Travers, Peter (July 11, 1991). "Slacker". Rolling Stone . New York City: Wenner Media LLC. Archived from the original on May 31, 2011. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
  24. ↑ Corliss, Richard (July 29, 1991). "Cinema & '90s". Time . New York City: Meredith Corporation. Archived from the original on November 23, 2007. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  25. ↑ "Slacker (1991)". Rotten Tomatoes . Los Angeles, California: Fandango Media . Retrieved August 21, 2023.
  26. ↑ "Slacker Reviews". Metacritic . San Francisco, California: CBS Interactive . Retrieved March 20, 2018.
  27. ↑ "AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs Nominees" (PDF). American Film Institute. Archived from the original (PDF) on March 13, 2011. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
  28. ↑ Willman, Chris (September 17, 2004). "Slacker". Entertainment Weekly . New York City: Meredith Corporation. Archived from the original on April 25, 2009. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
  29. ↑ Jolie, Lash (August 1, 2021). "Kevin Smith marks 51st birthday by kicking off filming of 'Clerks 3'". EW.com. Retrieved September 14, 2022.
  30. ↑ Kopkind, Andrew (1992). "Slacking Toward Bethlehem". Grand Street . No. 44. pp. 176–178.
  31. ↑ Speed, Lesley (Fall 2007). "The Possibilities of Roads Not Taken". Journal of Popular Film & Television . 35 (3). London, England: Taylor and Francis: 103. doi:10.3200/JPFT.35.3.98-106. S2CID   191613990.
  32. 1 2 3 4 Kelly, Christopher (July 3, 2011). "20 Years On, It's Déjà Vu for 'Slacker' and Austin". The New York Times.
  33. ↑ Goldberg, Matt (May 3, 2011). "23 Austin Filmmakers to Remake Richard Linklater's SLACKER in Honor of Film's 20th Anniversary". Collider.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.