Dazed and Confused (1993)

Some of Hollywood’s hottest young talent cut their teeth on this ultra-hip movie, including Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Milla Jovovich, Ben Affleck and Adam Goldberg. But it’s Jason London and Rory Cochrane who carry this freewheeling story as a couple of high-school wasters on the last day of the summer term, not daring to look beyond the party in the woods that night.

After giving voice to the disconnected youth of Austin, Texas, in his highly influential debut feature, Slacker, director Richard Linklater here defines the same generation as teenagers in 1976 – the year of the American Bicentennial.

Employing a deceptively simple pseudo-documentary style, this is school daze à la Fast Times at Ridgemont High (1982), as opposed to the nostalgic wallowings of such rose-tinted memoirs as American Graffiti (1973).

This is teenage in the raw, with all the attendant angst, arrogance, aggression and amorousness. Every kid who was in your class is in here somewhere.

Rarely have the attractions and distractions of killing time been so well presented. With a superb sense of period (every detail makes you feel like you’ve entered a time machine) and a scorching soundtrack – Kiss, Alice Cooper et al – this honest and incisive portrait of the way we were is both funny and scary and ranks among the very best rock ‘n’ roll high-school movies.

Randy “Pink” Floyd
Jason London
Don Dawson
Sasha Jenson
Slater
Rory Cochrane
Mitch Kramer
Wiley Wiggins
Jodi Kramer
Michelle Burke
Pickford
Shawn Andrews
Tony
Anthony Rapp
Mike
Adam Goldberg
Sabrina
Christin Hinojosa
Michelle
Milla Jovovich
Wooderson
Matthew McConaughey
O’Bannion
Ben Affleck
Simone Kerr
Joey Lauren Adams
Cynthia
Marissa Ribisi
Benny
Cole Hauser
Darla
Parker Posey
Clint
Nicky Katt

Director
Richard Linklater