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All Flixster 4.0 Stars (1846) Want To See 881 Not Interested 3467
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Waking Life (100%)

Plot: Richard Linklater's 1991 cult classic gives viewers surreal slices of what it's like to be a twenty-something in the college town of Austin, Texas. Told through a series of vignettes starring Linklate...( read more read more... )r himself, Rudy Basquez, Keith McCormack, Jean Caffeine, Stephan and Jan Hockey, Bob Boyd and Mark James, the film includes a strange meditation on Madonna's pap smear; a conspiracy theorist riffing on the United States government; and more.


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Recent Reviews


  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    September 2, 2008
    Working on Same Painting: Sorry, I'm late.
    Having a Breakthrough Day: That's okay, time doesn't exist.

    The first film written and directed by Richard Linklater, this is a uniquely-structured and plotless film, following a single day in the life of an ensemble of mostly twenty-somethings in Austin. The film follows various 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.

    Old Anarchist: And remember: the passion for destruction is also a creative passion.

    The movie is literally about nothing. We meet a whole assortment of characters, never see them again after their scenes consisting of either banter or dialog, and the movie eventually ends without having any standard structure. This is the kind of things some cult films are made of.

    Disgruntled Grad Student: Every action is a positive action, even if it has a negative result.

    Obviously done very cheaply and with no professional actors, the movie still manages to work due to the fact that the dialog is interesting, sometimes funny, but consistently approached in some sort of surrealist manner.

    Hitchhiker: Every single commodity you produce is a piece of your own death!

    This was one of the several films in the 90s that brought in the wave of independent films to wider audiences. It is also the film that inspired Kevin Smith to become a filmmaker. These points do not necessarily mean anything, but in terms of relating it somehow to someone, this is the kind of movie it is.

    Nothing happens, but it is filled with conversations that are interesting and intriguing. Yep, that is what will pass as a recommendation.

    Has Conquered Fear of Rejection: Do you have a car?
    S-T-E-V-E with a Van: Do you have a car, I have *a van*, lets go!
  • Not Interested
    MCT:
    August 26, 2008
    I turned it off about 1hr 10mins in which according to IMDb.com is better then most, If you liked Waking Life by the same director you are going to love it, but it was rediculously dull for me and annoying seeing as i was told this was similar to Dazed and Confused of which it was nothing alike.
  • 2.5 Stars
    MCT:
    July 12, 2008
    For a plotless movie this was actually nice. The constant flow of characters and conversations give many cool moments (the JFK conspiracy theorist, the woman trying to sell a Madonna memorabilia, elderly anarchist who befriends a man trying to burglarize his house, to name a few). It's one of the first indie movies along with "Sex, Lies and Videotape".
  • 5.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 27, 2008
    I you liked the sprawling narrative of "Waking Life", you will love "Slacker" which takes mid 20's early 90's Texas collegiate aimlessness and makes it into minimalist cinematic poetry. Some vignettes don't work as well as other's, but taken all together it's a phenomenal film.

    However I bought the Criterion Collection version of this because it came with Linklater's first unreleased film "You Can't Learn To Plow By Reading Books", which is without a doubt the most boring thing I have ever seen. It's pretty much just the director staring out of some windows as he takes a trip around Texas. Do not watch it, and do not pay the extra price for it. Rent it, not worth it.

    That being said "Slacker" is one of my favorite films, and one which helped start the "indie" film revolution of the 90's. Great smart, hip, poetic, funny stuff, that was and is emblematic of a generation. "Wanna see something cool....it's like...a... Madonna Pap Smear...man the real thing....the real Madonna!"
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 15, 2008
    My only problem with this film is that a lot of the characters talk like stoned intellectual art students and it gets a bit samey. However, there's so many little stories in here that your bound to like SOME of it
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 15, 2008
    What to do with a camera and some time to kill in Austin, Texas...make a classic and top it with some Super-8!!
  • 5.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 8, 2008
    this is film as art. absolutely wonderful & miraculous. the performances in this film blow my mind. a definitive gen-x masterpiece.
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 7, 2008
    One of Richard Linklater's first movies, this was a movie with no plot, but based on conversation. It starts with a guy getting into a taxi and talking about his dreams, and he gets out of the cab and see's a girl get hit by a car, the camera then follows a person in another car who tries to help them, then follows the next person and the whole movie just moves from one person to the next. Film quality was average, and I thought that Waking Life was much better at doing the conversational thing without having much of a plot, so this one only got a 5.5. Most of the time I just listened to the movie because all the people were doing was walking around or sitting down talking.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    May 11, 2008
    I may completely forget about this or it may become one of my favorite movies ever. There's really no in between. We'll see.
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    March 27, 2008
    The premise of the movie rocks. Richard Linklater is a little too in love with his pseudo-philosophical babble.
  • 2.5 Stars
    MCT:
    March 9, 2008
    I will bet hard-earned cash that there is no way this movie holds up to my memory of it. I was 18, this was indie, and that's all I cared about.
  • 2.0 Stars
    MCT:
    March 3, 2008
    I get the historical importance of this film in the 90's indie movement...but the film itself? Painful!
  • 5.0 Stars
    MCT:
    February 18, 2008
    A debut as refreshing as Jean-Luc Godard's "Breathless"(1960). The little-to-no production values on this tiny film by Austin TX HERO Richard Linklater will turn off most average moviegoers, but cinephiles and young filmmakers will embrace it's brave unconventional narrative and it's gung-ho D.I.Y. mentality. Like "American Graffiti"(1973) and "Medium Cool"(1968) - "Slacker"(1991) captures the spirit of a time and a place in American history. No other film has depicted Austin's drop-out culture with more sincerity and wit than Linklater's feature film debut..
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    December 1, 2007
    In Slacker, Linklater has crafted his ultimate indie opus. His film is a portrait of a certain type of people living on the back roads and travelling through the main streets of Austin, Texas. We explore Linklater's Generation X style subjects by jumping from one person to the next, never focusing on one for more than a few minutes before we meet the next on our journey. It's a compelling style, no plot and no main characters, and bold as well; long takes and smooth camera sweeps are prevolant, and pulled off really perfectly. Audacity isn't enough to motivate a 100 minute movie though, and Linklater keeps us watching with a series of humorously presented plights, from absurd television collectors to everday car fanatics to fanatic conspiracists. The color in the people of Slacker is enough to paint the screen completely. Linklater claims he wasn't out to make a portrait of a generation, but it's hard to deny it now. Not only did his film held define the next decade for independent cinema, it helped show us the positive side of the word Slacker, and grow to love these twenty-something faux-philosophers in a way... even if we still absolutely loath a few of the self-indulgent fucks.
  • 5.0 Stars
    MCT:
    November 24, 2007
    When I first saw Slacker, I knew I was seeing quite possibly the best film about the United States I ever saw. Austin is used as a microcosm between an incredible cast of characters living within the same social setting with radically different views of the world. In breakneck speed, Linklater whisks us through dialogues about life, philosophy, politics, and the US that define paradigms of generations. A daring debut by Linklater and his classic.
  • 4.5 Stars
    MCT:
    November 23, 2007
    Richard Linklater's first film....a collection of really deep, really awesome conversations. Don't look for much plot, just.....take it in. Quite awesome as well as its "sequel" WAKING LIFE.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    October 29, 2007
    Innovative and daring. While the film doesn't always work as well as you'd hope, Linklater is fearless in showing the make-up of a small slice of Austin.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    October 26, 2007
    Watching it straight through is kind of draining, but damn I love this movie. Pretentious? Yes. Meandering? Yes. Slack-y? Yes. I think I can place a lot of the blame for my lack of ambition on discovering this movie in high school. For the longest time I had no goal in life beyond being one of these flannel wearing, coffeehouse misanthropes.

    Yes, the overnight part of the movie drags, but good God!!! The ending is just transcendent. Epic, even.
  • 4.5 Stars
    MCT:
    August 22, 2007
    The American independent film of the 1990's. A disjointed series of Americans talking about their beliefs and philosophies all thrown together into one film makes this into one strange, intriguing watch.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 23, 2007
    Waking Life is definitely the spiritual sequel to this movie. This is a great glimpse into the philosophy of the lazy college kid.
  • 4.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 17, 2007
    I don't remember much about this movie but it seemed good at the time and I enjoy Linklater a lot. Check it out. Maybe I'll watch it again.
  • 3.5 Stars
    MCT:
    June 13, 2007
    Great concept, but leaves you wondering what is the rest of the cast doing when they leave the screen. Introduces a lot of concepts and is up to the viewer to bring closure to the subjects.
  • 3.0 Stars
    MCT:
    June 6, 2007
    a good independant film, but i wasn't amazed by it. This movie gets credit because it brought back interest in independant films during the early ninties, but there are much better one's out there that blow it away.

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Details


  • Rated: (R)
  • Directed by: Richard Linklater
  • Genres: Art House & International, Comedy
  • Released: December 31, 1991
  • DVD Released: September 14, 2004

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