zif ofoz
I bought this movie decades ago when it came out on tape! I cannot tell you why I love this movie. Because I don't know why. Why I never included it in my list I don't know."Slacker" is my go-to-movie when I'm overwhelmed with life or just in a funky mood. So I watch this film and it's like good medicine. It makes me feel good, feel better. It's as if Richard Linklater made this for me. I want to be in the world he created for that 24hrs in Austin.I realize some people cannot tune into what's happening in Slacker but the movie makes sense to me.
saylub
Slacker defies categorization. IMDb lists it as Drama and Comedy because they have to put it in a genre. The camera follows one person or group until someone leaves the group thus giving the story the cue to focus on another character that enters the screen. You could say it's a movie about nothing, like how Seinfeld is a show about nothing. It's about normal life, with some of the moments having the potential to be dramatic. These moments are not shot in a dramatic way, however. If Linklater had chosen to do that there would be more emphasis given to one character over another, which the movie is intent on not doing, maintaining a steady pace of moving from one person and situation to another. There is no conflict to be resolved, another reason it makes it hard to consider it a drama. So the movie is more focused on style rather than story. Once you realize that this movie is unconventional you can enjoy it for what it is and what it won't be. As for the comedy aspect, there are moments that I laughed. I couldn't tell whether the moments were meant to be funny, though, which made them even more funny. So it was like my first watching of Napoleon Dynamite, moments I laughed but wasn't sure if they were meant to be funny because it was so weird and unlike anything else I had ever seen. I was impressed with how well they did and how much money they made with the little budget they had. They used hardly anyone with acting experience and yet they were believably real characters. If you like indie or unconventional movies, watch Slacker.
Mike Bozart
I give this movie a 9 just for how unique the story-line (or non- story-line) is. 20-something characters and scenes come and go, seemingly at random in Austin, TX in the early 1990s. The fluid segue technique is like nothing I have seen before. There's some 'Butterfly Effect' sprinkled in. Truly, a one-of-a-kind film. You don't have to be a Gen-X/Y to like it; I'm an old goat, and I loved it and will re-watch it tonight.
deeblowace
Slacker is constructed of a series of loosely connected conversations, and monologues that play out in an extremely natural flow of discussion. There is no typical plot structure, but despite this it manages to tell a story. It encompasses mostly fringe characters with inane, insane, and interesting perspectives on many varying things. Many of the conversations are easy to imagine taking place in real situations regardless of their peculiarity it's a sort of real world peculiarity that many of us have experienced, and plenty of people that I've met match these characters depicted. The way in which most of these people are portrayed also allows for a sense of understanding regardless of their ridiculousness, they convey something incredibly human. It's a movie that makes you realize that there's constantly many stories unfolding all around us, intertwined together. Slacker is among few movies that are able to stand strongly upon dialogue that builds no central plot, but manages to entertain you alone.
AD
