Someone I know who also writes a blog has given herself a challenge of watching a lot of films over the summer, and then reviewing them (‘Summer of Film’). As a university film student, and an aspiring filmmaker, I already watch a lot of films, and have wanted to write more about film on this blog for a while. I have thus decided to do a similar challenge, as there are still many films I have not seen that I intend to see. I will commence this side project by reviewing “Slacker” (dir. Richard Linklater, 1990), which Empire named as the 20th greatest independent film of all time.
I found this film to be highly influenced by Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing”. However, I believe that “Slackers” in turn influenced Quentin Tarantino’s “Pulp Fiction”; all three involve spaghetti narratives of different tales across a particular city/borough; Brooklyn, New York (“Do the Right Thing”), Los Angeles, California (“Pulp Fiction”), and Austin, Texas, in the case of “Slacker”.
In “Pulp Fiction” the tales intertwine within a non-linear structure; the plot revolves around a stolen suitcase with unknown contents. In “Do the Right Thing”, the plot is more condensed mainly staying with Spike Lee’s character, due to its location being more confined than the other two (it takes place in one neighbourhood; Bedford-Stuyvesant). In “Slackers”, however, the tales do not intertwine. Once we have heard from a particular group of characters we do not hear from them again. There seems to be no particular plot line. From what I have read about the Italian director Michelangelo Antonioni, this approach seems to have been inspired by him to a certain extent (and also by French New Wave director Jean Luc Godard); it is like real life in which there is also no definitive structure, apart from the basic normalities of everyday experience. Antonioni and Godard’s films tend to focus on a much smaller group of characters though. Because of the ensemble cast, with no lead characters, this is a refreshing piece of cinema which follows various misfits and bohemians.
My favourite scene is at beginning of the film; it features the director’s character, ‘Should Have Stayed at Bus Station’. This character talks to the taxi driver about various different parallel universes and alternate realities that could possibly be created (he formed a theory relating to this in a dream he had the night before this particular taxi ride); a lot of what happens in our lives depends on the choices we make, the people we meet, and luck. If we made different choices we would meet different people, and we may be lucky or unlucky along the way also. The passenger believes he ‘Should Have Stayed at (the) Bus Station’. The taxi driver does not respond once to the passenger’s conversation; if the passenger got in another taxi, he would have had a different taxi driver, who may have been more appreciative of his theory.
Note: Another thing shared between this film, “Do the Right Thing” and “Pulp Fiction”, is that they all feature their directors; Tarantino and Linklater have small cameos, whereas Lee has the lead role.
Rating (out of 5): I was thinking perhaps giving 3.5, as there are times when the film becomes a little bit boring, but as I mentioned, it is about the normalities of everyday life; not just for one particular person – for various different people. As it features so many different people for only a few minutes each at most, you know that there will be an engaging scene just around the corner (such as the one with the UFO conspiracy theorist). For the pure innovations in the film making, and also because I believe that people should watch it, I am going to give it a 4.
You can watch the film on youtube for free, with the link provided below:
Slacker
