Slacker DVD Review:

When Michael Moore first screened Slacker at a film festival he proclaimed that he fell asleep at a few points and that he absolutely loved the film.
As I watched Slacker I remember having the same feeling. Richard Linklater’s plot-less film is unique and groundbreaking as well as unbearably slow at
points. It is a film about a group of slackers after all, so there shouldn’t be too much action expected.
When audiences first began to screen the film they seemed to take one of two opinions. They either loved it and thought it a smart social and
satirical film, or they despised it and thought it a self indulgent talk-fest. Neither group was wrong because the film is all of these things.
The only question remaining is whether or not you like it.

The film begins with one of my favorite sequences in which a young man who has just gotten off of a bus explains the dream he has just had to a cab
driver. It is a one sided conversation that plays out more like a theological thesis paper than a conversation, but I was captivated just the
same. From that scene the young man moves along and soon he disappears from the film, never to be seen again. In fact, no character sticks around for more than ten minutes in Slacker, resulting in a cast of over one hundred, none of which are fully developed. They are just characters passing each other throughout the city of Austin Texas. Some of them know each other and
some of them are meeting for the first time, but regardless of their relationship the conversations all seem to feel as though they are coming from the same place, and that place is the mind of Linklater.

Whether it is a film you like or not, there is no question that it is definitely a film which helped in the process of paving the way for independent filmmakers everywhere. If a film with actors that aren’t actors in a story with no story can become a cult classic, then almost anyone with an original idea has a shot of making their film a hit.

Linklater went on to make some huge studio hits such as Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, and School of Rock, but he also continued with the small, seemingly plot-less, dialogue driven films such as Waking Life and Before Sunset. Personally, although I don’t always enjoy Linklater’s films from start to finish, I am always impressed with the originality and inventiveness he takes in the process. Linklater is a filmmaker to be admired by other filmmakers and film lovers from all around for the choices he makes.

Criterion has outdone itself once again with the release of this director approved special edition double disc set. Slacker is presented in its
original, full-frame aspect ratio of 1.33:1, sporting a brand new digital restoration supervised by Richard Linklater and Cinematographer Lee Daniel.
This was all done using the original 16mm film elements and it looks better than I would have ever imagined. As if that weren’t enough, there are a slew of special features that far exceed most DVD releases of even the most highly acclaimed films. There is even Linklater’s feature film debut; It’s
Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books.
Overall it is an extensive package that should be bought by anyone who loved the film. When you buy a Criterion DVD you aren’t just buying a movie,
but also the history within it and Slacker has a rich one.

Special Features
• Disc One:
• Three audio commentaries featuring Richard Linklater and members of the
cast and crew
• Casting tapes featuring select "auditions" from the over one-hundred-member cast, with an essay from production manager/casting director Anne Walker-McBay
• An early film treatment
• Home movies
• Ten-minute trailer for a documentary about the landmark Austin cafe, Les
Anis, which served as location for several scenes in SLACKER
• Stills gallery featuring hundreds of rare behind-the-scenes production and publicity photos
• Disc Two:
• It's Impossible To Learn To Plow By Reading Books (1988), Linklater's first full-length feature, with commentary by the director, available here
for the first time on home video
• Woodshock, an early short 16mm film made by Linklater and Lee Daniel in 1985
• "The Roadmap," the working script of SLACKER, including fourteen deleted scenes and alternate takes
• Footage from the SLACKER tenth-anniversary reunion in Austin, Texas, in 2001
• Original Theatrical Trailer
• Slacker culture essay by Linklater
• Information about the Austin Film Society, founding in 1985 by Linklater with Daniel, including early flyers from screenings
• PLUS: a 64 page booklet featuring essays by author and filmmaker John Pierson (SPIKE MIKE RELOADED: A GUIDED TOUR ACROSS A DECADE OF INDEPENDENT AMERICAN CINEMA) and Michael Barker, heard of Sony Pictures Classics, as well as reviews, production notes, a complete cast and crew listing, and an
introduction to IT'S IMPOSSIBLE TO LEARN TO PLOW BY READING BOOKS by director Monte Hellman (TWO-LANE BLACKTOP, THE SHOOTING.)

Ryan Izay

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