MovieChat Forums > Slacker (1991) Discussion > This film...

This film...

posted 10 years ago by jorowhi
16 replies | jump to latest

I saw this film on Netflix and I had wanted to see it for years, and finally had my chance. I watched it for all of a good 14 minutes before deciding that it's not worth my time to listen to meandering soliloquies that have no ending and no point to them. The dialogue in this film just stretches and meanders for far longer than it needs to, just to express these senseless, pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-philosophical ideas that ultimately mean absolutely nothing. At least with a film like Clerks (which Smith went on record saying is inspired by Slacker), another dialogue-driven film, there's a point to the dialogue. It advances a story. It ends with a point, and the dialogue is humorous and entertaining. Slacker literally has no story to advance, being a film constructed out of a series of mundane vignettes. Even Pulp Fiction connects to reveal an ultimate story through its extensive dialogue, but Slacker is just an exercise in mind-numbing dialogue with no ultimate message. That's at least what I got from the 14 minutes I saw.

I read a review from a viewer who saw the entire film (god bless his soul) and his review was no better than mine.

[–] Struckworld7767 10 years ago

Yeah but you feel like you've just gone on a journey after it's over.

I'm from Paris... TEXAS

[–] Howlin Wolf 8 years ago

A journey into boredom, maybe...



"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"

[–] Scorpio1992 10 years ago

...

Breaking Bad ~ 2008-2013 ~ R.I.P.

[–] zznoory 10 years ago

then you should watch more than just 14 minutes and maybe you'll find it?

[–] fede_4488 9 years ago

So you judge a movie based on the first 14 minutes and you know what it's about and how it doesn't advanced the story and you expect people to take your opinion seriously?

[–] Howlin Wolf 8 years ago

I watched the whole thing, and I don't support not finishing movies - but the kicker of it is that the OP is exactly right, despite only having seen 14 minutes... Whether by luck or design, they have an opinion worth taking seriously, no matter how uninformed it is.



"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"

[–] user-783-894443 8 years ago

Well then it must suck to know that you have an educated opinion. You must have blown off the movie in the first 14 minutes and mentally left at the same time that the OP physically did. You watch an entire movie only to come away with no conclussion and to brush it off? It sounds like youre not a very active viewer. The kind that only can be retained with violence and jump cut action.

You also say that he is spot on with his conclussion, but that's sort of invalid reasoning because there is obviously more than one conclussion to come away with. I think the bountiful reasons that people have praised this film for achieving in its ending is far more properly analyzed and thoughtful than the people who just didn't have the drive to pay attention throughout the film like yourself.

I think if you legitimately tried to analyze the film you would discover that you can come away taking a lot from a film that seems to provide "nothing" to the naked eye.

[–] user-783-894443 8 years ago

*uneducated

[–] chilone (17266) 5 years ago

I wish I had only watched 14 minutes of this tripe.

[–] clockworkorange13 9 years ago

It's a movie about people.

[–] chilone (17266) 6 years ago

If you want to see "people" sit in a bus terminal and watch 'em. It's more exciting than this crap.

[–] PenTheater 8 years ago

just to express these senseless, pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-philosophical ideas that ultimately mean absolutely nothing

but you see, in the end you die, or go to work, or get married, and that's the last page ,.... that it ultimately means absolutely nothing,
Linklater took a slice of that and filmed it. It's not the first or last time that was done.

Ephemeron.

[–] Howlin Wolf 8 years ago

I agree... and I don't demand that films HAVE a point; films can be anything the maker wants them to be... but personally speaking, this film didn't teach me anything, or interest me in any way. Good luck to those who got something out of it, because whatever it was was more than I could discern.



"Your mother puts license plates in your underwear? How do you sit?!"

[–] mobocracy 8 years ago

The dialogue in this film just stretches and meanders for far longer than it needs to, just to express these senseless, pseudo-intellectual, pseudo-philosophical ideas that ultimately mean absolutely nothing.

I think your characterization of the characters' dialog is exactly right, but the genius in this movie is that it's not really about a specific narrative but about the counterculture milieu of the time, almost kind of a documentary. I think it does a great job of this -- I've never been to Austin, but the people depicted here remind me so much of the bohemian/counterculture area I lived in at the same time.

I also think the structure is genius, the series of connected scenes that aren't really connected.