This film...

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.