I felt this site was needed, because Richard Linklater seems to get so little recognition for the films he has made. Dazed and Confused gets dismissed as just another “drug comedy.” Slacker lacks anything that could be considered a plot. Before Sunrise and Before Sunset are just cheesy love stories with too much dialogue. A Scanner Darkly is just another Keanu Reeves action film. Waking Life can only be enjoyed by philosophy majors.

Ok, as a Linklater fan, I’ve heard it all. A large portion of the general movie-going audience just doesn’t “get” Linklater. Of course Slacker didn’t have a main plot, that was kind of the point. Note the name of the film. It was a commentary on the public sentiment at the time, and it was a groundbreaking movie that opened the door for the independent film movement of the 90’s.

Dazed and Confused will forever be plagued by its title. Anyone who writes this movie off as just another stoner flick wasn’t paying attention. This movie is nothing like the Cheech & Chong films that were popular in the previous decades. If it could be compared to any movie, that movie would be American Graffiti, considered by many critics to be a timeless classic. Both movies are aimless, and they like it that way.

I’ll get into some other Linklater films in the coming weeks, including more information about his upcoming Fast Food Nation (yes, it’s based on the non-fiction bestseller that didn’t even try to include a plot). I’ll also be posting some video clips from comparable films and trailers for every Linklater film to date.