NOTE: This review was originally completed for Whole Earth
Review, but by the time we got it together, it was no longer �timely.�
-- jonl
Slacker
Richard Linklater (Foreword by Douglas Coupland)
Reviewed by Jon Lebkowsky
$14.95 from St. Martin's Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY
10010
The film _Slacker_ was made on the fly in Austin, Texas, specifically
in an extropic pocket near the University of Texas, where a thriving,
slightly whacky counterculture has existed practically forever in the
shadow of Texas Tower, the landmark best known as sniper Charles
Whitman's deer blind. Had you asked me if anyone could have
captured, on film or otherwise, the strangeness of this scene, I would
have shaken my head and heaved a sigh. But Rick Linklater has done
it, he's made a film every bit as surreal as its subject, and he's given
these post-hippie post-punkoids a label, slacker, and an identity to go
with it. And it turns out that a new "lost" generation, also called
"Generation X" after Doug Coupland's book, found resonance in the
slacker meme, the concept and the film's reknown have spread
beyond Linklater's or anybody's wildest expectations.
The _Slacker_ filmbook includes background info on Austin's
alternative cultures, an outline and transcript of the film, a
compilation of Linklater's interviews, and profiles of the cast
members. The book's worth buying for the profiles alone, a kind of
collective biography of a postmodern counterculture which is
incredibly diverse. Though I appreciate Linklater's experimental
verve and his wit, it is these characters that keep bringing me back to
the film for repeated viewings.
From another perspective, the book provides valuable documentation
for the aspiring underground filmmaker. Linklater assembled his film
against all odds, only the strength of his vision and commitment,
along with the oversight of various angels who provided
psychoeconomic support, saw him through. One can imagine armies
of shoestring cinematic artists completing their first projects only
because they read this book's chronicle of what can be done with a
little ingenuity and a lot of chutzpah.
EXCERPTS:
In a very short time, I went from thinking (as I had been told over
and over again) that my generation had nothing to say to thinking
that it not only had everything to say but was saying it in a
completely new way. It was a multitiude of voices coexisting and
combining and all adding up to something that certainly "meant"
something but couldn't easily be classified. Each individual had to
find it in their onw way and in the only place society had left for this
discovery -- the margins. I think that's where _Slacker_ takes place --
the accredited sources of information or the image we officially have
of ourselves as a society. This seems the place where the actual buzz
of life goes on, where the conspiracies, schizophrenia, melancholy,
and exuberance all battle it out, daily.
Once I fully submerged myself in the casting search and interviews,
there was little or no escape. Some days I really thought I would go
out of my mind. In every interaction and in every conversation,
someone was violently hammering their thoughts at me. Innocent
discussion became impossible, and I began to wonder if I would ever
be able to casually relate to the world again. It is one thing to watch
the film for two hours, but imagine yourself trapped within it.
Suddenly I was one of the crackpots passionately trying to impose my
vision on the unsuspecting. [Anne Walker-McBay]
Strangely enough, Steve and I really got into our characters that
night, even when we weren't being filmed, as evidenced by our
sniping at one another. In the middle of the night while still waiting
to film, Annick, Steve, and I went on a caffeine run that was
frighteningly similar to the van scene, during which Steve delivered
an absurd monologue while I rolled my eyes until I finally snapped
and voiced my disdain. I heard that crew members couldn't tell
whether we were kidding or not, and I certainly didn't know. [Kim
Krizan]
