Beers, drugs, hazing rituals, and unchecked rebelliousness mark the last day of high school circa May 1976, Texas, as Linklater expertly drops us in the middle of the chaos, with a killer rock soundtrack to boot.

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Richard Linklater really hit a hat-trick of critical wins in the early ‘90s with Slacker (1990) and Before Sunrise (1995), with Dazed and Confused stuck in between like some problem middle child without any aims in life, but gleefully immersed in the present. 

That present is May 1976, and that existential aimlessness (not loneliness) reaches its zenith on the last day of school before the summer break starts. 

Everyone gathers in duos, trios, quartets, and more, as makeshift, often circumstantial, permutations of friendship dynamics play out across a hot afternoon, and way into the alcohol and drug-fueled night. 

They drive around in cars, smashing mailboxes with trash cans; a gang of seniors, led by Ben Affleck in his jerkiest incarnation, chases after juniors in need of obligatory hazing with wooden paddles. 

Other stars in the making include Matthew “Alright, Alright, Alright” McConaughey and Milla “Resident Evil” Jovovich, and many more. 

Some semblance of a non-existent plot centres on Pink, who is asked by his football coach to sign a document by the end of the day, one that would keep him away from bad influences. 

“Now me and my loser friends are gonna head out to buy Aerosmith tickets. Top priority of the summer.”

But everyone’s just dazed and confused—this is not a time for self-contemplation; it is a time to be free, to be everything and nothing at once.  Linklater captures all of these without succumbing to pure nostalgia. 

Well, this was not a time for wistful reflection either in 1993, when the film was released.  And so, no matter when you are seeing this movie (as I am for the first time in 2025), he drops us in the middle of the chaos, with a killer rock soundtrack to boot. 

One of the characters remarked that George Washington was in an alien-worshipping cult. That led me to think: Having grown up in Singapore, where the last day of school means hanging out with your friends for lunch, or going to someone’s place to play video games for a couple of hours… and then possibly returning to the routine of tuition lessons and enrichment classes during the holidays, these cultish ‘American activities’, so conspicuously portrayed in their media, seem imagined by aliens indeed. 

So, for nearly two hours, these crude, stoned, and drunk Austin aliens become our temporary time-travelling acquaintances.  There is not a minute more to waste, and those Aerosmith tickets are still up for grabs.    

Grade: A-

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