Slacker (1991) Established Richard Linklater as an Experimental Filmmaker

Reader, if you love movies as much as I do, you probably get into lots of silly debates with your friends. Well, today’s newsletter was inspired by one such conversation.

Years ago, a friend of mine had a real vendetta against Boyhood. Now, I won’t name any names.* But he sure had lots of negative things to say about Boyhood (a film that I happen to love), including a series of complaints about the pacing, writing, performances, etc. that I can accept as valid criticisms.

He had one criticism that I couldn’t accept, though: He said that Boyhood is a “gimmick.”

Of course, I can see the path he took to arrive at this conclusion. Linklater famously shot the film over the course of 12 years so that he could chronicle the childhood and adolescence of a single male character without having to cast multiple child actors. But to call this approach a “gimmick” would deny Linklater one of his fundamental traits as a writer and director: He’s an experimental filmmaker.**

This may not be the first adjective that jumps to your mind when you think of Linklater’s style. But his experimental roots go all the way back to his breakthrough second feature, Slacker.

Aesthetically, Slacker appears to be pretty straightforward. Characters are introduced, they have conversations with each other—pretty routine stuff for a film. But what I love about Slacker is that the experimental nature sneaks up on you.

It’s not just the lack of plot—after all, the history of cinema is full of plotless films.*** It’s the way Linklater builds a world through people and place, each group of characters leading into the next until they become the setting themselves. These people aren’t just of Austin, they are Austin.**** Each scene by itself isn’t anything groundbreaking, but by sewing them all together in such a way, Linklater was experimenting with the boundaries of narrative structure.

At least I consider it to be an experiment. But I’m not an experimental filmmaker myself. Luckily, I happen to know one!

My friend Brian Ratigan, the mastermind behind Non Films, has been making experimental films for many years.***** (His YouTube channel is full of wonderful things.) He also lends his expertise to several film festivals as a programmer and juror for short and experimental films. And he recently lent me his expertise when I texted him and peppered him with questions.

So now, as a sort of tribute to Linklater and his flare for nontraditional narrative structure, the second half of this piece will be a transcription of my conversation with Brian. How’s that for a structural shift?

Me: Brian. Hello. I’m working on a newsletter piece about Richard Linklater (specifically Slacker). And since you’re my resident experimental filmmaker friend…do you consider Linklater to be an experimental filmmaker?

Brian: Kind of. Are we done?

Me: Elaborate or else.

Brian: He definitely excelled in the early days with an “experimental narrative” if you will, not truly exemplary examples of avant-garde, but certainly expanding the form. I can’t really say that he pushed the “form” of filmmaking—until later, with Waking Life (evolution of rotoscope) and Boyhood (kind of [ugh], but a 12-year endeavor to showcase life unfolding in front of our eyes [again ugh]). The way he shot loose narrative structures centered around conversation is hardly new, yet his approach was and remains fresh, especially with Slacker. The Before series is a better example than Boyhood, but you get it. Also, don’t write that piece until you’ve seen his debut, It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books. (I’m assuming you have.)

Me: I have seen that one actually! My main takeaway was that Linklater could hoop.

Brian: It’s pretty unremarkable, but you can definitely see the roots of everything since coming together. (I’m a fan, but whatever.)

Me: Yeah, it’s not exactly gripping stuff, but you can tell he’s doing something smarter than just making “a film about nothing.”

Brian: Don’t compare him to Mekas or Deren, but he’s definitely original. I think the key phrase may be “an experimental collaborator.” How do you convince someone to work that way? It’s kind of never been done like that, save for Apted’s Up series. Pretty insane. I can also quote Dazed and Confused front to back, so he definitely came into his own.

Me: Dazed and Confused is a perfect movie.

Brian: He’s a romantic; that’s why we like him.

Me: I’d never thought of him as a romantic (beyond the Before trilogy of course), but I could see that. He’s a romantic about people at large. Everyday people.

Brian: About life, coincidences, failure, longing, acceptance, wordplay, and most importantly ideas. And it also goes back to Slacker. Most of his films are about “almost” heroes, or people desperate to make it or have a connection.

Me: So are you lukewarm on Boyhood? One of those you appreciate more than you enjoy?

Brian: Correct. It should’ve been a masterpiece, but it ends up being less than the sum of its parts.

Me: Well, you’ve written half of my newsletter for me, so thank you sir. (Don’t worry, I’ll give you credit!)

Brian: Send me a check instead.

*It’s Michael Nipp, cohost of The Deucecast, a movie podcast that I get dragged onto from time to time. I can give you his phone number if you’d like.

**One of y’all said this to me during that Boyhood season and I agreed with it so hard that I’ve run with it ever since. But I can’t remember who said it. Was it you? Reveal yourself in the comments if so.

***Just look at the top of the 2022 Sight & Sound poll.

****I love what Chris Walters of The Austin Chronicle said in his review: “Few of the many films shot in Austin over the past 10 or 15 years even attempt to make something of the way its citizens live. Slacker is the only one I know of that claims this city's version of life on the margins of the working world as its whole subject, and it is one of the first American movies ever to find a form so apropos to the themes of disconnectedness and cultural drift."

*****If you live in New York City, Brian hosts a series of experimental films called DarkRoom at Freddy’s Bar in Brooklyn on the fourth Tuesday of every month. I live too far away to attend, but if you live close enough, go check it out (and tell Brian I sent you)!

Slacker is now streaming on Max and the Criterion Channel.