Rumtreiber (1990)

Rumtreiber: Directed by Richard Linklater. With Richard Linklater, Rudy Basquez, Jean Caffeine, Jan Hockey. A day in the life of Austin, Texas as the camera roams from place to place and provides a brief look at the overeducated, the social misfits, the outcasts and the oddballs.

“Even though Iu0026#39;ve immensely enjoyed many of Richard Linklateru0026#39;s films (especially u0026quot;Waking Lifeu0026quot; and u0026quot;Dazed and Confusedu0026quot;), I never had much desire to sit through Slacker. The title and the era made me anticipate this would be a lazily-crafted, self-indulgent, aimless exploration of the oh-so-forgettable ennui of 20-somethings.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eBoy, was I wrong.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eu0026quot;Slackeru0026quot; is actually a true u0026quot;art filmu0026quot;, a highly conceptualized storytelling experiment in the manner of mid-60u0026#39;s Godard. In fact, in many ways it seems patterned after Godardu0026#39;s u0026quot;Weekendu0026quot; — a bold ambition for a young low-budget filmmaker if ever there was one — with its long, fluid takes that seamlessly drift from one story to another with chance passings on Austinu0026#39;s sidewalks.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn many ways I found Slacker more interesting and more enjoyable than Godardu0026#39;s movie, though. Weekend ultimately boils down to Godard satirizing his society, while maintaining a dry, utterly unsentimental and unemotional attitude towards his characters. When you watch Weekend, there is always the sense that Godard is looking down his nose at his characters (however justifiably). Slacker has a more complicated relationship between Linklater and his subject. While there is undoubtedly a strongly satirical feel to many of the scenes (for example, the two apparently stoned guys debating the meaning of Saturday morning cartoons while they chain smoke in a bar), at the same time, the movie feels made from the inside. Itu0026#39;s, maybe, a satirical self-portrait. In fact, since Linklater plays the first of the Slacker characters that we meet — the cab fare spinning yarns about parallel universes — it is in some manner quite literally a self-portrait.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAll of that is a very academic way of saying whatu0026#39;s viscerally obvious when watching Slacker – – itu0026#39;s funny and real and naturalistic at the same time that it is abstract, constructed and very obviously written. u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIu0026#39;m not sure what it all adds up to or if itu0026#39;s supposed to add up to anything. After all, this is the story of people who, with a couple of notable exceptions, canu0026#39;t seem to put their plans into action (u0026quot;Youu0026#39;re not on the listu0026quot;), so it makes perfect sense that the movie in the end feels like it just wanders off a cliff instead of coming to an end. It would be a mistake to say that the movie captures a generation — these are caricatures, without doubt — but it does capture the flavor of the times as they rolled by on some particularly lazy afternoons.”