Austin, Texas, is an Eden for the young and unambitious, from the enthusiastically eccentric to the dangerously apathetic. Here, the nobly lazy can eschew responsibility in favor of nursing their esoteric obsessions. The locals include a backseat philosopher who passionately expounds on his dream theories to a seemingly comatose cabbie, a young woman who tries to hawk Madonna's Pap test to anyone who will listen and a kindly old anarchist looking for recruits.
Writing
Dialogue so dense it needs a rewind button.
Direction
Linklater's camera drifts like its characters' attention spans.
Production
Austin 1990 captured like a time capsule of cool.
Director
Richard Linklater
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Linklater shot this for $23,000, mostly funded by selling his car collection. Most actors were Austin locals he met at coffee shops.
This invented 'slacker' as a cultural identity before Gen X had a name; it predicted both mumblecore and the infinite scroll of internet rabbit holes.
US
