Dazed and Confused

1976, the last day of school, somewhere in the US. We follow a group of teenagers dealing with summer break, the move from junior high to high school, and graduation. It is a rights-of-passage night, full of initiations, roaming, drugs, and trying to squeeze something out of this moment in life before it's over. Richard Linklater's third film is a small masterpiece that triumphally captures the solemn-pathetic atmosphere of adolescence. Linklater's nonchalance shapes these moments in a style reminiscent of Robert Altman, and the result is a film that has conquered critics in real time and has not lost its power over the years.