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Dazed and Confused [Blu-ray] [Criterion Collection]

1 disc
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

Richard Linklater's DAZED AND CONFUSED takes a hysterical, nostalgic cross-clique look at high school social development. On the last day of school in May 1976, students at a suburban Texas high school wait, lackadaisically, for classes to end. The restless almost-seniors--an eclectic group of stone-heads, fraternal jocks, and snobby sorority girls--can't wait to haze the incoming freshman, an annual event as harrowing for freshman boys as it is humiliating for girls. Amidst this teenage wasteland of drugs, partying, and rock and roll is football star Pink (Jason London), who saves scrawny pre-frosh Mitch (Wiley Wiggins) from being paddled to oblivion by upper-classmates. But Pink has his own battles: he's struggling over the head coach's demand that football players sign a pledge to abstain from sex and all psychoactive substances. When a wild end-of-the-year party is cancelled, the students end up congregating at a beer-blast in the back woods, organized by aging hang-about Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey). In the same way that George Lucas assembled a cast of fresh young faces for AMERICAN GRAFFITI, Linklater here creates an unforgettable cast of characters that are immediately familiar to anyone who has ever been through high school.
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Credits

Jason London, Rory Cochrane, Sasha Jensen, Wiley Wiggins, Michelle Burke, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Marissa Ribisi, Marisa Ribisi, Milla Jovovich, Parker Posey, Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Joey Adams
Critic Reviews

Ranked #9 in Entertainment Weekly's "10 Favorite Films of the '90s" - "...The freest, most graceful comedy of American teenage life ever made..."
Entertainment Weekly
"...This is a good film..."
Chicago Sun-Times
"...DAZED AND CONFUSED unfolds in a loose, natural style that suits its teenage characters....Enjoyably playful spirit..."
New York Times
"...[A] vibrantly laid-back comedy....A tightly bound ensemble of funny and believable adolescent..."
Sight and Sound
"...Giddily amusing..."
Variety
"[T]he dialogue is hilariously quotable, the period textures are precise and hardly parodic....[and with a] soundtrack dialing from Aerosmith to ZZ Top."
Premiere
"...No movie understands the agony and ecstasy of teenage life better than Richard Linklater's underrated classic..."
Total Film
"[It] remains the loose-limbed, thoroughly entertaining trip it was when it was released..."
Premiere