The other day I discovered Instant Watcher, a website with information on what is currently instantly streaming on Netflix. There was a list on what was the most popular things to view at the moment. Dazed and Confused was high on the list.
I had seen this movie before. If you had somehow missed it, it takes place on the last day of high school. It is about initiations. The entering freshmen, both boys and girls, have their own hazing rituals to figure out. Do they comply? Hide? Figure out a way to defeat them? All of the above? And then if you're a senior (or beyond), the question seems to be: What's next? Is this all there is?
Watching the movie again, I realized one of the big charms is the music. I found out through IMDB trivia that sixty percent of the budget of the film went towards obtaining the rights to the music, and they did a great job securing the basic soundtrack of the mid-seventies: heavy on Alice Cooper, Foghat, and a sprinkling of Seals & Croft.
Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey are in this movie. They look incredibly young, and they play unflattering roles, Affleck as a sadistic second-year senior who takes great pleasure in hazing the incoming freshman boys and McConnaughey as someone who graduated a while back but still wants to party with high school students. They play these parts wholeheartedly, unselfconsciously, something that I don't think they could do now that they're established stars. I thnk there would have to be some kind of wink to the audience, some pull-back, some "You all know who I am. This is not really me. I'm Acting" sort of thing occurring.
For me the great thing about this movie was the work of Wiley Wiggins, who plays Mitch Kramer, a boy whose sister made the mistake of telling her classmates to take it easy on him, thus putting him on the most wanted list of those who take pleasure in these things. I liked him immediately. He's slight, yet has a good amount of grit, quirky, a pitcher, someone who faces the hazing, endures, and, seemingly becomes a vital part of the high school community in a matter of hours. He plays the role with grace, dignity, and humor. It is really fun to watch his work.
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