WAXING ANTI-NOSTALGIA: DAZED AND CONFUSED, A PERFECT WORLD
Oscar-winning actress Simone Signoret (ROOM AT THE TOP) titled her autobiography "Nostalgia Isn't What it Used to Be," and I don't know what is was then, but nostalgia is practically an industry now. Decades of history are packaged into Time-Life ads, and we get so off on the details of the decade we're bound to miss the forest for the trees, so to speak. Richard Linklater's DAZED AND CONFUSED and Clint Eastwood's A PERFECT WORLD are commendable because they try to look behind the pale of nostalgiac kistsch surrounding, respectively, the 70's and the JFK era of the 60's. They're also both terrific movies, though the former is better than the latter.
Linklater has said he wanted to make a movie that was the anti-AMERICAN GRAFFITI; taking a realistic look at teenage life of his past instead of romanticizing it. Though he misread the ultimate dark undercurrent running through Lucas' work, Linklater did accomplish his goal, as well as making a funny and perceptive movie.
The action takes place on the last day of school at Robert E. Lee High. Though Linklater spreads his net wide, a few stories emerge to the forefront. One involves Randall "Pink" Floyd (Jason London), the star quarterback. He's about to become a senior, his team's looking to have a great season, he has a girlfriend, Simone (Joey Lauren Adams), and things seem to be going well. Except Coach Conrad (Terry Mross), the football coach, wants him to sign a pledge saying he's going to abstain from drinking and drugs, and if he doesn't sign, he won't play. His teammates, of course, will sign it and think nothing of it, but Pink thinks the whole thing is wrong. Another story involves Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins). Mitch has just finished 8th grade, which means he's moving on to high school. But the incoming senior class of '77 has their own version of a welcoming committee for the class of '80; namely, hazing. For the girls, that means getting powdered sugar, flour, and condiments poured on them, as well as being forced to propose to high school boys (naturally, one boy's response is, "Do you spit or swallow?"). For the boys, it involves getting paddled. And since Jodi (Michelle Burke), Mitch's older sister, made Randall and his friends promise not to hurt him too much, he's naturally a big target, especially for O'Bannion (Ben Affleck), the lineman who's repeating senior year.
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