Dazed and Confused

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Linklater is a sly and formidable talent, bringing an anthropologist's eye to this spectacularly funny celebration of the rites of stupidity. His shitfaced "American Graffiti" is the ultimate party movie -- loud, crude, socially irresponsible and totally irresistible.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

One of the most exciting movies of this, or any other, year. It's smart, funny, and wonderfully crafted and performed.

Entertainment Weekly Ty Burr

From the opening shot of a burnt-orange GTO cruising a high school parking lot to the strains of Aerosmith's ''Sweet Emotion,'' Richard Linklater's film nails mid-'70s adolescence so precisely that you'll need Clearasil by the end credits.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Richard Linklater's satirical take on high school life in the 1970s is not only funny and entertaining. It's practically a historic document of life during the smiley-face button era.

USA Today Mike Clark

The "Age of Innocence" oozes anthropological dazzle, but Dazed and Confused may some day rate its own Smithsonian showings for clinically re-creating the High School Experience 1976. [20 Sept 1993]

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The surprise lies in Linklater's ability to breathe so much fresh life into a tired formula...This is a picture that recollects not merely a period in time but a state of mind.

Los Angeles Times Peter Ranier

It's a highly enjoyable spree that doesn't add up to a whole lot by the end. But you don't necessarily want it to add up to anything -- that's part of its charm. [24 Sept 1993]

Empire Steve Beard

Despite some gags which use the benefit of hindsight too much for their own good, this is a smart piece of filmmaking which suggests Linklater is already one of the more formidable talents of the 90s.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

What could have been a narrow, cultish little picture, a mere retro-trip, fans out into a broader study of longing and belonging. [4 Oct 1993, p.214]

Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel

For a while, I resented the sexist, cruel behavior in the film, much of it revolving around the hazing of underclassmen. But gradually, I saw the movie turn into a brash expose of stupid adolescent traditions. [24 Sept 1993]

San Francisco Chronicle Michael Snyder

The movie's episodic view of a collection of interesting friends, sweethearts, and cliques often rings so true that it might be a documentary...It's so right, you might think Linklater has mastered time travel. [24 Sept 1993]

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

This is a good film, but it would not cheer people up much at a high school reunion.

Time Richard Corliss

But it also has enough buoyant '70s music to shake anybody's tail feather, and a kind of easy jubilance of narrative and character. Bet it makes you wanna dance. [11 Oct 1993]

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Dazed and Confused has an enjoyably playful spirit, one that amply compensates for its lack of structure. [24 Sept 1993, p.C12]

Variety Ken Eisner

One-liners and dry sight gags still abound, but the ennui-sodden formlessness of "Slacker" doesn't fly as well in this $ 6 million, smoothly lensed package, which calls for shapelier narrative and resolution.

TV Guide Staff (Not Credited)

Expertly captures the details and textures of the time without condescending or lapsing into cheap-shot parody.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

What Linklater does exceptionally well is open the door on an era seventeen years in the past. This is 1976, from the music and cars...to the people and their attitudes. You'd have to climb into a time machine to get a better view...However, this is light entertainment -- nothing groundbreaking or even especially noteworthy.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Disappointingly conventional though well-made...An OK teen movie, but not a whole lot more.