Slacker

by Richard Linklater

I'm living in this world. I'm what, a slacker? A "twentysomething"? I'm in the margins. I'm not building a wall but making a brick. Okay, here I am, a tired inheritor of the Me generation, floating from school to street to bookstore to movie theater with a certain uncertainty. I'm in that white space where consumer terror meets irony and pessimism, where Scooby Doo and Dr. Faustus hold equal sway over the mind, where the Butthole Surfers provide the background volume, where we choose what is not obvious over what is easy. It goes on...like TV channel-cruising, no plot, no tragic flaws, no resolution, just mastering the moment, pushing forward, full of sound and fury, full of life signifying everything on any given day...

Genres: Film, Nonfiction

154 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 1992

About the author

Richard Stuart Linklater is an Academy Award-nominated American film director and screenwriter.

Reviews

[Juniperus · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel very connected with Richard Linklater’s 1990 film Slacker, because I share the same environs with what inspired it. My high school english teacher was in a deleted scene, they filmed at the cafe my mom worked at when she was in college. Reading this book filled me with a sense of nostalgia for the old Austin that I never knew, but wish I did. The book feels scrapbooky, like a zine, with photocopies of lots of weird cultural memorabilia to accompany the screenplay. Reading the screenplay (which is more like a transcript) was not the same as watching the movie, because the film was developed through premeditated improv. The book felt a little scattered, with profiles of the cast scattered throughout, and the behind-the-scenes interviews were a little scant; more about the cultural impact of the film than the actual production, which sounded fascinating. It was interesting to note how similar each actor was to their characters; I would have assumed pastiche but almost everyone’s “last book read” was something philosophical and pretentious. I found this book interesting, but badly organized, and it will probably only hold your attention if you have seen and loved the movie many times over.

[Aras · Rating 4 out of 5]

http://electric-pages.livejournal.com...

[Maureen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Every fan of Linklater is contractually obligated to read this enthralling book. And there's a lot of pictures for the easily distracted so they really do not have an excuse.

[Joe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book “Slacker” is basically a retread of the film of the same name written by that movie’s director, Richard Linklater. I was really disappointed to find out that this wasn’t actually a novel or story that contained the attitude and themes of the movie but instead just an in-depth look at every aspect of the movie and how it got filmed and eventually produced and distributed.

There’s basically zero reason to read this book if you’ve already seen the movie, as it barely introduces anything new beyond some character bios of the cast and production notes from Linklater. Yeah you get to learn some of the little details of the film, but a majority of the book is just a direct script and storyboard of what was in the movie.

There are little instances of really interesting reads in the book and the whole 90’s Austin Slacker lifestyle can be insightful and relatable to a lot of people who may be interested in reading “Slacker” but there’s just not enough of that. Based on the description on the inside sleeve of the book, I was expecting something different, I’m just a bit disappointed to find out that this wasn’t a novelization or a story and more of a rehash of the film.