Slackr

'Slacker', the film was the most original use of cinema as an art form that this country has seen since the 1920s. It opened the door for the 90s independent scene. And it's way better than 'Pulp Fiction' or 'Clerks'. This book version is pretty much an acurate representation of the film. It talks about the making of the film, the people in it. People been lookin for the uncensored version well here it is. Supply meets demand. Smoke it up everybody☁️☁️☁️. LiveXLive Media, Inc. (NASDAQ:LIVX) is a global digital media company dedicated to music and live entertainment. Watch live events and festivals around the world including TONIGHT: The Snubbys, Fever 333, Fever 333, Mike Einziger of Incubus, Silversun Pickups, Fever 333, Mike Einziger of Incubus. Slacker definition, a person who evades his or her duty or work; shirker.

Slacker is a 1990 American independentcomedy-drama film written, produced, and directed by Richard Linklater, who also appears in the film. Slacker was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize - Dramatic at the Sundance Film Festival in 1991.

In 2012, the film was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant'.^[3]

Plot[edit]

Slacker follows a single day in the life of an ensemble of mostly under-30 bohemians and misfits in Austin, Texas. The film follows various characters and scenes, never staying with one character or conversation for more than a few minutes before picking up someone else in the scene and following them.

The characters include Linklater as a talkative taxi passenger, a UFObuff who insists the U.S. has been on the moon since the 1950s, a JFK conspiracy theorist, an elderly anarchist who befriends a man trying to rob his house, a television setcollector, and a hipster woman trying to sell a Madonnapap smear. The woman selling the pap smear appears on the film poster, and was played by Butthole Surfers drummer Teresa Taylor.^[4]

Most of the characters grapple with feelings of social exclusion or political marginalization, which are recurring themes in their conversations. They discuss social class, terrorism, joblessness, and government control of the media.

Cast[edit]

• Richard Linklater as 'Should Have Stayed at the Bus Station'
• Rudy Basquez as Taxicab Driver
• Mark James as 'Hit-and-Run Son'
• Bob Boyd as Officer Bozzio
• Terrence Kirk as Officer Love
• Stella Weir as Stephanie from Dallas
• Teresa Taylor as Pap Smear Pusher
• Mark Harris as T-shirt Terrorist
• Frank Orrall as 'Happy-Go-Lucky Guy'^[5]
• Abra Moore as 'Has Change'
• Louis Black as Paranoid Paper Reader
• Sarah Harmon as 'Has Faith in Groups'^[6]
• John Slate as Conspiracy-A-Go-Go author
• Lee Daniel as GTO
• Charles Gunning as Hitchhiker Awaiting 'True Call'
• Louis Mackey as Old Anarchist
• Scott Rhodes as Disgruntled Grad Student
• Kim Krizan as 'Questions Happiness'
• Athina Rachel Tsangari as Cousin from Greece (credited as Rachel Reinhardt)
• Kalman Spelletich as Video Backpacker

Production[edit]

Slacker's working title was No Longer/Not Yet.^[7] The film was shot in 1989 with a 16 mmArriflex camera on location in Austin, Texas with a budget of $23,000,^[2] and premiered at Austin's Dobie Theater on July 27, 1990.^[8][9]Orion Classics acquired Slacker for nationwide distribution, and released a slightly modified 35mm version on July 5, 1991.^[9][10] It did not receive a wide release but went on to become a cult film bringing in a domestic gross of $1,228,108.^[2] The cast includes many notable Austinites, including Louis Black, Abra Moore, and members of some local bands of the era.

Release[edit]

Critical reception[edit]

Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars and wrote, 'Slacker is a movie with an appeal almost impossible to describe, although the method of the director, Richard Linklater, is as clear as day. He wants to show us a certain strata of campus life at the present time'.^[11] In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, 'Slacker is a 14-course meal composed entirely of desserts or, more accurately, a conventional film whose narrative has been thrown out and replaced by enough bits of local color to stock five years' worth of ordinary movies'.^[12]

Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film an 'A-' rating, writing, 'Slacker has a marvelously low-key observational cool ... the movie never loses its affectionate, shaggy-dog sense of America as a place in which people, by now, have almost too much freedom on their hands'.^[13] In his review for the Washington Post, Hal Hinson wrote, 'This is a work of scatterbrained originality, funny, unexpected and ceaselessly engaging'.^[14]Rolling Stone's Peter Travers wrote, 'What Linklater has captured is a generation of bristling minds unable to turn their thoughts into action. Linklater has the gift of a true satirist: He can make laughter catch in the throat'.^[15]

In his review for the Austin Chronicle, Chris Walters wrote, 'Few of the many films shot in Austin over the past 10 or 15 years even attempt to make something of the way its citizens live. Slacker is the only one I know of that claims this city's version of life on the margins of the working world as its whole subject, and it is one of the first American movies ever to find a form so apropos to the themes of disconnectedness and cultural drift'.^[16]Time magazine's Richard Corliss wrote, 'Though set in the '90s, Slacker has a spirit that is pure '60s, and in this loping, loopy, sidewise, delightful comedy, Austin is Haight-Ashbury'.^[17]

On review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 81% based on 43 reviews, and an average rating of 7.3/10. The website's critical consensus reads, 'Slacker rests its shiftless thumb on the pulse of a generation with fresh filmmaking that captures the tenor of its time while establishing a benchmark for 1990s indie cinema.'^[18] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 69 out of 100, based on 16 critics, indicating 'generally favorable reviews'.^[19]

American Film Institute recognition:

• AFI's 100 Years... 100 Laughs - Nominated^[20]

Home media[edit]

Slacker was released on VHS in June 1992 by Orion Home Video. An estimated 7,000 copies were shipped. A book also titled Slacker containing the screenplay, interviews, and writing about the film was published by St. Martin's Press, also in 1992. The film was re-released on VHS on March 7, 2000, by MGM. The film was released to DVD worldwide on January 13, 2003. A two-disc Criterion Collection boxed-set edition was released on August 31, 2004, in the US and Canada only. The set has many 'extras', including a book on the film and Linklater's first feature film, It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, released on home video for the first time. Entertainment Weekly gave this edition an 'A-' rating.^[21]

Impact[edit]

The release of the film is often taken as a starting point (along with the earlier Sex, Lies, and Videotape) for the independent film movement of the 1990s. Many of the independent filmmakers of that period credit the film with inspiring or opening doors for them, perhaps most famously Kevin Smith, who has said on numerous occasions that the film was the inspiration for Clerks. The film also popularized the use of 'slacker' to describe 'a person regarded as one of a large group or generation of young people (especially in the early to mid 1990s) characterized by apathy, aimlessness, and lack of ambition'.^[22]

Linklater has said that he wanted the word to have positive connotations. For example, in a self-interview in the Austin Chronicle, Linklater stated: “Slackers might look like the left-behinds of society, but they are actually one step ahead, rejecting most of society and the social hierarchy before it rejects them. The dictionary defines slackers as people who evade duties and responsibilities. A more modern notion would be people who are ultimately being responsible to themselves and not wasting their time in a realm of activity that has nothing to do with who they are or what they might be ultimately striving for.”^[23]

In the early 1990s, Slacker was widely considered an accurate depiction of Generation X because the film's young adult characters are more interested in quasi-intellectual pastimes and socializing than career advancement. Linklater—who is a member of the 'Baby Boom' generation—has long since eschewed the role of generational spokesperson. Moreover, Slacker includes members of various generations, and many of its themes are universal rather than generation-specific.^[24]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^'SLACKER (15)'. British Board of Film Classification. November 16, 1992. Retrieved May 6, 2013.
2. ^ ^abcdSlacker at Box Office Mojo
3. ^King, Susan (December 19, 2012). 'National Film Registry selects 25 films for preservation'. Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles, California: Tronc. Retrieved November 8, 2018.
4. ^Raftery, Brian (July 5, 2006). 'Slacker: 15 years later'. Salon.com. San Francisco, California: Salon Media Group. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
5. ^'Frank Orrall'. IMDb. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
6. ^'Sarah Harmon'. IMDb. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
7. ^Macor, Alison (2010). Chainsaws, Slackers, and Spy Kids: 30 Years of Filmmaking in Austin, Texas. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. ISBN978-0292722439.
8. ^Black, Louis (October 3, 2003). ''The Austin Chronicle' and Richard Linklater'. Austin Chronicle. Austin, Texas: Austin Chronicle Corp. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
9. ^ ^abBaumgarten, Marjorie (June 29, 2001). 'Slack Where We Started'. Austin Chronicle. Austin, Texas: Austin Chronicle Corp. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
10. ^Walters, Chris (July 5, 1991). 'Slacker (review)'. Austin Chronicle. Austin, Texas: Austin Chronicle Corp. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
11. ^Ebert, Roger (August 23, 1991). 'Slacker'. Chicago Sun-Times. Chicago, Illinois: Sun-Times Media Group. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
12. ^Canby, Vincent (March 22, 1991). 'Some Texas Eccentrics and Aunt Hallie'. The New York Times. New York City: New York Times Company. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
13. ^Gleiberman, Owen (August 2, 1991). 'Slacker'. Entertainment Weekly. New York City: Meredith Corporation. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
14. ^Hinson, Hal (August 23, 1991). 'Slacker'. Washington Post. Washington DC: Nash Holdings LLC. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
15. ^Travers, Peter (July 11, 1991). 'Slacker'. Rolling Stone. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. Retrieved March 10, 2011.
16. ^Walters, Chris (July 5, 1991). 'Slacker'. Rolling Stone. New York City: Wenner Media LLC. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
17. ^Corliss, Richard (July 29, 1991). 'Cinema & '90s'. Time. New York City: Meredith Corporation. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
18. ^'Slacker (1991)'. Rotten Tomatoes. Los Angeles, California: Fandango Media. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
19. ^'Slacker Reviews'. Metacritic. San Francisco, California: CBS Interactive. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
20. ^'AFI's 100 Years...100 Laughs Nominees'(PDF). American Film Institute. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
21. ^Willman, Chris (September 17, 2004). 'Slacker'. Entertainment Weekly. New York City: Meredith Corporation. Retrieved September 9, 2009.
22. ^'Definition'. Retrieved February 6, 2018.
23. ^Kopkind, Andrew (1992). 'Slacking Toward Bethlehem'. Grand Street. No. 44. pp. 176–178.
24. ^Speed, Lesley (Fall 2007). 'The Possibilities of Roads Not Taken'. Journal of Popular Film & Television. London, England: Taylor and Francis. 35 (3): 103. doi:10.3200/JPFT.35.3.98-106. S2CID191613990.

External links[edit]

• Slacker at IMDb
• Slacker at AllMovie
• Slacker at the TCM Movie Database
• Slacker at Box Office Mojo
• Slacker at Rotten Tomatoes
• Slacker at Metacritic
• Slacker: Slacking Off, an essay by John Pierson at the Criterion Collection
• Slack to the Future, a 20th anniversary conversation between the Austin Chronicle's Marc Savlov, Richard Linklater and John Pierson

A slacker is someone who habitually avoids work or lacks work ethic.

Origin[edit]

According to different sources, the term slacker dates back to about 1790 or 1898.^[1][2] 'Slacker' gained some recognition during the BritishGezira Scheme in the early to mid 20th century, when Sudanese labourers protested their relative powerlessness by working lethargically, a form of protest known as 'slacking'.^[3][4]

World wars[edit]

In the United States during World War I, the word 'slacker' was commonly used to describe someone who was not participating in the war effort, specifically someone who avoided military service, equivalent to the later term draft dodger. Attempts to track down such evaders were called slacker raids.^[5] During World War I, U.S. Senator Miles Poindexter discussed whether inquiries 'to separate the cowards and the slackers from those who had not violated the draft' had been managed properly. A San Francisco Chronicle headline on 7 September 1918, read, 'Slacker is Doused in Barrel of Paint'.^[6][7] The term was also used during the World War II period in the United States. In 1940, Time quoted the U.S. Army on managing the military draft efficiently: 'War is not going to wait while every slacker resorts to endless appeals.'^[8]

Evolution[edit]

The shift in the use of 'slacker' from its draft-related meaning to a more general sense of the avoidance of work is unclear. In April 1948, The New Republic referred to 'resentment against taxes levied to aid slackers'.^[9] An article tracking the evolution of the meaning of the term 'Slacker' in defamation lawsuits between World War I and 2010, entitled When Slacker Was a Dirty Word: Defamation and Draft Dodging During World War I, was written by Attorney David Kluft for the Trademark and Copyright Law Blog.^[10]

Late 20th century and onward[edit]

The term achieved renewed popularity following its use in the 1985 film Back to the Future in which James Tolkan's character Mr. Strickland chronically refers to Marty McFly, his father George McFly, Biff Tannen, and a group of teenage delinquents in Part II as 'slackers'.^[11] It gained subsequent exposure from the 1989 Superchunk single 'Slack Motherfucker', and the 1990 film Slacker.^[12] The television series Rox has been noted for its 'depiction of the slacker lifestyle ... of the early '90s'.^[13][14][15]

Slacker became widely used in the 1990s to refer to a type of apathetic youth who were cynical and uninterested in political or social causes and as a stereotype for members of Generation X.^[16]Richard Linklater, director of the aforementioned 1990 film, commented on the term's meaning in a 1995 interview, stating that 'I think the cheapest definition [of a slacker] would be someone who's just lazy, hangin' out, doing nothing. I'd like to change that to somebody who's not doing what's expected of them. Somebody who's trying to live an interesting life, doing what they want to do, and if that takes time to find, so be it.'^[17]

The term has connotations of 'apathy and aimlessness'.^[18] It is also used to refer to an educated person who avoids work, possibly as an anti-materialist stance, who may be viewed as an underachiever.^[12]

'Slackers' have been the subject of many films and television shows, particularly comedies. Notable examples include the films Slacker, Slackers, Clerks,^[19]Hot Tub Time Machine, Bio-Dome, You, Me and Dupree, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, Stripes, Wayne's World, Old School, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Trainspotting and Animal House, as well as the television shows Freaks and Geeks, Spaced, and The Royle Family.

The Idler, a British magazine founded in 1993, represents an alternative to contemporary society's work ethic and aims 'to return dignity to the art of loafing'.^[20]

See also[edit]

Slack Rope

• Acedia, a state of listlessness
• Goldbricking, cyberslacking
• Goofing off, engaging in idle pastime while obligations are neglected
• Hikikomori, Japanese term for withdrawal from social life
• NEET, 'Not in Employment, Education or Training'
• Procrastination, putting off impending tasks to a later time
• Sloth, deadly sin

References[edit]

Slacker Radio Free Listen Online

1. ^'Online Etymology Dictionary, slack (adj.)'. Douglas Harper.
2. ^'Dictionary.com slacker (noun)'. Editors of dictionary.com.
3. ^V. Bernal, 'Colonial Moral Economy and the Discipline of Development: The Gezira Scheme and 'Modern' Sudan', Cultural Anthropology, Vol. 12, 1997, 447–79
4. ^Robert Sydney Smith, Warfare & Diplomacy in Pre-Colonial West Africa (University of Wisconsin Press 1989), 54-62
5. ^New York Times: 'Take Slackers into Army', September 10, 1918, accessed 21 April 2010
6. ^Christopher Cappozolla, Uncle Sam Wants You: World War I and the Making of the Modern American Citizen (NY: Oxford University Press, 2008), 43-53, quotes 50, 229n
7. ^For one of many uses of the word during the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti, see G. Louis Joughin and Edmund M. Morgan, The Legacy of Sacco and Vanzetti (NY: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1948), 119
8. ^TIME: 'The Draft: How it Works', September 23, 1940, accessed 13 April 2011. See also: New York Times: 'Wheeler Assails Bureau 'Slackers', September 29, 1943, accessed 21 April 2010; New York Times: 'Nazis Round Up Slackers Facing British 8th Army', August 14, 1943, accessed 21 April 2010
9. ^Michael Straight, Trial by Television and Other Encounters (NY: Devon Press, 1979), 76
10. ^Kluft, David (30 June 2014). 'When 'Slacker' Was A Dirty Word: Defamation And Draft Dodging During World War I'. Trademarkandcopyrightlawblog.com. Retrieved 7 August 2017.
11. ^Internet Movie Database: 'Memorable quotes for Back to the Future (1985)', accessed 6 August 2010
12. ^ ^ab'slacker'. Random House, Inc. 2006.
13. ^Kheiry, Jamal (8 April 1994). 'Unstructured (Life) Style Draws Cult Following'. LUX (IDS Entertainment Guide).
14. ^Hall, Steve (20 May 1995). 'In the realm of the uncensored'. The Indianapolis Star.
15. ^Hammer, Steve; Poyser, Jim (18 January 1995). 'J&B: Life on the ROX'. NUVO Newsweekly.
16. ^ScrIibner, Sara (11 August 2013). 'Generation X gets really old: How do slackers have a midlife crisis?'. Salon. Retrieved 19 June 2016.
17. ^Petrek, Melissa; Hines, Alan (1993). 'Withdrawing in Disgust Is Not the Same as Apathy: Cutting Some Slack with Richard Linklater'. Mondo 2000 (9). p. 81.
18. ^Compact Oxford English Dictionary. 'slacker'.
19. ^New York Times: Tom Lutz, 'Doing Nothing', June 4, 2006 accessed August 6, 2010, and excerpt Tom Lutz, Doing Nothing: A History of Loafers, Loungers, Slackers, and Bums in America (NY: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2006)
20. ^The Idler: 'About The Idler', accessed 6 August 2010

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