The title of Richard Linklater's deadpan debut feature describes a new generation of young, educated, aimless social misfits, part of a young neo-bohemian subculture of drifters, dreamers, and losers with no money, no ambitions, and no worries outside the occasional paranoid conspiracy theory. Their marginal lifestyle revolves around the concept of (in slacker vernacular) 'hanging out': eating, sleeping, watching TV, drinking coffee, and listening to the latest, local garage bands. But what they do best is simply talk, and the viewer is invited to eavesdrop on an extended series of hilarious soliloquies, anecdotes, and observations about politics, history, art, Smurfs, and UFOs, from a cast of nearly 100 genuine slackers pulled off the streets of Austin, Texas, apparently a hub of slackerdom. The film (not a documentary) is structured entirely around random encounters, methodically following one character after another, with no plot to interrupt all the verbal detours and digressions. It looks (and sounds) entirely improvised, but believe it or not was all carefully scripted and choreographed, and the result is one of the more unique and original American features of its time.

Richard Linklater creates an indie of a day in Austin, Texas. The camera follows one character leading to another in a series of portrait of misfits and disenfranchised. Linklater uses long uncut takes of these people talking usually in a monologue. The series of eccentric discussions and weird characters are a mesmerizing tapestry. Individually interesting, they are string together until it creates a picture of a subculture and a neighborhood. It's not a narrative and it's very random. I do have some problems especially with the lady getting run over and nobody seeming to care. It makes the people look heartless which I hope isn't Linklater's intent. Otherwise it's an interesting unique indie.

This was the directorial debut of Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, School of Rock, Boyhood),I may have heard about it previously, but I was mostly attracted due to its placing in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die. Basically the film is a plot less day in the life of an ensemble of unrelated and almost unconnected twenty something characters, predominantly social outcasts and misfits, in Austin, Texas, the structure is unique but straight forward as each one is introduced. The various characters are seen in conversation for no more than a few minutes before moving on to the next one, but what all of them have in common is that that do not not fit into the norm of society. These include a highly talkative taxi passenger (Richard Linklater) who after a long chat almost to himself says "Should Have Stayed at Bus Station", a UFO enthusiast and buff who has a theory and insists that since the 1950's the United States have never been to the moon, and a character who has conspiracy theories about the assassination of John F. Kennedy, a man robbing an elderly man's house and the old anarchist owner makes friendly conversation with him, a serial collector of television sets, and a hippie woman (Teresa Taylor) who has a Madonna pap smear and is trying to sell it. You never find out the real names of these eccentric characters, but the main topics of conversation for most of them is why they seem to be excluded socially and politically marginalised, they talk about their class, their lack of jobs, media being controlled by the government, and just generally their conspiracy theories and philosophies. Also starring Rudy Basquez as Taxi Driver, Jean Caffeine as Roadkill, Jan Hockey as Jogger, Stephan Hockey as Running Late and Mark James as Hit-and-Run Son. This offbeat and low budget teen movie of sorts is a good start for a director like Linklater, it certainly gives you an idea of the sort of films he would later become popular for, it is pretty much just dialogue and odd characters, but that is why it is really interesting. Most of the conversations you listen to throughout do have some relevance, it might not be to the tastes of all who watch it, but overall I found it an enjoyable enough cult comedy. Good!