Slacker

The ground-breaking debut feature from cult director Richard Linklater, (Before Sunset; Dazed and Confused; The School of Rock) Slacker played a pivotal role in the emergence of America's independent film movement in the '90s. Many independent filmmakers of the period credit it as the film that inspired or opened doors for them, most famously Kevin Smith, who said it was the inspiration for Clerks. A uniquely-structured film it pays tribute to an overly-intellectual Texan subculture in a pastiche of loosely connected characters as they go about their somewhat eccentric day-to-day lives. The characters include Linklater as a miscreant who steps off a bus and comes across a hit-and-run, a UFO fanatic who insists the U.S. government has been on the moon since the early '50s, a JFK conspiracy theorist, an elderly anarchist who befriends a man trying to rob his home, a serial television collector and a woman trying to sell a Madonna pap smear. Shot on a shoestring budget Slacker went on to become an unprecedented cult classic, even popularising the term 'slacker' such was its far reaching impact. Linklater's cleverly woven snippets of this captivating ensemble of misfits make for a funny, unexpected and satirical portrait of Generation X.