"Melissa Maerz's brilliant oral history is the definitive account of a
cult-classic movie that took a slow ride into the Seventies and defined
the Nineties." -Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone
The definitive oral history of the cult classic Dazed and
Confused**, featuring behind-the-scenes stories from the cast, crew,
and Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater.**
Dazed and Confused not only heralded the arrival of filmmaker Richard
Linklater, it introduced a cast of unknowns who would become the next
generation of movie stars. Embraced as a cultural touchstone, the 1993
film would also make Matthew McConaughey's famous phrase--alright,
alright, alright--ubiquitous. But it started with a simple idea:
Linklater thought people might like to watch a movie about high school
kids just hanging out and listening to music on the last day of school
in 1976.
To some, that might not even sound like a movie. But to a few studio
executives, it sounded enough like the next American Graffiti to
justify the risk. Dazed and Confused underperformed at the box office
and seemed destined to disappear. Then something weird happened:
Linklater turned out to be right. This wasn't the kind of movie
everybody liked, but it was the kind of movie certain people loved,
with an intensity that felt personal. No matter what their high school
experience was like, they thought Dazed and Confused was about them.
Alright, Alright, Alright is the story of how this iconic film came
together and why it worked. Combining behind-the-scenes photos and
insights from nearly the entire cast, including Matthew McConaughey,
Parker Posey, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and many others, and with
full access to Linklater's Dazed archives, it offers an inside look at
how a budding filmmaker and a cast of newcomers made a period piece that
would feel timeless for decades to come.
