Slacker

THE FIRST PERSON we see in Richard Linklater’s Slacker is, well, Richard Linklater. As a character credited only as ‘Should Have Stayed At Bus Station’, Linklater climbs into a taxi at the bus station, talks his cab driver’s ear off about parallel universes and roads not taken (metaphorically), and ends up inspiring a generation of filmmakers.

Though not his debut film (that honour belongs to the little-screened Super 8 film ), is Linklater’s breakout, a DIY cult hit that put him on the map as an indie filmmaker, and launched a thousand other films just like it. Shot, and its hangout atmosphere and dry but absurd humour would anchor an entire career for one Kevin Smith. Along with Steven Soderbergh’s , it brought about a boom of modest, dialogue-driven drama, both proving that a low-stakes, low-budget film could find a large audience.