One of the more appropriate titles in cinematic history is Dazed and Confused (1993).  Those words arguably say it all because they describe the state you need to be in to derive any kind of enjoyment from the movie.  It is one of the more familiar titles of the 1990s, and for the life of me I could not tell you why.  At the same time, its popularity is why I chose it today.  With the way our world is currently going, I often contemplate retreating from it entirely, though my spiritual director has told me that is not the best solution.  Sometimes, you have to directly stare at your adversary unafraid, and let the Holy Spirit work.  Actually, that is a constant need.  I prevaricate because I do not enjoy movies like this, but here are my thoughts, anyway.

Thought is an anathema to Dazed and Confused, though that should be unsurprising given the title.  It is also a tricky film to describe as there is no real main character.  Rather, it is about a collection of high school juniors finishing their last day before summer, and hazing the incoming freshman.  It is a snapshot of that day from the moment they arrive at school, to the final bell, and then on to the revelry that follows.  If there is any one person to focus on, I suppose this would be Randall “Pink” Floyd (Jason London).  He is the quarterback for the football team, arguably the most popular guy in school, and thus friends with pretty much everyone.  He has feet planted in two worlds: the one of teenage excess and partying, and the other of sports.  His coach, Coach Conrad (Terry Mross), wants his star player to make a commitment to the team.  To do so, Coach Conrad expects Pink to sign a letter stating that he will not engage in drugs or any other illicit activity over the summer.  Given the company he keeps, the chances of this happening are exactly nil.  One of his teammates, Don Dawson (Sasha Jenson), tells Pink to do as asked and then do whatever he wants.  In a twisted way, one can say that Pink has some integrity because he does not want to make himself a liar by putting his name to a promise he will never keep.  With that lurking in the background, the next bit of activity (even though that might be too strong of a word) is preparing for the hazing.  For the boys, this means the seniors-to-be breaking out their wooden paddles to beat the rear ends of the incoming class.  They take this way too seriously, and I have trouble watching this sequence because it is basically bullying.  It gets worse when Jodi Kramer (Michelle Burke) asks a group of the guys to take it easy on her little brother, Mitch Kramer (Wiley Wiggins).  Led by Benny O’Donnell (Cole Hauser), one of Pink’s teammates, they tell Jodi that they will do as she requests, but it only serves to make Mitch a special target.  After some near misses, they finally catch up with the poor kid after his baseball game.  Pink is there, too, but he shows mercy to Mitch and invites the kid to hang out with everyone.  For Mitch, this is the beginning of a night full of new experiences to which nobody his age should be subjected.  The other issue is Kevin Pickford’s (Shawn Andrews) cancelled party.  With his parents leaving town that afternoon, he intends to make his residence the place where everyone celebrates the end of the school year.  These plans are derailed when the beer delivery comes too early, before his parents leave, and they spend the rest of the evening chasing away from their front door those who did not hear the news.  For the viewer, this means that no longer will we have single setting where we can see this supposed teenage drama unfold.  Really, I could end my review at this point because the rest of it is just teenagers driving around this Texas town, getting progressively drunker and higher. They talk to each other, but it mainly revolves around where they can get more alcohol and marijuana.  In short, nothing happens.  Don and Pink and a few others end the evening on the football field where they are eventually found by the police.  The cops call Coach Conrad, who lectures Pink about the company he is keeping and reiterating the demand to sign the paper.  Pink crumbles the sheet, throws it on the ground, and says that if he plays next year, it will be on his terms.  From there, everyone returns home, but Pink joins David Wooderson (Matthew McConaughey) in driving to Houston to get tickets to an Aerosmith concert.

In case you are unaware, Dazed and Confused takes place in 1976.  I feel the need to explain this since, fifty years later, Aerosmith is still making music.  It has also been over thirty years since the release of this movie, and people still talk about it.  Those who praise it focus on how it is a snapshot of a time when these sorts of behaviors were more acceptable.  Why is that a good thing?  Remarkably, though, there are a few philosophical moments to touch upon from a Catholic perspective.  Our presumptive protagonist gives voice to these concerns of mine when he says at the end that he hopes these are not the best years of his life.  He is responding to Don, who is all about taking advantage of his youth to have as good a time as possible.  However, that is a myopic viewpoint.  During one of the several car ride scenes, Mike Newhouse (Adam Goldberg) and Anthony “Tony” Olson (Anthony Rapp), along with their friend and driver, Cynthia Dunn (Marissa Ribisi), discuss the emptiness of their lives.  They worry that they do not know what they are preparing for, since they are the more serious minded of the characters in the film.  Cynthia says some interesting in thinking that they are not having fun, remarking that the present is solely preamble for the future.  She is correct, though not in how she intends.  Again, she is fretting about not enjoying herself in the moment, which is a fine thing to do under the proper parameters.  In other words, Catholics can party, too.  It is the excess, particularly when it comes to drug use, that is simply unnecessary.  The Church is against recreational use of marijuana, and the movie underscores why this is the case.  It appears to consume the lives of everyone involved, and gets them to behave in destructive ways.  For example, there is a sequence when Don, Mitch, and Pink go around destroying mailboxes.  That is not appropriate in any setting.

Watching Dazed and Confused is also not appropriate.  Luckily, there is no nudity in it, but that is about the only line remaining uncrossed.  There are plenty of sexually suggestive moments in it, including with girls just finishing middle school.  In short, this one is a hard pass.