MUBI

(Originally written July 10, 2008)

I hate Aerosmith and everything they stood for. They were sex, drugs and rock & roll without any sense of substance or originality. Their music was empty, so imagine the message Dazed and Confused sent me when it opened with Aerosmith’s “Sweet Emotion.” This movie, like the music of Aerosmith, feels like an empty celebration, a sad attempt at capturing the spirit of ’76. Almost all of the characters are despicable, and quite simply, the movie is not even funny. This film has been compared to American Graffiti, but the truth is that while George Lucas’ classic love letter to the ’60s has memorable characters and a sense of warmth, director Richard Linklater’s mess of a film has no such substance, and it becomes nearly impossible to building any sort of lasting connection with the characters. That said, the last half hour of the film begins to touch upon something important, with a sense of dramatic development and a tinge of melancholy. The entrance of “Tuesday’s Gone” by Lynyrd Skynyrd in the film is extremely moving, but just when it starts to get good, the movie ends.