Slacker

“This is the most powerful document for change I’ve ever encountered in my life. I went to see a movie up here in Manhattan, man, at the Angelika Film Center on August 2nd, 1991, and it was this movie. I’ve talked about viewing Slacker with a mixture of awe and arrogance. Awe because I’d never seen anything like it before. And arrogance because, when I finished watching this, one of the first thoughts I had was, 'If that counts as a movie, I think I could make a movie.'”

“We are going to start with Slacker. I showed up in Austin, Texas, in 1991 when this movie was in the Midnight theater, and it is the first time that I realized that a normal person could make a movie, because I grew up in New Orleans and I just wanted to be a musician... So I saw this movie, and it cost $20,000. And then I was walking around and we went into a coffee shop and a friend of mine was like, 'That’s Rick Linklater.'... I was like, 'Oh, a normal person can make a movie.'”

“Slacker. Another great, great movie. Once again, my teenage obsession. And what a dialogue. There’s a… There’s a moment where a guy tried to sell pubic hair of Madonna, Madonna’s pubic hair. Amazing movie. Can I show another tattoo? Teenage kicks forever.”

“Richard Linklater, Slacker. You know, it's like here I am this like suburban kid, you just, you know, I listen to the radio, the top 10, 20 songs and you go to the movies and you watch the movies that everybody else watches. And then I remember I went to see the first movie that was kind of an independent film that kind of changed the way I started looking at things was Birdy. Richard Linklater, one of the greatest filmmakers of our time. Period.”