--- title: "Slacker: the reviews" canonical: "https://film.one/film/slacker/reviews" title_page: "https://film.one/film/slacker" critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 9 licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Slacker (1990): what the critics said Critics' score 71 from 9 reviews: 7 positive, 1 mixed, 1 negative. Most critics respond warmly to Slacker’s wandering portrait of Austin, with praise clustering around Richard Linklater’s relay-like movement from one eccentric resident to another. The favourable reviews find careful organisation beneath the apparent aimlessness, along with humour and an affectionate, lightly satirical interest in the characters’ beliefs. Several also value the documentary-like style and naturalistic performances, finding that the encounters build a convincing picture of people whose ambitions rarely take conventional forms. The spread is wide, however, and the lack of a continuing story is the chief dividing point. Even some sympathetic reviews find that interest fluctuates with whoever happens to be speaking, while others see the loose structure as essential to the film’s appeal. The New York Times finds that funny passages eventually give way to monotony; the Los Angeles Times is more firmly opposed, judging the local colour insufficient to make the aimless company engaging. ## The AV Club — Mike D'Angelo Rating A. 25 September 2013. The critic praises the film's unusual baton-passing structure and its inventory of idiosyncratic Austin characters as dreamers and misfits rather than true slackers. Linklater's affectionate yet lightly satirical take on their worldviews makes the episodic encounters cohere into a fun, homogeneous whole. [Read the review](https://www.avclub.com/slacker-1798178078) ## Slant Magazine — Budd Wilkins Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 22 September 2013. The critic views Slacker as a profoundly philosophical film with a round-robin structure that explores characters' worldviews and the possibilities of human freedom, borrowing from Buñuel and Ophüls. It celebrates a curdled radicalism and principled nonparticipation while sowing seeds for Linklater's later work. [Read the review](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/slacker/) ## The Guardian — Derek Malcolm Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 3 December 1992. The critic calls it easily the most original American independent debut of the year and by some way the most entertaining. He singles out its free-form, relay-like structure of vignettes with around a hundred characters passing the baton, all planned like a military exercise despite its low budget. [Read the review](https://www.theguardian.com/film/1992/dec/03/1) ## Time Out — NF Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 10 September 2012. The critic describes the film as a freewheeling, documentary-style celebration of the eccentric residents of Austin, Texas. It finds the studied eccentricity oddly compelling despite its home-movie quality. [Read the review](https://www.timeout.com/movies/slacker) ## Variety Fi1m's normalised score 70/100 (inferred from the text). 31 December 1990. It is one of the freshest independent films in some time thanks to its highly idiosyncratic non-narrative approach and fluid style shifting between characters. The lack of storyline means interest rises and falls depending on who is on screen. [Read the review](https://variety.com/1990/film/reviews/slacker-1200428751/) ## The New York Times — Vincent Canby Fi1m's normalised score 55/100 (inferred from the text). 5 July 1991. The film is a series of unconnected vignettes featuring eccentric characters with no narrative thread. It offers some funny moments and effective nonprofessional performances drawn from the director's notebooks, but charm gives way to monotony. [Read the review](https://www.nytimes.com/1991/07/05/movies/review-film-slacker-a-collection-of-eccentrics-and-lunacies.html) ## Los Angeles Times — Kenneth Turan Fi1m's normalised score 25/100 (inferred from the text). 26 July 1991. The film celebrates tedium through aimless characters and lacks any plot or engaging elements. It preserves local color but offers little to hold viewer interest. [Read the review](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1991-07-26-ca-56-story.html) ## Empire — Kim Newman 1 January 2000. The film sharply divides audiences between those who see it as a groundbreaking snapshot of a lost generation and those frustrated by its lack of plot. It offers a portrait of likeable drifters through unconventional structure and smart observations. [Read the review](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/slacker-review/) ## The Independent 4 December 1992. The film is a flaneur's stroll around Austin featuring under-motivated locals connected by passing characters in the frame. It can be mildly boring overall but has funny passages and hints that the director may have more to offer. [Read the review](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/film-idle-thoughts-and-passing-interests-slackers-richard-linklater-us-this-is-my-life-12-nora-ephron-us-thousand-pieces-of-gold-no-cert-nancy-kelly-us-1561408.html) ## Collider — Jackson Jackson Fi1m's normalised score 85/100 (inferred from the text). 9 November 2013. The critic calls Slacker a modern masterpiece and one of Linklater's masterworks for its non-traditional form. They single out its cinema verite style and naturalistic performances by non-professionals that create a tapestry of counterculture life in Austin. [Read the review](https://collider.com/slacker-criterion-collection-blu-ray-review/) ## Paste — Jeremy Mathews Fi1m's normalised score 80/100 (inferred from the text). 22 October 2014. The critic finds Slacker exhilarating and one of a kind for its authentic yet bizarre depiction of Austin's peculiar people. They single out the joyful finale with friends passing Super-8 cameras in the mountains as a highlight of experimental youth. [Read the review](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/the-rick-trospective-slacker-1) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Our review: https://film.one/film/slacker.md