Slacker vaguely reminded me of Waking Life, but instead of philosophical musings on human existence, Slacker has a camera that literally meanders as it focuses on actual human existence in Austin during a 24 hour period. Slacker starts with one person then follows another person that is near the prior person and so on and so forth for 97 minutes. Slacker is a slice of life movie and the antecedent of mumble core movies with its mixture of improvisation, drama and faux documentary style to save money.
I was fascinated with how the scenes would transition and whether or not I could discover overarching themes. Slacker is about people with grandiose internal lives, but aggressively understated external lives. Slacker shows how normal each individual’s oddness, which is oddly comforting.
It took me two sittings to watch Slacker with a day in between the two sittings. I liked Slacker, but if you are not into movies with unconventional narratives with no main character or cohesive story, then skip it. Linklater’s Slacker is the anti-Altman.