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111 reviews for:
Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused
Melissa Maerz
4.46 AVERAGE
111 reviews for:
Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused
Melissa Maerz
4.46 AVERAGE
Thank you to NetGalley for this opportunity to read 'Alright, Alright, Alright' before it's publish date. As a fan of the movie 'Dazed and Confused" I was very interested in this book. After reading it, I had to watch it again, so I could pick up on a lot of the inside information mentioned in the book.
funny
reflective
slow-paced
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
The first section is an excellent ethnography of Austin.
i mean, it’s a book about the making of dazed and confused. of course it’s great
emotional
funny
informative
fast-paced
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Obviously, if you loved Dazed and Confused like I do, you’re going to like this. All in all, it was an incredibly thorough and well-researched history of a cult classic, but I kept running into a couple of issues.
There’s a large part of me that wishes this wasn’t an oral history told in interviews. That’s partially because I really love the intro paragraphs and wanted more of the author’s writing thrown in and partially because everyone just seemed really catty through a lot of the story. There were multiple moments where someone would make a claim and it would immediately have the contradiction of that claim made in the next line so it sets up a very tennis-match like back and forth where you’re left wondering what really happened. There are also A TON of people interviewed…to the point that I just kind of stopped paying attention to who was who because it got overwhelming to keep flitting back and forth to know the relation that person had to the film. There’s also a whole lot of times where people are clearly calling people out for pretty minor actions, but then there are other moments where there are some major red flags that people just allude to but not actually call out and I couldn’t help but think, “Maybe we should focus on those major issues rather than when someone just said something a little mean about you?”
But on the other hand, I learned so much and Maerz did a phenomenal job getting an incredible amount of people to dive back into what making this move was like. I love how the chapters were grouped and time was clearly spent making the edit as sharp as possible. There was so much that happened in the making of this movie that I never even realized. All in all, I highly recommend this if you love Dazed and Confused or have an interest in how cult classics become classics, just beware of some bleed-through of catty high school attitudes even in the adults.
There’s a large part of me that wishes this wasn’t an oral history told in interviews. That’s partially because I really love the intro paragraphs and wanted more of the author’s writing thrown in and partially because everyone just seemed really catty through a lot of the story. There were multiple moments where someone would make a claim and it would immediately have the contradiction of that claim made in the next line so it sets up a very tennis-match like back and forth where you’re left wondering what really happened. There are also A TON of people interviewed…to the point that I just kind of stopped paying attention to who was who because it got overwhelming to keep flitting back and forth to know the relation that person had to the film. There’s also a whole lot of times where people are clearly calling people out for pretty minor actions, but then there are other moments where there are some major red flags that people just allude to but not actually call out and I couldn’t help but think, “Maybe we should focus on those major issues rather than when someone just said something a little mean about you?”
But on the other hand, I learned so much and Maerz did a phenomenal job getting an incredible amount of people to dive back into what making this move was like. I love how the chapters were grouped and time was clearly spent making the edit as sharp as possible. There was so much that happened in the making of this movie that I never even realized. All in all, I highly recommend this if you love Dazed and Confused or have an interest in how cult classics become classics, just beware of some bleed-through of catty high school attitudes even in the adults.
funny
informative
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Dazed and Confused is one of my favorite movies so this was nothing but a pleasure to read. Now I have to rewatch the movie!!
Have you read this book yet? It’d be a lot cooler if you did.
I was expecting some inside stories and fun little tidbits but I got so much more. I had no idea the extent that Maerz would go to researching the making of Dazed and Confused.
The journey starts in Linklater’s childhood and we don’t even really get to the actual meaty part of the movie making until well into the book. And after the movie has wrapped, we are taken through post-production, release, critical reception, and the legacy of the movie and it’s cast and crew.
This was a hefty read (well actually a listen) with a lot of info, but I wasn’t bogged down. I think the structure of the book helped with that. The author gives a brief introduction at the start of each chapter and then excerpts from her interviews volley the topic back and forth. Some of the interviewees get to offer rebuttals to previous statements which I thought was really interesting.
I was expecting some inside stories and fun little tidbits but I got so much more. I had no idea the extent that Maerz would go to researching the making of Dazed and Confused.
The journey starts in Linklater’s childhood and we don’t even really get to the actual meaty part of the movie making until well into the book. And after the movie has wrapped, we are taken through post-production, release, critical reception, and the legacy of the movie and it’s cast and crew.
This was a hefty read (well actually a listen) with a lot of info, but I wasn’t bogged down. I think the structure of the book helped with that. The author gives a brief introduction at the start of each chapter and then excerpts from her interviews volley the topic back and forth. Some of the interviewees get to offer rebuttals to previous statements which I thought was really interesting.
funny
informative
inspiring