Feeling a bit dazed.

Do you have those movies that you watch over and over again just to watch?  You may have it on in the background while doing chores or put it on while going to sleep, you know what is happening, you've seen it so many times, you know that Jeff Bridges is taking a bath listening to whale sounds, no need to pay that much attention.

Well last night I watched one of my favorite background noise movies but for realsies, Dazed and Confused.  How much does that movie rule?  It's an obvious classic and I don't feel like I need to go into it's merits, but I hadn't watched it form start to finish, uninterrupted, in a long time.  I'll be honest that the viewing was inspired but just recently seeing Magic Mike and I needed to continue my McConaugh-igh.

I'm a sucker for movies about "last" days, insert Wet Hot American Summer or...some other movie where that happens, so let's just say I love these two movies.  But, D&C has that almost Catcher in the Rye quality to it, where watching/reading it at different points in your life give it a different meaning to it all together (somebody told me that about Catcher in the Rye once, it's the only reason I read it twice).

I digress.  In high school watching D&C I got the feeling that I wish I had gone to high school in '76, everyone parties together!  It seemed so much simpler, nobody cared what you did, the future isn't quite as certain but you still question your purpose but it's while partying at a Moon Tower!  Also, you could buy beer at 18, which seemed like it would have had it's benefits.

In college it was, "man college rules, remember high school? that sucked right?"  The movie served more as a glimpse into what could have been, "that's not what high school was like for me, and thank god I am not there anymore, we're in college now, where all the girls will be puttin' out."  Also, it served as a great time waster with buddies before going to a party AND a killer summer soundtrack.

But now, I watched it for the first time in a long time, I am out of college, I live in Brooklyn in a completely different world.  I reached the moment of sentiment while viewing it.  I also thought "man high school was awesome," and I hated high school. The themes still ring true more than ever, issues dealing with identity, belonging, connection and alienation.   It's not just a movie where they smoke weed and play pool at the Emporium anymore, although it is still that, but last night it touched me on a different level.  Even in '76 when premium was 58 cents things weren't so different for high schoolers as they are for displanted southerners in New York in 2012, and that was comforting in a way.  

All in all that movie rules and is one of those special films that can really speak to you no matter who you are.