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Alright, Alright, Alright: The Oral History of Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused
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About This Book
"Melissa Maerz's brilliant oral history is the definitive account of a cult-classic movie that took a slow ride into the Seventies and defined the Nineties." –Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone The definitive oral history of the cult classic Dazed and Confused, featuring behind-the-scenes stories from the cast, crew, and Oscar-nominated director Richard Linklater. Dazed and Confused not only heralded the arrival of filmmaker Richard Linklater, it introduced a cast of unknowns who would become the next generation of movie stars. Embraced as a cultural touchstone, the 1993 film would also make Matthew McConaughey's famous phrase—alright, alright, alright—ubiquitous. But it started with a simple idea: Linklater thought people might like to watch a movie about high school kids just hanging out and listening to music on the last day of school in 1976. To some, that might not even sound like a movie. But to a few studio executives, it sounded enough like the next American Graffiti to justify the risk. Dazed and Confused underperformed at the box office and seemed destined to disappear. Then something weird happened: Linklater turned out to be right. This wasn't the kind of movie everybody liked, but it was the kind of movie certain people loved, with an intensity that felt personal. No matter what their high school experience was like, they thought Dazed and Confused was about them. Alright, Alright, Alright is the story of how this iconic film came together and why it worked. Combining behind-the-scenes photos and insights from nearly the entire cast, including Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, and many others, and with full access to Linklater's Dazed archives, it offers an inside look at how a budding filmmaker and a cast of newcomers made a period piece that would feel timeless for decades to come.
Reviews
"Maerz insists that it is 'nearly impossible' not to identify with the film's characters or situations, but also scrutinizes the reasons behind the film's glaring lack of diversity and shines a spotlight on behind-the-scenes misogyny ..."
"This is a spoken, as-told-to memoir of (mostly) everyone who was involved in the making of Linklater's 1993 follow-up to Slacker."
"The book also features numerous black-and-white behind-the-scenes photos and some excerpts from script drafts, letters, and Linklater's Dazed by Days diary."
"Maerz serves more as choir arranger than critic here, but she wisely highlights certain themes, and a chief one is nostalgia ..."
"Essential for fans of the film but also for anyone with ambitions to work in film on either side of the camera."
"But Alright, Alright, Alright is also an interesting peek into the many relationships that must be navigated in the making of a film, and a surprising foray into the nature of memory and nostalgia."
"Through interviews with Linklater and the cast (including Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey) and crew, Maerz delivers an at times humorous chronicle of how a small film became a touchstone of 1990s cinema, with introspective analysis of directing techniques, casting, and performance."
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