Dazed And Confused is a super-nostalgic film for me. Not just because my friends and I watched it until we memorized it Rocky Horror Picture Show-style, but because the film itself is so good at channeling teen life, despite the era it takes place in it is comepletely relatable, unsentimental and doesn’t go for the tidy wrap-up in the end: It’s just the end of the day. It’s just a movie that fun to watch, and it is so detailed you’ll notice something new going on somewhere on screen every time you watch it.
I feel like Can’t Hardly Wait is like that, even though the ending kind of ruins the movie. It would have been better if he never got Jennifer Love Hewitt and he just went off to college. Dazed and Confused is much better though.
I always thought Dazed and Confused was a tad overrated. Good movie, never got the Crown level love some people had for it. Can't Hardly Wait was a great pop comedy. Closer to my middle school/high school experience than Dazed and Confused (era wise) so it is my preferred watch of the two. Still neither hold a candle to Varsity Blues. Boy does this scene feel quaint today:
Someone else mentioned music and I agree. I can hear a song and immediately remember where I was in life when it was originally on the radio. Also "antique malls". They're like indoor flea markets and I love pawing through all the old junk. Every once in a while something triggers a memory and ends up coming home with me. It would be easy for me to be a hoarder, but fortunately I'm also kind of a neat freak so it balances out.
Theres a mall in Salem, MA thats like that. Instead of just old junk, its old junk, fortune tellers, touristy witchcraft novelties and old Chinese ladies selling porcelain cat dolls. Every time I've walked through it (its connected to a cheap parking garage), its completely empty save for a junky or two passed out in an entry way.