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Below are two lists of films, both of which I’ll be watching as research for crafting a new kind of Slacker Film. One is a long list of Slacker (or slacker-adjacent) films. The other is a shorter list of “work-humper” films that glorify grit and pulling yourself up by your bootstraps (especially if you’re poor and/or non-white, non-male).
Feel free to suggest any entries to the list. I’m especially interesting in finding any existing Slacker films where the main character is not male and/or white, which seem to be few and far between.
(EDIT: with your suggestions coming in, there are actually more than I thought and some I had forgotten about—thank you! I’m looking forward to see how the themes differ, if at all, with these).
As I watch and analyze each film, I’ll link to its corresponding most from here.
Slacker Films (starred if the hero is non-White or non-male)
Clerks, Clerks II, and Clerks III
The Big Lebowski
Slacker 2011
Wayne’s World
Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure
Dazed and Confused
Harold and Kumar*
Half-Baked*
Sorry to Bother You* (this could kind of swing either way, but worth revisiting because it has slacker-ish themes)
How High (2001)*
Sweet Sweetback’s Bad Ass Song* (I’m not sure this is really a Slacker movie, but I remember it as a film depicting a main black character acting brazenly, unapologetically “antisocially,” so much so that my date to the film stormed out of the theater—that’s how I knew I was watching something great. I want to review this Melvin Van Peebles classic again)
Mystic Pizza*
Malibu’s Most Wanted*
Repo Man (1984)
Commune (2005 doc)
Leaves of Grass
Goats (2012)
Trainspotting (1996)
Empire Records (1995)
Crystal Fairy and the Magical Cactus
High Fidelity
Airheads
Mallrats
Pineapple Express
Knocked Up
Jeff Who Lives at Home
Scott Pilgrim vs. The World
Stripes (1981) with Bill Murray
Slackers (2002)
A coffee in Berlin
The King of Staten Island
Gabriel DropOut – Japanese short Manga*
Accepted (2006)
Starbuck 2011
Grandma’s Boy (2006)
The Sweetest Thing (2002)*
Funny HaHa (2002)*
Zero Fucks Given*
Delhi Belly*
Buzzard (2014)
Waiting
Certain subplots of Silicon Valley?
The Perfect Score
Work-Humper Films
The Pursuit of Happyness (already done, kinda)
Working Girl (1988)
Legally Blonde (2001)
The Devil Wears Prada (2006)
Up in the Air (2009)
Chef (2014)
It’s a Wonderful Life
Stand and Deliver
The Great Debaters
Lean on Me (1989)
The Paper Chase (1973)
Cooley High
Summer School (1987)
King Richard