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 hero is non-white or non-male)

Big Lebowski

Slacker

Slacker 2011

Wayne’s World

Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure

Dazed and Confused

Clerks

Clerks II

Office Space

Cheech and Chong Up in Smoke*

Harold and Kumar*

Friday*

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