Dazed and Confused: Movies Minute by Minute (Timecodes)

A minute-by-minute analysis of Richard Linklater’s 1993 film, Dazed and Confused. Blending film criticism with creative nonfiction, each book in the Timecodes series focuses on one film, exploring it minute by minute beginning with minute one, and ending with the final minute before the closing credits. This book uses a close study of Dazed and Confused to tell three interrelated stories of adolescent development: the filmmaker’s, the film’s characters, and the author’s own.The film’s unconventional approach to character and plot mirrors the author’s own structureless and energetic childhood, while also having a profound impact on his artistic development, as the film revealed that bending traditional narrative rules could make a story feel more honest and precise.The film also marked a kind of artistic coming-of-age for Linklater himself, as he transitioned from his self-financed indie infancy into his first studio film. The structure of Dazed and Confused mirrors the roving momentum