May 28th, 1976. For the juniors at Lee High School in the legendary coming-of-age comedy, Dazed & Confused, it was the last day of school for the summer and the first day of their senior year. For fans of the movie, it’s a day that should be celebrated by popping the old VHS tape into the machine, cracking open a beer, and possibly indulging in other activities that we neither condone nor condemn. If you’ve forgotten why, let us remind you.
The Cast Alone Is Worthy Of A Rewatch
A cast including Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Parker Posey, Yellowstone’s Cole Hauser, Milla Jovovich, Jeremy London, Joey Lauren Adams, and other stars stuffs the marquee with too many famous names to list here. It’s one of the finest examples of a stacked up-and-coming cast in Hollywood history. Renée Zellweger even shows up as a background extra with nary a line; that’s how stacked it is. Keep a sharp eye for her at the party where she’s helping someone chug a beer.
Even the actors in the movie who didn’t become worldwide superstars like McConaughey and Affleck absolutely crush it. Actors like Sasha Jenson, who plays Dawson, and Shawn Andrews, who stars as the “wrong Mr. Pickford altogether,” are fantastic. Michelle Burke, as Jodi, trying to save her brother from the worst of the hazing, is classic. We’ll give a pass to Wiley Wiggins and his constant nose-touching here, since he wasn’t a professional actor before, or really after, the movie. He’s great at other times in the film.
The Classic Lines That Fans Have Been Quoting For Decades
Of course, for most people, it’s the quotes from Dazed & Confused that have us coming back again and again. It’s the movie that gave the world “Alright, alright, alright” for goodness' sake! McConaughey’s character, Wooderson, also has a few other classic lines that you certainly need to be careful about when you quote them out loud, despite making everyone laugh when they hear them.
Every character in the movie gets their moment to shine. London, who plays Randall “Pink” Floyd, is on the receiving end of a some sharp barbs from his head coach (played by Terry Mross), proving the movie doesn’t discount even the most minor characters. And, there is no denying just how hilarious Posey is as the queen bee senior intent on making freshmen's lives miserable. AIR RAID!
Dazed & Confused Is Timeless
The movie is set in 1976, released in 1993, and remains a perfect teen comedy in 2025. Technology changes, and generations develop different values from each other, but much of being a teenager remains the same. Almost every teen goes through certain rites of passage, their first day of high school, their first party, their first beer, and their first kiss… usually in that order, and those are moments that Dazed & Confused capture so well, and so timelessly.
It doesn’t matter what the style of the time is, or if muscle cars are popular, or what music is playing on the radio, some things just never change, and that makes one of the best high school comedies of all time always worth watching on this late spring day every year.
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