JAN 24: Slacker

In addition to the usual circus of notable premieres at Sundance, this year’s festival will herald the return of Richard Linklater’s seminal 1991 indie, Slacker, to the big screen. The event, on January 24, celebrates both the movie’s 20th anniversary and its induction into the Sundance Institute Collection at UCLA, an archive dedicated to preserving and restoring independent films. The cult classic meanders through a day in the life of twentysomething misfits in Austin, Texas, and its improvisational style and bizarrely engaging characters (including a woman trying to sell a Madonna Pap smear) not only became a Linklater signature but also influenced a generation of filmmakers like Kevin Smith and, later, mumble-core stalwarts the Duplass brothers, all of whom crafted bright careers from similarly plotless ennui.

Photo: Orion Classics/Everett Collection