In retrospect, evoking “MTV”, “safe sex” and “Beavis & Butthead” in the ZOMG 1993 flash cards didn’t do any favors to Richard Linklater’s Dazed and Confused.

It’s supposed to sound like “the more things change…”, but the overall effect is much closer to “come see how your parents used to have fun, you lucky bastard you.”

The multiple interconnecting storylines did result in a ton of choice material for cutting a trailer. However, it all seems much more - together than the actual film, which is lovely, yes, and fun, sure, and ultimately depressing as fuck. Kid trying to throw a party behind his parents’ back comes off as a major narrative thread (it isn’t - shades of House Party, maybe?); Rory Cochrane is displayed as a leading player (he isn’t); images and out-of-context lines point towards a familiar stoner comedy angle (not by a long shot), while the whole boy / girl going through the initiation routine is missing (and you get plenty of that).

Linklater gloriously clashed with Gramercy and Universal Pictures before, during and after the making of this picture - it was barely released in theaters, only to achieve a cult following on VHS, and to get a second-rate treatment on DVD until 2006. On one DVD commentary you allegedly hear Cochrane digging up some ‘splainin’ for the original flop such as “people were not allowed to bring a bong into theaters”.

At least the trailer’s cut to Rock And Roll All Nite fading to Sweet Emotion, and both songs are featured in the actual film.

And yes, the immortal “…I get old, they stay the same age” line is here. So I’ll give them that.