Dazed and Confused - the finest teen flick ever?

Completely overlooked on release, Dazed and Confused now stands as one of the finest teen movies of the past thirty years.

To mark it under the "teen movie" bracket is actually to do it a disservice - so rich is the characterisation and mood, films such as American Pie can't hold a candle to it.

Director Richard Linklater is clearly a man who lived through these times - his age, probably putting him on a par with Wiley Wiggins' character Mitch. Coming off the back of his debut Slacker, he arguably created the definitive high school movie.

What's most interesting about it is the way, despite all the usual hi-jinks, it's not afraid to focus on the fact that at this time of life, you're essentially lost. Your life has been governed by others and you're desparate to break away and yet there is no roadmap to follow. Further still, the characters, like all teenagers, are ignorant of the fact that they've got it pretty good. As Pink puts it towards the end of the movie "if I ever start thinking of these as the best days of my life, well, remind me to kill myself" a sentiment echoed by teenagers everywhere.

The word "man" is said 185 times in the movie!

It takes place on the last day of school - bang in the middle of the 1970s. Dispensing with story, the movie instead focuses on different groups of teenagers - dipping in and out of their lives as they embark on the party to end all parties. Some are freshmen, others about to leave for college or the world of work - and what on first viewing seems virtually plotless in fact reveals a dense network of mini-plots. Freshmen get their first taste of adult life, a geek gets his first kiss, other struggle against authority, bullies get their comeuppance and stoners get, well, stoned.

A certain Mr Tarantino has called it his tenth favourite film of all time

All teenage movie cliches for sure, but the beauty in this movie lies in the details. Like all the best movies, it's a film of great moments - snippets of endlessly quotable dialogue and there are many instances where images and music combine to create the truly sublime (witness the Aerosmith scored slow-mo opening for proof).

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Dazed & Confused contains many recognisable faces. Matthew McConaughey as Wooderson gives the most humorous performance as a character who's older and wiser but loves to hang out with his high school buddies of yesteryear. Almost every one of his utterances is a classic line - "that's what I love about these high school girls - I get older, they stay the same age..."

Look out too for Ben Affleck, Parker Posey and an uncredited Rene Zellweger.

To list all the classic moments would spoil your enjoyment, dear reader, and so I invite you to sit back, crack open a bud, turn up the volume and whisk yourself away to the greatest party yet put on film...