Dazed and Confused (1983)
Though often written off as a “stoner flick,” this achingly poignant and blisteringly funny take on the last day of school for a bunch of small town kids in 1976 is closer to “Breaking Away” than Cheech and Chong. While not set on the Fourth itself, the summer of our Bicentennial looms large over the proceedings. The film examines the mores of kids in dead-end small towns in the moments before their dreams are tempered by the realities of adulthood – and it did it in a way that “Friday Night Lights” clearly learned from.
