Amidst graduation and patriotism season, it’s important to make like Andy Bernard from “The Office” and remember the good times when you’re in them; nostalgia is paramount—hence why the aforementioned pair of iconic films are on my Fourth of July 2025 itinerary.
“Dazed and Confused” — directed by hangout movie guru Richard Linklater — is exactly that: a hangout movie with barely a plot, but an uncanny vibe that intoxicates with a bud-clutching fist.
Set on the last day of high school in 1976, ‘Dazed’ follows the trippy trials and tribulations of an ensemble of incoming seniors and freshmen as they seek out the party to both escape and relish in what cookie-cutter, middle American suburbia affords their collective lot in life.
I will always cherish the weekly viewings my friend group and I held of this instant cult classic as we were winding down our final year at Hauppauge High School back in 2014. After shooting Newfield High School’s graduation ceremony for our graduation issue last week, and as my family braces to bid farewell to the childhood home by summer’s end, I feel compelled to visit one of the quintessential films that quite literally helped me—helped a lot of us—come of age.
Many a merry movie-loving friend of mine, back in the day and to this day, associate this film with both my physical basement and spiritual knack for introducing whomever’s in attendance to quality cinema ahead of that night’s main event, or oftentimes, as that night’s main event.
The film is alive with the glory of the 70s just as much as “The Sandlot” fulfills our betwixt millennial/Gen-Z selves with an encapsulation of what the 60s may have been like for our parents. Just by showing up, my men’s league baseball team reminds me every week how everlastingly grateful I am to still be competing alongside lifelong friends and new ones alike.
Keeping competitive energy alive is crucial at this stage, most of us on the Long Island Crush about to turn 30—give or take a couple of college-aged champs-in-the-making who glide like we used to, and some 50-year-olds that don’t miss a chance to warn us: that time and health ultimately fades too fast for comfort.
We may not be able to control the unpredictability of our work and our personal lives. But we can control how much time we carve out to continue to play the kids’ game no one ever told us we could keep on at forever until we just decided: “You know what? We’re just never going to stop.”
Religiously watching a pick-up baseball-packed film that is, in many ways, more about the virtue of beyond blood brotherly camaraderie than it is the game itself, you realize that though the fireworks often wait for the Fourth of July, the fire in our hearts never dies.
And neither do legends.
Congratulations to all graduating seniors, party on, and most importantly: Go Yankees!