UCI Opens ‘Inside Outsiders’ Series With Misfit ‘Slacker’

The UC Irvine film series “Inside Outsiders” begins Friday with Richard Linklater’s shoestring feature, “Slacker.” In a way, that makes sense, because this movie is all about outsiders, those fringe dwellers who are happy to be out of the mainstream.

Actually, calling the dozens of characters in “Slacker” outsiders is a compliment. Most of them didn’t seem to choose their position because of rebelliousness or a sense of anarchy, but more out of simple laziness. They’re really pretty aimless, and that’s what puts them on the outside.

Linklater made the film for just $23,000, and that helps explain the low-rent quality. It’s not hard getting into the cheap look--”Slacker” does have a spontaneous and nicely anti-slick quality--but the folks at the center of Linklater’s camera aren’t especially riveting.

Linklater, in a loose sort of documentary style, interviews about 100 people, trying to find the heart of their stories. Some are interesting, such as the J.F.K. conspiracy buff and the woman trying to sell a Madonna Pap smear, but most are narcissistic and indulgent. Even with the bizarro cachet, there are real boring patches in “Slacker.”

The series continues on Jan. 22 with a better movie, “The Chant of Jimmie Blacksmith.” The 1978 drama, based on a novel written by UCI English professor Thomas Keneally and directed by Fred Schepisi, focuses on racism against Australian aborigines.

Up next, on Jan. 29, is Herbert Biberman’s “Salt of the Earth.” The 1953 movie is based on a 1951 strike in New Mexico by Latino workers and is famous for its pro-labor and pro-feminist slant.

Philippe De Broca’s cult favorite, “King of Hearts,” is scheduled for Feb. 5. It was released in 1966 and revels in the takeover of a town by mental patients in the wake of World War II.

On Feb. 12, the animated feature “Animal Farm” (1955) will be screened. Based on George Orwell’s famous book, the John Halas-directed film uses a pig revolt as a metaphor for dictatorial rule.

Another movie taking its inspiration from literature is Orson Welles’ “The Trial” (1963), based on Franz Kafka’s novel and offered Feb. 19. It stars Anthony Perkins as a man in a totalitarian society who is arrested and put on trial but is never told why.

Frederick Wiseman’s “Titicut Follies” will be shown Feb. 26. The 1967 release, which was banned from general viewing until 1991, documents the abuse of patients in a Massachusetts mental hospital.

“The White Rose,” Michael Verhoeven’s 1983 film, is slated for March 5. Based on a true story, it retells how students in Nazi Germany rebelled against the fascists.

On March 12, Michael Powell’s creepy “Peeping Tom” will screen. The 1960 release centers on a young killer who films the reactions of his victims as they die.

The series closes more cheerfully with Woody Allen’s “Bananas,” on March 19. Allen teams up with revolution in a tiny Latin American country in this 1971 comedy.