Dazed and Confused

Just finished watching Dazed and Confused for the first time. I'm not sure what took me so long. It's likely the only movie from the famous "favorites" section at Lebanon Videostop that I hadn't seen.
I laughed. It was definitely entertaining and there were some great lines, like:
"That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age."
I'd heard people say that before but never knew what they were quoting. It's a disgusting thing to say but very funny. Parker Posey was great as the bitchy vengeful senior, as was the kid who played the pothead- Ron Slater. I usually hate pot jokes, references, or characters but he was a spot on pothead.
But my reason for writing about the movie is that I noticed something extremely odd about it. Nothing really happened. There was no rising action, conflict, resolution- nothing. When the movie ended I couldn't believe it. I honestly am blown away that the movie has such a high rating on IMDB (Internet Movie Database). Which is not to say I didn't like it. I definitely give it a thumbs up as I was drawn in the whole time to the characters and conversations and was happy to let my mind drift back to my days in high school- but still, nobody changed. Mitch Kramer, the freshman who tags along to the senior party at Moon Tower, I suppose he goes through some type of metamorphosis, though it's hard to say because we don't really know him at all till he's cruising around with Randy Pink and buying booze for the one black guy in the film (who incidentally can't dance or act). Then this got me thinking, maybe that was the point. Perhaps writer/director Richard Linklater is just trying to give us a glimpse of the average dazed and confused and pointless night of some high school students during the mid-70s. And though we meet them and hear them and watch them, it's all from afar, nothing too specific, just something to watch, in an act of voyeurism, the unfolding of a regular summer night for seniors. Maybe the whole decision whether to play football or not (which is never even decided!) is supposed to be the conflict.
OR maybe, he was so high he forgot to include a plot.