RICHARD LINKLATER

D&C, but a vote for anything but the Befores is OK with me. Even The Newton Boys.

Tape has Ethan Hawke's best performance. Voted for D&C over Before Sunrise.

i'm surely way out on my lonesome here, but I've never understood the hard-on people have for this dude. Slacker and D&C had a couple of chuckles in them, and he's uh, technically competent...
but really?

I really enjoyed Tape; would screen again.

And Slacker is just one of my favorite films ever, art's best defense of Texas -- but I D&C never clicked for me, at all.

How busy was he 2001-2006? Wow, didn't realise he was that productive then. Well, I did, but I've never looked at titles and dates and considered it before.

Arguably a little too busy.

D&C did click for me, in part, cuz apparently Texas was just like how I remember New Jersey being in 1976.

D&C is the only movie yet made that I can watch ad infinitum. Such a fun, easy-going flick.

Before Sunset, easily.

PARTY AT THE MOON TOWWER

Dazed and Confused is one of my favourite movies ever. So, um, yeah.

I haven't seen very many of his films. A Scanner Darkly was extraordinary, though.

I wish they'd release subUrbia out on DVD.

Oh yes. Warners were supposed to have it out last fall.

Linklater came down to Houston last year to introduce a screening of Minnelli's Some Came Running at the MFA. He did a Q & A about the film afterward. After that he signed some autographs and chatted with fans. Nice fellow. There was funny moment during Q & A when this one prick kept asking about A Scanner Darkly and his usage of Keanu Reeves. A real pain in the ass. Linklater finally told him that Keanu was a good guy and easy to work with.

Before Sunrise. Obv.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Waking Life is a mess, but I love it.

D&C is very good, but I don't really love it.

Before Sunrise is his best and I like it a lot.

Voted Waking Life.

saw part of FFN today. BO RING.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Waking Life (2001) 4

!!!

nono

The School of Rock (2003) 4

!!!

The School of Rock >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Waking Life

I want to like totally revolt in this poll thread omg

Worthiest winner ever.

most accurate poll results ever

Waking Life is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. (BOGUS is the worst.)

he achieved everything he couldve wanted to with dazed & confused & he'd probably admit as much under influence of truth serum

-- deeznuts, Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:17 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Link

oddly

The School of Rock >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Waking Life

Yeah I mean WL is basically this book + bong hit talking points with varying degrees of validity, but its occasionally thought provoking and the animation keeps me interested. One of those "saw it at a particular time in life and should probably have disowned it by now but daaaaaaaaaaamn"

I loved School of Rock. Probably not as much as some of the other films on this list, but I thoroughly enjoyed it none-the-less.

"spiritual sequel" to Dazed?

http://daily.greencine.com/archives/007404.html

Not any more... http://www.riskybusinessblog.com/2009/06/an-indie-flm-world-dazed-and-confused.html

The indie-film financing crisis is hitting even indie-film fixtures.

For the past few months, Richard Linklater has been circulating a buzzed-about script, a coming-of-age tale called "That's What I'm Talking About." Industryites who've read it say it's more like "Dazed & Confused" than much of what the director's done of late, though probably a little more on the drama end of the spectrum than the 1993 slacker comedy.

Talent reps had been reading the piece with a number of people in mind for the juicy roles, in a pic that Linklater was also to have directed.

But after months seeking financing, it looks like the movie may have to wait. There were financiers interested, but after seeing the rocky finished-film market, they didn't want to board the project until a distributor had signed on too.

And distributors -- as the market at Cannes and many other places showed -- are disinclined to board a movie at the script stage no matter how good a script it is. That Catch-22 was enough to freeze the project.

"We still think it's very marketable. It's just has to go on the shelf for now," said a rep for the director and his production banner Detour.

And if Linklater has to go on the shelf, what of all the slackers?

anyone seen Me & OW?

I think I mentioned in (one of) the film thread that Zac Efron finally looks rowr.

it is pretty good.

strange that they have a 36 year old playing Welles when he was 22, but he is very good in the role, and I guess there's no harm in emphasizing his presence/knowledge/etc... through the eyes of a 17 year old.

it's aight.

in my mind this looks the same as 'cradle will rock' which looked boring and i did not see

Just about every positive review has claimed it's nothing like Cradle Will Rock and that the movie is what CWR should have been.

it is better than 'cradle'... 'cradle' should just have been better, not more like this necessarily. 'me and orson welles' has very little to do with the politics of the 1930s, by comparison.

a lot of people have said the framing story in which f-ron meets cute with this aspiring new yorker writer is a bit ehhhhh. and they're right, it doesn't quite come off.

very strong supporting cast... may as well just say "needed more kelly reilly" here.

like i said in another thread... it's basically a good kid's film

Which this year does not want for, obv.

ain't nothing wrong with that.

age ain't nothing, et al

How do you make a movie about Orson Welles and not cast the guy who plays Paul Kinsey on Mad Men?

it's about the 22-y-o orson and the kins would have looked too old -- amazed this guy pulled it off tbh. the joseph cotten-looking dude was uncannily joseph cotten-looking.

I didn't think this guy pulled off the age at all, but as I said, I thought it worked.

What about Everett Sloane-looking dude?

it's basically a good kid's film

I guess I'm a good kid, then! It doesn't work on as many levels as Topsy-Turvy, tho it was also shot by Dick Pope, but I was generally delighted. McKay's turn works in similar fashion as Streep's Julia Child, and Efron is good.

Recognized the Norman Lloyd character right away (tho the actor looks like Larry Fine), cuz I saw Lloyd describing his '37 role as Cinna the poet at the Film Forum a year ago!

ha i was thinking abt going to see that today since i have the day off

i really dont know which of these id vote for - like the sunset films, slacker and d&c a whole lot for p different reasons

also I realize Canadians are raised differently, but I didn't know "a kid's film" could include a scene where members of the ensemble betting $5 on who will ball the theatre company's secretary first. (Though this certainly would've improved the last half of Up.)

for reference Anticipate Richard Linklater's BLUE MOON, starring Ethan Hawke as Lorenz Hart

Linklater is so prolific and his movies are so diverse that it's no surprise some get lost in the shuffle. But the other day "The Newton Boys" came to mind - just the existence of the movie itself - and I thought, huh, no one ever talks about that one at all. A really good Dwight Yoakam performance, iirc. But then I glanced at a list of Linklater movies and there were a few that didn't ring even a hint of a bell: "Me and Orson Welles," "Last Flag Flying," and "Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Odyssey." Just ... nothing.

(Totally unrelated but still related, I saw a thumbnail pop up somewhere with a Clint Eastwood-directed movie starring Matt Damon I didn't know existed either, "Hereafter." I recognize the title of just about every other movie he has directed, but not that one.)

Me and Orson Welles earned momentary Oscar buzz thanks to Christian McKay's uncanny Welles mimicry.

The other two were for streamers: LFF with the pre-MGM era Amazon, and Apollo with Netflix.

The guy who wrote the novel on which Me and Orson Welles was based also wrote the screenplay for Blue Moon.

Jonathan Rosenbaum and I think Richard Brody usually champion The Newton Boys as one of Linklater's best films, though it's possible they're more vocal about that one because it's often overlooked (a practice both have openly admitted).

Linklater is one of those artists who consistently makes good to great films, but anecdotally it's not unusual for me to hear someone complain that his films don't have enough plot or dramatic payoff, typically from people who are already resistant to "hangout" films or anything that doesn't place much emphasis on plot. (I have one friend who also hates American Graffiti for that reason, a film that's otherwise fairly popular, not to mention a massive hit in its day.) So "nothing happens" in Boyhood, or the Before Trilogy is "all talk" and "goes nowhere," etc. - all fairly popular films but it's curious to run into people who make those comments even when they claim to love films outside of the mainstream.

FWIW, I didn't like Last Flag Flying, but I liked Me and Orson Welles and Apollo 10 1/2 quite a bit, as well as The Newton Boys and Blue Moon.

I thought his installment of "God Save Texas," about the relationship between him/his home town and the death penalty, was great.

What became a somewhat surprising criticism of Newton Boys was the inclusion of the footage of one of the real guys on Carson during the end credits, which led some to point that Linklater might have been better off having made a documentary on the gang instead.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fenpjqq-UBo

lol the interview with the other brother where he says the only thing he's sorry about is one time they ran off and left $200,000 sitting on a counter.

FWIW, here's Jonathan Rosenbaum's appreciation.

huh, I’ve somehow not only never seen but haven’t really even heard discussed the newton boys, despite liking almost every linklater I’ve seen. might watch it tonight

huh, I’ve somehow not only never seen but haven’t really even heard discussed the newton boys, despite liking almost every linklater I’ve seen. might watch it tonight

Exactly my point!

Me and Orson Welles earned momentary Oscar buzz thanks to Christian McKay's uncanny Welles mimicry.

― boners for bombs (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, May 10, 2026 8:21 AM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Set your favorite band member's autobiography aside - "Me and Orson Welles" is an absolute must read.

I thought Hit Man was dreadful, so I'm not sure about "consistently good to great". I saw the fabled Newton Boys when it came out on DVD, I remember it being formless and lacking suspense, but I'd try it again. Not so much "nothing happens" as "too much happens" without peaks or troughs.

watched newton boys. was good fun, middle of the pack linklater

xp Plenty of people liked Hit Man and would disagree.

Hit Man was at best okay, but I have a Glen Powell Problem: sometimes I think Glen Powell is a scam thought up by bizzers who think millennials and Gen Z don't understand sex appeal, get enough sex, or don't want to have sex.

Yeah, the whole Glen Powell: Leading Man thing is lost on me.

Clearly a psy-op.

Geese Powell

"Sources tell Variety that “Only the Brave” star Miles Teller has been tapped to play the son of Goose and Maverick’s new protege in Paramount and Skydance’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel to the 1986 Cruise classic. In the original pic, Goose, played by Anthony Edwards, was the co-pilot to Cruise’s Maverick.

Last week, it was reported that Cruise tested with Teller, Glen Powell and Nicholas Hoult for the role."

Clearly the powers that be playing the long game recognized Powell as Son of Goose too on the nose for what they had in store.