RICHARD LINKLATER

i don't have any problems w/ the conception of bernie, i just thought it fell down in the execution, like everybody was half-asleep. was kind of sloppy visually too, he gets that way sometimes (some scenes from the otherwise good school of rock are like the most awkwardly framed/edited things i've seen by a director i admire).

come on she did more than just stare! (i can't remember any specific things she did now, but i thought she was great!)

i dunno. it struck me as the one of the least expressive performances i'd seen.

Bernie was a nothing.

i didnt think maclaine was that good either... it didnt help that the movie only wanted to see her character one way, but her sourpuss act didnt do a lot for me

the star of the movie was the guy in the diner talking about the different regions of texas, and how he wouldnt trust the rednecks in the next county over to mow his lawn. that guy was perfect

^^Sonny Davis! He was in a bunch of stuff back in the day--the early Eagle Pennell films, Melvin and Howard, Roadie, Fast Times At Ridgemont High (he's the guy that get Reinhold fired at the burger place)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWHHQ3Rz534

holy shit that guy was a fuckin actor? i thought he was a real guy from the town!

yeah he was awesome. I wasn't sure if he was an actor or not either

haha I guess I'm not surprised since he seemed a little TOO perfect. The bit where he says people tend to forget about the panhandle, and then he promptly forgets about it, is when I knew I'd love the movie.

yeah he was awesome. I wasn't sure if he was an actor or not either

― Number None, Saturday, May 25, 2013 4:12 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that was probably the most interesting thing about this movie, the way it blurred the distinction b/t documentary and fiction.

the actual character at the heart of the movie was just null. the film couldn't seem to decide if we were seeing him "through" the eyes of the townspeople exclusively or if we were going to get a bit of privileged access into his own feelings. it ended up being a little of both, and for the me that way it kind of indifferently switched among these vantages made the film seem kind of lazy and ineffectual to me.

i thought it was pretty consistent in keeping Bernie a bit opaque--at what point do we get privileged access to his feelings?

well we get some private moments IIRC, like him breaking down after the murder, no? or him complaining about ol' miss botox? i just remember a few points where the "as seen through others" thing is just kind of violated. i mean if i thought linklater was managing these changes in tone and perspective in some organized way, i could have gone with it. but it just felt kind of sloppy.

i admit i'm running on imperfect memories here since i saw it a while ago (when it was in theaters) and it didn't leave a strong impression.

yeah that's fair enough. i guess i chose to interpret those moments as more like a "negative" correlative in the sense that they show Bernie is maintaining a facade but they don't give us much insight into what's behind it. hell, even the murder shows that maybe Bernie doesn't understand himself very well.

I watched this last night, sparked primarily by all the interesting back-and-forth here. I agree with something from almost everyone...It's a conceptual rather than a lived film, and more often than not, there's a limit to how much I like such films. (I prefer the messiness of School of Rock, in other words--lots of exceptions, of course.) So it was always a little off for me, even though it held my interest the whole way. I agree with a lot of what amateurist wrote above, although I did admire Maclaine's performance (but can see where someone else wouldn't). McConaughey was excellent, and thanks for pointing out the Fast Times guy--would never have realized it was him.

i had a dream that i was watching before midnight last night and the film started with a sort of wacky, bright green-and-yellow animated logo announcing it was "the latest in the BEFORE series!"

I liked the movie, but the weakest part of it (as the real Danny Buck Davidson pointed out) is that it's entirely too sympathetic to Bernie (although maybe that's because it was impossible to find anyone with anyone nice to say about the widow MacLaine, but since a lot of the talking head people are actors I don't see where that would be an impediment). Bernie might really have been the harmless, generous naif that the movie makes him out to be, but he still committed a pretty horrific crime and the Fargo-esque way it plays in the film diminished that.

i will say that matthew mackonaheyhey was amazing in "bernie"

just saw "mud" too so he's on my mind (btw i didn't love that one--have we discussed it on ILX?)

http://www.slashfilm.com/ethan-hawke-says-richard-linklaters-truly-original-film-boyhood-to-play-in-2014/

http://vimeo.com/65465202

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/double-play-james-benning-richard-624076

Boyhood, the film shot over 11 years, is playing Sundance.

http://www.sundance.org/press-center/release/2014-sundance-film-festival-will-preview-boyhood-from-richard-linklater/

http://filmmakermagazine.com/83405-sundance-adds-richard-linklaters-boyhood-to-2014-slate/#.UtVn_PRDtyw

yea that looks kool

Every time this is bumped I secretly hope it's about a DVD release of subUrbia

O'Hehir goes bananas

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/21/sundance_richard_linklaters_dazzling_12_year_family_epic/

sounds unfortunately like The Tree of Life will get dragged into too many discussions of this.

curating an '80s fest in Austin (which in NYC wd mean shit bad 'cheesy' movies)

Five films are scheduled for the first installment of this series, which only covers the years up to 1983. ‘I’m going to talk about these from a personal, subjective viewpoint,’ explains Linklater.” The five? Scorsese’s The King of Comedy (1982, screening January 29), Fassbinder’s Veronika Voss (1982, February 5), Martha Coolidge’s Valley Girl (1983, February 12), Sam Fuller‘s White Dog (1982, February 19) and Warren Beatty’s Reds (1981, February 26).

http://www.austinchronicle.com/screens/2014-01-24/richard-linklaters-diamonds-in-the-rough/

so jealous i can't go to that

What are his best and worst, critics? My answers would be some combo of Slacker, A Scanner Darkly and D&C at the top, and as for worst, here's Peter Keough:

Before Midnight. Because it took a couple whom I had fallen in love with in the previous two movies and transformed them into a nasty, carping, shallow pair of self-loathing losers I would hate to spend lunch with, all in a vain attempt to update and yuppify Rossellini's Journey to Italy.

http://blogs.indiewire.com/criticwire/criticwire-survey-linklaters-best-and-worst

You left out his flash of self awareness at the end - "But I suppose such is life."

also RL reportedly going to do a semi-animated remake of Don Knotts' The Incredible Mr, Limpet with Zach Galifibeardo:

http://www.screendaily.com/news/doc-duo-join-linklaters-mr-limpet/5065861.article?blocktitle=MORE-TOP-NEWS&contentID=40294

Taking the Before movies off the table, the best I've seen is obv D&C. The worst is either School of Rock or Fast Food Nation I guess. I saw Newton Boys before I cared about Linklater as a director, but I remember it being not great.

FFN and SoR I'd both put light-years ahead of Bernie

Best:

D&C
Before Sunrise/Sunset
Waking Life
Me and Orson Welles (better than you think)

What I remember about The Newton Boys is 1) Eric Bogosian was sitting near me (in fact, I saw his play subUrbia and the film is the only RL I've missed) and 2) I admired the well-hung cast.

waking life and slacker easily the ones that meant the most to me and slacker maybe the most essential in how it captures a moment and kind of america right before it was about to get kinda destroyed by altculture cashin and later the internet. suspect d&c or before sunrise is the best. haven't actually seen it but gonna say his bad news bears remake is worst on general principle.

yeah I'd put Waking Life in the top group too

oh I skipped the Bears remake, cuz please

Yeah, I'm pretty sure most of us skipped the worst one.

he should've set his sights lower and remade six pack

just hoping he doesn't get Vampire Weekend to cover this in Limpet

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sItfoiWpnb8

it took a couple whom I had fallen in love with in the previous two movies and transformed them into a nasty, carping, shallow pair of self-loathing losers I would hate to spend lunch with

I thought it was pretty great for this very reason: it showed them at their worst. Relationships are not all poetry and Paris and soulful gazing into each other's eyes. Any relationship that's lasted for any length of time has probably been through a knock-down-drag-out, vicious, petty fight that leaves no one looking good. This is definitely a horror movie for grown-ups. I had that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach each time I could see the fight was going to take another turn for the worse.

Agreed on all of that. Seems petty for those who would accuse the first two movies of being idealized romantic nonsense to then get miffed when the third movie shatters that illusion.

yeah obv I don't agree with him about the first two, this just amped up the unbearable.

I dislike Godard's Contempt for similar reasons, but it's prettier and has Michel Piccoli in Hawke's place.

I dig SoR.

also ugh at the "update and yuppify Voyage to Italy" line

I thought Before Midnight was sloppily choreographed and amateurishly written, particularly the vaunted dinner scene.

Bad News Bears is really not that bad. It's not great (it's basically Bad Santa pt 2) but its hardly as terrible as watching Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy philosophize

my objection to BNB is, of course, remaking a deathless classic.

same here. the original has a lack of sentimentality/presence of humanity balance that's tricky to pull off and probably not even attempted in two thousand whatever. plus we've seen what happens when ppl try to remake the bad news bears - they go to houston, they go to japan, they end up on television.