Slacker. or,
slacker
― wanko ergo sum, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 22:16 (fifteen years ago) link
he achieved everything he couldve wanted to with dazed & confused & he'd probably admit as much under influence of truth serum
― deeznuts, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 22:17 (fifteen years ago) link
I wish they'd release subUrbia out on DVD.
― milo z, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 22:17 (fifteen years ago) link
i kinda wish he had ended up doing Friday Night Lights.
― ryan, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 22:17 (fifteen years ago) link
wow i really dont like most of his movies. never seen them all in a list together like that but ugh, just not for me.
― BLACK BEYONCE, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 22:22 (fifteen years ago) link
ok with the exception of SubUrbia, which i have a bizarre soft spot for.
A few years ago I would have called him my favorite working director (because of Dazed and the Before movies, mostly), but I just don't have much interest in seeing whatever he comes out with now.
― milo z, Wednesday, 23 July 2008 22:23 (fifteen years ago) link
i wrote a chapter about him a few years ago and limited it to his original screenplays, which makes him seem a lot more coherent. (i included scanner darkly because he adapted it by himself and i think the finished thing feels very linklater-y in its methods and content.) anyway, i think dazed and confused really is his best. i really like the sunrise/sunset movies, and slacker and waking life have a bunch of great moments. scanner darkly is kind of a mess, but the woody harrelson/robert downey jr. scenes are good. woodshock is pretty entertaining, but it's impossible to learn to plow... is a great big student-film bore.
― tipsy mothra, Thursday, 24 July 2008 01:40 (fifteen years ago) link
http://www.popmatters.com/images/film_art/s/slacker.jpg
― gr8080, Thursday, 24 July 2008 01:45 (fifteen years ago) link
dazed and confused, but i love sunrise/sunset.
― horseshoe, Thursday, 24 July 2008 04:05 (fifteen years ago) link
Haven't seen some of the well-thought of ones here (Waking Life, Before Sunset) but look, barely anybody ELSE has ever made a movie as good as Dazed and Confused so I figure Linklater hasn't either.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Thursday, 24 July 2008 05:21 (fifteen years ago) link
i think the politics of dazed and confused get overlooked a little, it tends to get talked about like it's just a feel-good period piece. it's really about that moment, the total collapse of authority in america, the particular kind of freedom it promised, the reactionary pushback. all in 24 hours.
― tipsy mothra, Thursday, 24 July 2008 05:33 (fifteen years ago) link
you just convinced me that I need to rewatch it.
― sleeve, Thursday, 24 July 2008 05:36 (fifteen years ago) link
it's also about that gto easing into the parking lot and "sweet emotion"...
― tipsy mothra, Thursday, 24 July 2008 05:36 (fifteen years ago) link
Oh, and how many times the one kid touches his brow in the course of that one single scene.
― kingfish, Thursday, 24 July 2008 05:39 (fifteen years ago) link
dazed & confused, slacker, the before movies, all pretty much untouchable. school of rock quite good. scanner darkly major letdown and pretty lame. bad news bears and everything else pretty much whatever. but fast food nation i liked a lot.
― s1ocki, Thursday, 24 July 2008 05:53 (fifteen years ago) link
Tape is as good as Waking Life is terrible.
― Nhex, Thursday, 24 July 2008 05:54 (fifteen years ago) link
I'm torn in great part between D&C and Waking Life and Slacker on historical grounds but actually my vote is going toward underdog School of Rock on behalf of the rare category of Favorite Movies My Son And I Share.
― nickalicious, Thursday, 24 July 2008 05:58 (fifteen years ago) link
fast food nation i liked a lot.
it was better than i expected. the immigrant storyline was really good, i sort of wish the whole movie had been that. the anomic high school kids and morally conflicted corporate lackey seemed more pro forma.
― tipsy mothra, Thursday, 24 July 2008 06:04 (fifteen years ago) link
fast food nation was prety weak, i thought the kinnear/willis part could have been the basis for a good comedy if fleshed out a lot. the ethan hawke part was one of the most embarassing things i've ever seen.
― velko, Thursday, 24 July 2008 06:12 (fifteen years ago) link
I really admire his erraticness. I'll go with Before Sunset
― baaderonixx, Thursday, 24 July 2008 08:02 (fifteen years ago) link
D&C, but a vote for anything but the Befores is OK with me. Even The Newton Boys.
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 24 July 2008 13:23 (fifteen years ago) link
Tape has Ethan Hawke's best performance. Voted for D&C over Before Sunrise.
― Alfred, Lord Sotosyn, Thursday, 24 July 2008 13:25 (fifteen years ago) link
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?
― will, Thursday, 24 July 2008 13:36 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― wanko ergo sum, Thursday, 24 July 2008 15:17 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Scik Mouthy, Thursday, 24 July 2008 15:19 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Dr Morbius, Thursday, 24 July 2008 15:20 (fifteen years ago) link
D&C is the only movie yet made that I can watch ad infinitum. Such a fun, easy-going flick.
― Granny Dainger, Thursday, 24 July 2008 15:49 (fifteen years ago) link
Before Sunset, easily.
― Eric H., Thursday, 24 July 2008 15:58 (fifteen years ago) link
PARTY AT THE MOON TOWWER
― 404 Error: Page Not Found, Thursday, 24 July 2008 22:26 (fifteen years ago) link
Dazed and Confused is one of my favourite movies ever. So, um, yeah.
― I know, right?, Thursday, 24 July 2008 22:29 (fifteen years ago) link
I haven't seen very many of his films. A Scanner Darkly was extraordinary, though.
― chap, Thursday, 24 July 2008 22:41 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― C. Grisso/McCain, Thursday, 24 July 2008 22:45 (fifteen years ago) link
Before Sunrise. Obv.
― SeekAltRoute, Friday, 25 July 2008 12:56 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― ILX System, Monday, 28 July 2008 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Monday, 28 July 2008 23:56 (fifteen years ago) link
saw part of FFN today. BO RING.
― El Tomboto, Monday, 28 July 2008 23:58 (fifteen years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― ILX System, Tuesday, 29 July 2008 23:01 (fifteen years ago) link
Waking Life (2001) 4
!!!
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, 29 July 2008 23:59 (fifteen years ago) link
nono
The School of Rock (2003) 4
― milo z, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 00:00 (fifteen years ago) link
The School of Rock >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Waking Life
― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 00:07 (fifteen years ago) link
I want to like totally revolt in this poll thread omg
― Mackro Mackro, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 00:08 (fifteen years ago) link
Worthiest winner ever.
― sonderangerbot, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 00:30 (fifteen years ago) link
most accurate poll results ever
― deeznuts, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 04:09 (fifteen years ago) link
Waking Life is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. (BOGUS is the worst.)
― Abbott, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 05:47 (fifteen years ago) link
-- deeznuts, Wednesday, July 23, 2008 10:17 PM (1 week ago) Bookmark Link
― I know, right?, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 11:10 (fifteen years ago) link
oddly
― milo z, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 19:09 (fifteen years ago) link
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"
― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 20:54 (fifteen years ago) link
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.
― Alex in SF, Wednesday, 30 July 2008 21:04 (fifteen years ago) link
maybe this is an unwelcome view but EWS seems so much richer to me; I liked DAZED a lot for its portrayal of the distinctly suburban feeling of invincibility and meaninglessness, but EWS actually has characters, it's much funnier, and maybe it's because it's college people rather than high school people but it's filled with people I'd much rather hang out with
― k3vin k., Friday, 26 February 2021 15:46 (three years ago) link
The women aren't as thought out, though, but, boy, those boys are just...
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 26 February 2021 15:47 (three years ago) link
in which film are they not as thought out, you think?
― k3vin k., Friday, 26 February 2021 15:58 (three years ago) link
EWS!!.
I can't vouch for the truthfulness of the scene where the dudes visit the bar and disco dance, but it made sense to me: two years after its peak, disco hadn't gone away in Texas, and these guys grew up with long enough to accept it (plus, it's a way to pick up women).
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 26 February 2021 16:00 (three years ago) link
really? the biggest weakness of DAZED to me is that the 4 or 5 main senior women in the ensemble were barely discernible. sabrina seems like the only one who really shows more than one dimension and it seems she barely has any lines
― k3vin k., Friday, 26 February 2021 16:04 (three years ago) link
(plus, it's a way to pick up women).
yes, this is key. these guys are as chameleonic as they need to be to get some. the part at the theatre party where finn is talking to the girl about their horoscopes is the perfect emblem of this
― k3vin k., Friday, 26 February 2021 16:05 (three years ago) link
I really like brody's take:
The first thing that strikes the eye and the mind as soon as Jake enters the house is the movie’s intense, almost dance-like physicality. “Everybody” is a story about athletes, people who live by the body and exert an extremely tight and precise control over their movements while at the same time yielding to irrepressible outbursts of speed and violence. From the very start, Linklater’s astonishingly well-cast and well-meshed ensemble of actors appears both swingingly choreographed in daily motion and exhilaratingly, swaggeringly free.“Everyone” has a Jamesian framework, with Jake, as the movie’s central consciousness, providing the portal and the perspective onto the characters around him. Jake’s experience of his first days of college is at the core of the movie; the action is a countdown, from Thursday afternoon to the start of classes the following Monday morning. In that brief span, Jake sees and experiences much that seems rapidly but radically transformative, and Linklater, extracts from it, with the fullness of time and a contemplative distance, an element of wisdom that’s all the stronger for its undertow of bitterness and struggle.The athletes’ nature comes through in scenes where teammates talk about their competitiveness, and scenes—of a wild comic fervor—that show it in games and sports of many kinds, from driveway basketball and Nerf basketball to foosball and Ping-Pong (the latter is a highlight), with sidebars involving made-up card games, a painful battle of knuckle-flicking, and even duelling bong hits. There’s also a verbal and intellectual competitiveness that’s an antic constant among the ballplayers, and Jake has just the name for it: “fuck-withery.” The endless stream of teases and insults, one-upsmanship and comic deception, gags and pranks and practical jokes suggest that wit and a sort of daily performance art are a crucial strain of the sporting life.
“Everyone” has a Jamesian framework, with Jake, as the movie’s central consciousness, providing the portal and the perspective onto the characters around him. Jake’s experience of his first days of college is at the core of the movie; the action is a countdown, from Thursday afternoon to the start of classes the following Monday morning. In that brief span, Jake sees and experiences much that seems rapidly but radically transformative, and Linklater, extracts from it, with the fullness of time and a contemplative distance, an element of wisdom that’s all the stronger for its undertow of bitterness and struggle.
The athletes’ nature comes through in scenes where teammates talk about their competitiveness, and scenes—of a wild comic fervor—that show it in games and sports of many kinds, from driveway basketball and Nerf basketball to foosball and Ping-Pong (the latter is a highlight), with sidebars involving made-up card games, a painful battle of knuckle-flicking, and even duelling bong hits. There’s also a verbal and intellectual competitiveness that’s an antic constant among the ballplayers, and Jake has just the name for it: “fuck-withery.” The endless stream of teases and insults, one-upsmanship and comic deception, gags and pranks and practical jokes suggest that wit and a sort of daily performance art are a crucial strain of the sporting life.
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/richard-linklater-portrays-the-mentality-of-an-athlete-in-everybody-wants-some
― k3vin k., Friday, 26 February 2021 16:07 (three years ago) link
I love both of them, but I think they're more different than alike despite obviously both being drawn from Linklater's own experiences. I think D&C has more of a socio-political argument to make about the era, where EWS is a more purely coming-of-age story.
EWS really does make guy culture about as appealing as it can be. My decidedly anti-bro-culture wife was sort of amazed how much she liked EWS, it was one of the first things she'd ever seen that she said gave her some sense of the joys of being one of the guys.
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 26 February 2021 16:13 (three years ago) link
sorry, EWS!!
― a man often referred to in the news media as the Duke of Saxony (tipsy mothra), Friday, 26 February 2021 16:14 (three years ago) link
yeah that's a grea
― k3vin k., Friday, 26 February 2021 16:34 (three years ago) link
*great insight, it's a remarkable distillation of a certain experience
― k3vin k., Friday, 26 February 2021 16:35 (three years ago) link
yeah very otm. it felt like a rare(ish) & kind of refreshing depiction of male college athletics on film that showed it as being something that a reasonable well-rounded person could derive value from, rather than depicting it as either the domain psychopathic bullies or courageous quasi-militarized american heroes.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Friday, 26 February 2021 17:13 (three years ago) link
yeah EWS is v joyful and endearing, qualities you do not expect from a house full of baseball jocksthe attractiveness of said jocks helps as well :D
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 26 February 2021 18:29 (three years ago) link
once you like disco, it's hard to be a bully
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 26 February 2021 18:53 (three years ago) link
otm
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 26 February 2021 19:23 (three years ago) link
weird, i was just wondering how Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly hold up, then i googled and found he has a new rotoscoped animation movie coming out this year
― na (NA), Tuesday, 22 February 2022 21:38 (two years ago) link
We got trailer...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzuz5s_Qk-A
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 7 March 2022 18:09 (two years ago) link
I’m on board with this
― calstars, Monday, 7 March 2022 18:59 (two years ago) link
looks like archer
― kurt schwitterz, Monday, 7 March 2022 19:10 (two years ago) link
New film is enjoyable but inessential; another wistful nostalgia piece in the mode of Everybody Wants Some!!, basically. I await clemenza's take on the soundtrack (I recognized about 75% of the music in the film, so Linklater may not be digging that deep).
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Sunday, 3 April 2022 17:17 (two years ago) link
Ineffectual but I enjoyed it more than you, I suspect
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 3 April 2022 19:41 (two years ago) link
I'm wondering how necessary the whole fantasy narrative is, to be honest. The segments I liked best--the breathlessly nostalgic recollections that reminded me of Guy Maddin's My Winnipeg, come to think of it--were mostly confined to the first half of the film.
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Sunday, 3 April 2022 23:00 (two years ago) link
yeah i loved hearing about houston & the reflections on the region in the 1st half. 2nd half was less interesting but still enjoyable. i liked "astronomy domine" on the moon, too. the alpine ride bit towards the end felt like the whole movie in a nutshell, just a breezy little ride, pointless but fun.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 4 April 2022 03:44 (two years ago) link
Pvmic, but overall I loved this.
That said, they could have also called it YAS BOOMER.
More thoughts to come.
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 4 April 2022 22:30 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd72I33RGV4
Greatest shot in all of cinema?
― J. Sam, Monday, 4 April 2022 23:24 (two years ago) link
Knew nothing until reading about it here...Not sure if I'll see it or not: just not big on animated films. (Coraline might be it--not that I've seen a whole lot post-childhood.) Looked at the soundtrack on Tunefind (which I shouldn't do, in case I do see it); lots of great songs, but there are 41 of them, and that sets off my Flamingo Kid alarm. I'm wondering if they're either buried in the background, or trotted out for a few seconds at a time--neither strategy is the way to make pop music count in a movie.
― clemenza, Tuesday, 5 April 2022 02:43 (two years ago) link
(That clip above is great, but I'll see your "Legend of the Rent" and raise you "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg.")
― clemenza, Tuesday, 5 April 2022 02:44 (two years ago) link
Oh yeah that's a great sequence! I was talking about "Legend of the Rent" in the context of great long single takes in movies--obv there are others more technically and aesthetically impressive, but I'm biased toward School of Rock generally and stand in awe of Jack Black's performance there
― J. Sam, Tuesday, 5 April 2022 04:07 (two years ago) link
XPS It's an 'Animated Film' the way Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly were, i.e. live action filmed in real environments and/or a green/blue screen studio with rotoscoping utilized for coloring and building the visuals around the actors. In the latter case, this is a way to do the necessary f/x work without breaking the bank on conventional CGI to pull off the moon stuff, and--perhaps most importantly--recreating the Houston area circa-1969 (especially since 90% of the locations they needed are long gone).
― Precious, Grace, Hill & Beard LTD. (C. Grisso/McCain), Tuesday, 5 April 2022 04:10 (two years ago) link
It's rotoscoped.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 5 April 2022 09:31 (two years ago) link
xxxpost
I was talking about "Legend of the Rent" in the context of great long single takes in movies--obv there are others more technically and aesthetically impressive but I'm biased toward School of Rock generally and stand in awe of Jack Black's performance there
yeah thats in the special category of long takes that dont call attention to themselves, which i'm almost always more impressed by than long takes out of the I Am Cuba playbook. just rewatched it for the first time since it came out and didnt really notice that it was a single take until a few shots later, was just riding along with his performance and not really noticing the craft at all.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Tuesday, 5 April 2022 12:53 (two years ago) link
Bullshit.
Richard Linklater pissed at the Academy after it deems Apollo 10 1/2 ineligible for Best Animated Feature https://t.co/MQ5XGHiMk8 pic.twitter.com/iybjVcioAp— The A.V. Club (@TheAVClub) October 8, 2022
― Les hommes de bonbons (cryptosicko), Saturday, 8 October 2022 20:34 (one year ago) link
agree with the academy (because it was bad)
― k3vin k., Saturday, 8 October 2022 22:18 (one year ago) link
Academy’s reason seems to make no sense, though I doubt Linklater is right that it’s masking some other anti-innovation/indies motive. More likely just ignorance and incompetence. Haven’t seen the film but if it was bad they could just not nominate it on the merits
― Lavator Shemmelpennick, Sunday, 9 October 2022 14:43 (one year ago) link
I don't like Linklater, but he's right. Fantasia and Snow White used rotoscoping, there's just no possible way Apollo 10 1/2 isn't 100% an animated film. If it isn't, no CGI-animated film should be allowed in the category either.
― Jaime Pressly and America (f. hazel), Sunday, 9 October 2022 16:30 (one year ago) link
Recentish interview. His new one, Hit Man was picked up by Netflix -- I went looking for a trailer and was mixed-up by the trailer for the action trash Hitmen (also 2023) which briefly gave me hope that he gave up curdled nostalgia for a Guy Ritchie knockoff. Oh well.
IMDB upcoming projects (Merrily We Roll Along, "Untitled John Brinkley Biopic", "Untitled Bill Hicks Biopic") continues the long streak of "meh"
― Elvis Telecom, Saturday, 16 December 2023 21:28 (four months ago) link
Oh come on, that John Brinkley movie could rule!
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 17 December 2023 03:36 (four months ago) link
Otoh, it could also be a DO YOU SEE Trump parallels thing that seemingly every film about a charismatic con man from here on out will be taken as, so...
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 17 December 2023 03:40 (four months ago) link
Last Flag Flying and Where'd You Go, Bernadette were disappointing, Before Midnight is a fine movie but a letdown compared to the previous two Before films. But otherwise, I've really liked everything else.Bernie, Boyhood, Everybody Wants Some!! and Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (not to mention nearly every feature from the '90s and '00s)...I think they're all really good to great. Looking forward to Hit Man.
― birdistheword, Sunday, 17 December 2023 04:13 (four months ago) link
EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! is so underrated
― truly humbled underdog (k3vin k.), Sunday, 17 December 2023 04:25 (four months ago) link
^^It's become one of my comfort movies.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Sunday, 17 December 2023 07:13 (four months ago) link
That was my immediate thought. I never saw Bernie, but Boyhood, Apollo 10 1/2, and Where'd You Go, Bernadette put me off. I did like Before Midnight, but I was ready for the two of them to turn on each other.
― Elvis Telecom, Sunday, 17 December 2023 07:17 (four months ago) link
Before Midnight is dreadful, and I loved the first two.
Otherwise I more or less endorse his career moves.
― stuffing your suit pockets with cold, stale chicken tende (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 17 December 2023 13:26 (four months ago) link
That Bernadette one is dogshit, just the worst kind of DTV slop
― Boris Yitsbin (wins), Sunday, 17 December 2023 14:19 (four months ago) link