RICHARD LINKLATER

a very erratic filmmaker but always dear to my heart for A Scanner Darkly and Dazed and Confused

wow this is kinda tough.

guess I'll go with before sunset, edging out dazed.

He's only gotten erratic lately actually. This is tough. There are a lot of good movies on this list, but there isn't one that just pops out at me as okay that's the BEST.

Can safely eliminate FFN, WL, BNB though.

Slacker. or,

slacker

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

I wish they'd release subUrbia out on DVD.

i kinda wish he had ended up doing Friday Night Lights.

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.

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.

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.

http://www.popmatters.com/images/film_art/s/slacker.jpg

dazed and confused, but i love sunrise/sunset.

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.

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.

you just convinced me that I need to rewatch it.

it's also about that gto easing into the parking lot and "sweet emotion"...

Oh, and how many times the one kid touches his brow in the course of that one single scene.

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.

Tape is as good as Waking Life is terrible.

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.

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.

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.

I really admire his erraticness. I'll go with Before Sunset

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.)

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!

― Rage, Resentment, Spleen (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, December 30, 2009 7:09 AM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

i meant it in a good way!

i mean it is based on a kid's book

also ya, as kids we were raised to bet on adults' sexual peccadilloes... sort of an ol'-fashioned way to pass the time during those cold winters

and you had to do it in english AND in french

*makes poutine joke*

well, I'm guessing quite a few changes were made in the adaptation then. This is to some degree a horny 1930s teenager movie.

it's a young man coming-of-age movie—he's like 18, but as a 12-year-old i would have loooooooooved this so much

There was a guy in front of me last night who laughed at EVERYTHING... shots of the marquee, Brutus's orations, you name it.

also, I did not recognize any of the 4 company logos that preceded the credits, I guess that's why I didn't get any info about screenings.

http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2010/06/richard-linklater-says-dazed-confused.html#more

depressing, the two fallen-through films sound awesome

didn't know M&OW didn't really open in the US. played multiplexes here.

when's subUrbia coming out on dvd?

when the economy picks up.

Texas true-crime black comedy... "Jack Black as a gay mortician" does something to my kishkes, but we'll see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEs7l6JTAc4

nephew of the murder victim seems OK with it.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/15/magazine/how-my-aunt-marge-ended-up-in-the-deep-freeze.html

I guess Shirley MacLaine playing a high-maintenance Texas dame who gets offed could've been titled Debra Winger's Revenge.

I think I read somewhere that Linklater is related to Marge, too?

dunno, i'm seeing this tnite so trying not to read too much

i keep being ABOUT to rent me & orson welles ten i spot something else.... i guess i can't work up much enthusiasm about it? but i'd like to see. and this new one.

no way is D&C his best film BTW. oh well.

So I'm in the minority so far, but after 20 cute minutes Bernie deflates like a balloon. Jack Black doesn't have to do any *actual* gay stuff besides mince, and sing "76 Trombones."

A roundup:

http://mubi.com/notebook/posts/richard-linklater-and-bernie

curious what gay things Morbz wanted to see Jack Black do

haha damn, all kinds of gay stuff, probably.

Well, if they worked, the film could've made the next horror poll.

xp

Point is the character apparently had tons of sex with local men, something that's only referred to comically by McConaughey's asshat DA. If yer gonna tell a story, tell it. OTOH, singing showtunes is much more reliably audience-friendly.

ah well ok that makes sense

still wanna see this tho. bummed it isn't opening in SF just yet

on a related Jack Black genital note, my friend Jim did the new Tenacious D album cover art (likely NSFW, tho Jay Leno held it up the other night):

http://www.toogoodforradio.com/comedy/stream-tenacious-ds-new-song-album-out-in-may/

a new Tenacious D album is really not something that needed to happen

seeing Bernie tonight

shoulda read me, I am absolved

I did read it, still gonna see it

this was pretty enjoyable. lack of Jack Black bjs didn't bother me.

bernie owns

weak tea

yeah I enjoyed it. I like movies where the surrounding community is as much a central part of the narrative as the main characters

keeping Bernie offscreen wd've been better.

so I lost my hopes that Bernie would be uproarious but uneven like I Love You, Philip Morris in the first ten minutes.

http://www.cinemablend.com/new/Ethan-Hawke-Julie-Delpy-Shooting-Sequel-Sunrise-Sunset-31409.html

We’re also doing a follow-up to Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, so that will be fun. We’re going to shoot that this summer,” Hawke reveals. “I’ve gotten into trouble, so I’m sworn to secrecy [about where it will take place]. The biggest change between this one and the last one is the Internet. The first time we did it, we didn’t have any pressure; nobody gave a shit.

omg I hope for good things, I love those 2 movies!

When I heard they were doing Before Sunset, I thought, "that is a TERRIBLE idea."

I feel the same way now, despite really loving Before Sunset.

Finally saw Bernie. Thought it fantastic, but that's perhaps owed to, you know, the TEXAS thing. He didn't get talked up as much as Black did, but McConaughey absolutely NAILED the lifelong small-time/big ideas Texan Politico ("Let me show you what I like to call my 'Wheel of MIS-Fortune'."), from the hand movements down to the cowboy hat and half-full bottle of Big Red on the table in the courtroom (that part I guess was really up the props department).

Was moved by the dedication to Lou Perryman and Eagle Pennell at the end of the credits.

i was crestfallen to find out at the end that Rick Dial had died

bernie was great. i thought shirley maclaine was just fantastic (jack black too, but her performance was so smart). especially after how much i disliked her on downton abbey.

i loved this. Morbs is probably right in that it does deflate a little. for that happened after the murder.

townspeople the real star (and maybe even subject) of the film, which almost reads like an ethnography of small town east texas. particularly loved the sense in which it was obvious (to me anyway) that many of the interviewees were cutting up not only for the camera but for each other--you get the sense this kind of performance in front the community is a part (and pleasure) of daily life in a town like that. this is like sitting in church and listening to gossip. Bernie is a hero because he played that game, because he performed so well. the "reality" of what he did is incidental.

*for me that happened after the murder.

I just watched Bernie, that shit was great!

Me too! McConaughey /is/ Texas as much as any of the folksy old people.

yeah, totally.

Before Midnight getting rapturous reviews.

This guy disagreess: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2013/jan/21/before-midnight-first-look-review

the film it most closely resembles is not either of its predecessors but Abbas Kiarostami's Certified Copy, an ironic, metatextual take on cinematic love stories that somehow, and most unfortunately, feels much more genuine than this.

Somehow this doesn't dampen my enthusiasm.

uh ya haha

end of cinema

go back to bed

xp sign of enema

http://www.gossippando.it/wp-content//2013/01/EthanHawke-platinato-prima-dopo-NY.jpg

bernie was great. i thought shirley maclaine was just fantastic (jack black too, but her performance was so smart). especially after how much i disliked her on downton abbey.

― Author ~ Coach ~ Goddess (s1ocki), Wednesday, November 21, 2012 6:01 PM (6 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

but w-w-wait-- she didn't do anything. she just held fast to the same constipated expression, staring out blanky through soulless botox eyes. it was a non-performance, like she was kind of animal or something.

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.

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

The dinner scene kinda sucked. I agree with you there. I was about to write the whole thing off until the fight started.

Dinner scene was tough, but established everyone (incl. leads) as more fascinated with the idea of being in a relationship than with actually being in a relationship, wrapping in stand-ins for fresh-in-love version of Hawke-Delpy.

I'd probably view the dinner scene a bit differently now, knowing what comes after it. Not curious enough to rewatch though.

the objective blankness of that young couple - and how irrelevant this blankness is to our response to them - felt so smart, acute

My opinion, a bit influenced by Robin Wood, hasn't changed much since early '95: Delpy's irritations are charming because they're the product of a restless curiosity; Hawke is a manchild who reeks of BO.

Linklater can't choose between them, a point on which the whole edifice rests.

Or maybe everything just gets worse with age?

Ebert otm re BNB
"The movie is like a merger of (Thornton's) ugly drunk in Bad Santa and his football coach in Friday Night Lights, yet (he) doesn't recycle from either movie; he modulates the manic anger of the Santa and the intensity of the coach and produces a morose loser who we like better than he likes himself."

so pumped for this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ys-mbHXyWX4

Anticipating Linklater's "Boyhood"

ah the quotes made it not turn up in search, thanks

http://www.indiewire.com/article/richard-linklater-invites-convicted-murderer-and-subject-of-his-film-bernie-to-live-with-him-after-early-release

I half-watched Bernie on Netflix this past weekend. I'll have to give it a second try when I'm not so sleepy, because from what I could tell that's the best role Jack Black has ever had.

it's pretty good. my first exposure to the McConnaissance

on the bright side the guy is probably not much like Jack Black

Amid the Boyhood sensation, Anthology Film Archives in NYC is debuting the dual documentary about RL and a/g director James Benning, and films by both, including Linklater's pre-Slacker feature and his doc about the UT baseball coach.

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/series/42919

http://anthologyfilmarchives.org/film_screenings/calendar?view=list&month=07&year=2014#showing-42910

Linklater's pre-Slacker feature

This is on the Criterion Slacker set -- it's a slog.

(Though it makes a fair case for him as the mumblecore godfather.)

I know I've had that set out of the library years ago; probably have seen it and forgot it then.

Linklater-related fare here: https://www.ica.org.uk/whats-on/double-play

For Londoners.

parsing the similarities between It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books and The Newton Boys

http://www.filmcomment.com/entry/the-newton-boys-and-its-impossible-to-learn-to-plow-by-reading-bo

Intriguing:
http://thefilmstage.com/news/richard-linklater-says-thats-what-im-talking-about-picks-up-where-boyhood-ends/

how about we fucking release subUrbia on DVD or Blu-Ray, how about THAT??

I've assumed Manhood/Adulthood or whatever was inevitable

Boyhood was small-g great, of course and inevitably, and I could have happily just kept watching (especially when it was just about to float right up my canyon (i also loved the road trip segment and its what i took to be a homage to stephen shore for the budding young photog) in a way that anything set small-town and/or Texas is never otherwise quite going to do (I did get off on the brief Houston travelogue too), but i thought the episodic nature robbed it a bit of both realism and coherent-package-ness simultaneously, that a good many of the plot developments were contrived (but who cares), and that few of the attempts at era-commentary really went anywhere. so a lot of noise in the data, including the occasional off line-reading from Linklater's often-impressive kid, but certainly a worthwhile experiment overall. i'll add one more carp about how improbably stylishly-good-looking the kid (Coltrane) turned out to be, though not as much as, say, the roommate's stunning girlfriend or anything (Mom a particularly un-Hollywood sex symbol as well, while i'm busy objectifying everything on screen). the riding-bikes party-invite scene stuck with me for some reason - a very short take on his trademark (substitute a train for the alley) offhand back and forth between more passive and active actors (not "actor"s) that resolves in tentative commitment, and the material was both charming and had the rare vague echo of experience for me.

still Sunset/Sunrise over Waking Life for me, though D&C and its too libertarian-disaffected (Texan) "politics" as per upthread, have grown on me over time

i neveer made it to the AFA thing, but realized i have the first one on the Slacker DVD and need to see Ten Skies, if anything, first. still want to see the Linklater doc or two, though.

still have to see The Newton Boys too, though i'm sure i'm not going to like it as much as Rosenbaum does

yeah, he shoulda told that 7-year-old boy not to turn out so darn handsome

probability that randomly-selected not-upper middle-class San Marcos teen turns into gifted visual artist who looks like goyish Dessner brother with hair, makeup, and wardrobe depts, while thrice-divorced Mom of two gets tenure = ...

also the coming home drunk and stoned referenced Mitch's end of night in D&C. any others i missed?

Newton Boys is actually pretty good, although it does feel like the "Director's Downfall" picture it sort of is.

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/3777-thirty-years-of-the-austin-film-society-an-interview-with-richard-linklater

1. Slacker 2. D&C >>> 3. Tape >>> 4. WL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wue327uQhLM

could be fun, I guess

altho I can't quite shake the feeling that this looks like Linklater making his own "Dazed and Confused reboot"

I love that this is what he follows Boyhood up with.

It's going to be great. Just don't go in with Academy expectations. See it with a bud.

video was removed what was it

this i guess http://www.slashfilm.com/everybody-wants-some-trailer/

it was the trailer for the new apatow movie xp

Since Linklater had a hand in this restoration, I wanted to draw attention to this real good '80s Texas indie:

http://www.lastnightatthealamo.com/the-restoration.html

Screening in Brooklyn tonight, Blu/DVD in a few months. I didn't know or had forgotten that director Eagle Pennell died at 49, homeless and after struggling for years with drugs.

His earlier The Whole Shootin' Match (shot in Austin) is also worth seeking out.

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, July 24, 2008 1:33 AM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

It would be an insane movie to try to do and actually pull off, but after watching Dazed and Confused, I had to wonder what a sequel set the day of the seniors 25th high school reunion could be like. It would be set in 2002, since it would be the class of '77.

Passage of time seems to be a big theme in his movies over the years, so it fits thematically with other things Linklater has done.

I'd just like to see a scene of an adult Wooderson set in 2002, even if it was a cameo.

Peter Bogdanovich did this with Texasville and while it isn't as lovely as The Last Picture Show, I thought it was worth seeing.

I should say watching Dazed and Confused again for the first time in a few years. I saw it quite a few times back in the 90s.

http://www.sacurrent.com/the-daily/archives/2017/02/20/richard-linklater-directs-ad-targeting-texas-anti-trans-bathroom-bill

so his new one is opening the NYFF, and it's sort of a sequel to The Last Detail.

https://www.filmlinc.org/nyff2017/daily/richard-linklater-last-flag-flying-nyff55/

not a big fan of the Last Detail but that sounds p interesting

really looking forward to this

yes
Carrell and Cranston are awesome, I could take or leave Fishburne but willing to go along with it

We're getting his American Masters eps tonight!

"EP" singular.

Missed a chance to call it "Linklaterhood"

My un-vast list of his best.

good list, essentially feel the same re: top 3 and everybody wants some is my least by a wide margin

I'm glad somebody else had some appreciation for Me and Orson Welles.

this list doesn't even have Slacker or subUrbia!

oh shit, suburbia is so good

early roundup on the new one

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4973-the-daily-nyff-2017-richard-linklater-s-last-flag-flying

Had I not known this was Linklater, I don't think I would have guessed.

In any case, it was pretty enjoyable despite the somber subject matter.

^ re: Last Flag Flying

I keep forgetting it exists. It barely seemed to register with critics or the public, which is odd given the high profile that his last two had.

I had no idea whatsoever that it was a quasi-sequel to The Last Detail until like a day ago.

he's doing a summer of '69 Houston film

CASTING CALL: Director Richard Linklater needs your Houston area photos, videos from the 1960s for a new movie. Have a home movie from Astroworld or the Astrodome, or a recording of your little brother with Kitirik? Did someone you know use a Kinescope to record the moon landing? If so, we want to see it and anything else that documents that era. There is no wrong material, as long as it from Houston in the 1960s we want to see it. Please email to Spaceagemo✧✧✧@gm✧✧✧.c✧✧

http://www.chron.com/entertainment/celebrities/article/Director-Richard-Linklater-talks-about-his-next-12444064.php

https://theplaylist.net/richard-linklater-60s-new-movie-20180207/

...and he's got a movie coming out later this year (which I found out about because I saw an FB share for a casting notice for Hispanic voiceover artists)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2365580/?ref_=nm_flmg_dr_1

Before sunrise trilogy is solid. Last film was heart breaking in that it sorta confirmed love often ends up in the boulevard of broken dreams

Curious! The last film disappointed me enough to wonder if the first two, especially the first, had hornswaggled me.

yes

Nah, the first two are still gold.

I need to rewatch the third. I liked a lot of things about it, but it left me unsure how to feel about it.

run away if Ethan Hawke sits next to you on the train

or wear a gas mask

The second one in the trilogy really kills me

i need to watch more of this dude's movies

after i finish my james spader marathon

he's due for another poll, although he works so much it still feels too soon. but I bet Boyhood would win this now. Dazed & Confused is the most overrated movie I've ever seen, I don't get the love for it at all. it's good but jesus

of the linklater movies I've seen boyhood would not even be top 5

Suburbia is massively underrated

Show feels more and more like Slacker with every passing ep, which is a welcome feeling to me. ― Position Position, Saturday, February 3, 2018 9:02 PM

I'm too close to the Before Trilogy to be objective. I love them though.

i happen to just watch the linklater american masters pbs doc yesterday.. hes def smart & talented

difficult to imagine liking 5 of his movies above boyhood unless u really disliked boyhood i spose

I fucking hate Boyhood so much

i just watched Before Sunrise for the first time this weekend and found it enjoyable on a cinematic level but it did not affect me at all on a personal level. Like Julie Delpy said to her friend in the fake phone conversation, Ethan Hawke's character seemed like an adolescent. I liked that she didn't want to bone him; it was very mature of her to decline. He's very American! Kinda want to see the others now. Are they streaming anywhere? I saw BS on Filmstruck but they don't seem to have the other two.

That's cool -- most works of art don't affect me personally either, especially when I see unpleasant people.

I know Netflix was streaming the last two.

But they did bone. In the cemetery.

It might have been a park - been a while since I've watched it but I'm pretty sure it's at least heavily implied that they do and then referenced in the 2nd one.

I was smack in the middle of the target demographic for the movie when it came out and had no interest in seeing it then. I was a 20 year old who thought romance was for chumps. Now that I have finally seen it, I am glad I waited because I rather enjoyed the scenery, etc and would have completely hated the romantic content when I was 20. Will check Netflix!

wait, what? They definitely made out in a park -- I didn't catch anything hinting otherwise. IDK what happens in subsequent episodes of this saga.

Was whether they had sex supposed to be left as an open question before Sunset came out and confirmed it? Sunset leaves it in suspense for a bit.

I assumed they fucked, yes, despite Jesse's BO.

i thought it was weird they didn't exchange addresses to write to each other. that was definitely something people did back then. i forget both of their names.

i didn't catch the inferences to their sexual congress at all -- maybe i just didn't want to see it!

Céline gives her arguments for why they shouldn't, which Jesse accepts. Then she says "Why do we make everything so complicated?" and they go back to rolling around before it cuts away.

Yes, they make out in the park and then it's implied that they fucked and confirmed by a conversation they have in the next one that they did - twice. :)

It was in the park later on, yeah.

right i remember that -- and was impressed at their restraint, mostly hers but his too -- but i guess i assumed they just rolled around and made out
silly me?

I remember that night better than I do entire years.

It was definitely left a little unclear until the 2nd movie but there was never any question in my mind that they did . I think maybe the way they interacted the morning after made me just assume so. Also, I wanted them too.

to not too

now i am disappointed
my big takeaway from this movie was that there is a movie from the 90s in which a boy still likes a girl after she doesn't have sex with him :(

I liked the goth twist my memory put on this by thinking the park was a cemetery. There is a cemetery scene in there somewhere, right?

LL you should watch the others. The 2nd one is the best of the 3, I think.

I think it was obvious when the movie came out that they did have sex in the park. I remember watching it with some people. I like that Kath Bloom song in the movie a lot.

I keep thinking I need to watch Boyhood, but it sounds like I don't. I still need to watch the last in the trilogy.

xp -not that i recall but i know a lot of people who boned in cemeteries in the 90s

i will try to see the others
i am interested because the movie itself was really enjoyable. i liked their conversations and the filmmaking.

"I remember that night better than I do entire years."

<3

Yeah there is a cemetery prior to the park - Julie shows off her favourite tombstones.

Yes! That's the part. Thank you.

i added the other two to my netflix queue
pretty sure the reason i didn't think they did it was because the description of the movie said "romantic potential" (iirc) and i wrongly assumed that meant that they had not fully explored their romantic potential

i like stories that leave things unresolved and incomplete. it was nice for a minute to think that their connection was not fully realized physically.

"I remember that night better than I do entire years"

feeling this

re: that song -- i loved the scene in the record store
it perfectly captured something, idk what it was exactly -- i guess it was the romantic potential i was hoping for!

my God you ppl and these lameass movies

"eet ees a nice fantasy. meet a French girl on a trenn and fuck her"

^I applauded in the theater in '95

that's what i was afraid of w this movie -- lame american boy gets what he wants (appealing french girl he meets on the train)
i guess it wasn't too far off now that i know i was wrong about the boning

my take from these movies is it's two polarized philosophies on life conflated by love interest. julie is a pragmatic person who is invested in causes to better a world which she sees as terminally broken. Ethan is the dreamer (or a stand-in for Linklater), a romantic out of time. Clashes occur between them as Ethan is laid-back and has a relatively decent life and he's a bit apathetic. Not saying anything revelatory, but I saw a lot of truth in these movies

the third movie is an exercise in torture or boredom iirc

I liked the third one a lot but tbf I am pretty boring

I liked it too Simon, but seeing their relationship in such a fractured state was like drawing out blood

yeah he seemed very privileged -- not in a $$$ way just in a worldview way. the privilege of being a slacker, of being smelly/greasy and still having people find him attractive. show me a greasy BO-riddled woman who gets a romantic evening like this and then maybe i will like him a little more. he has everything and he is still not happy, why does he have to get her too!?

haha yeah, good point la lechera. I think he's the kind of guy who thinks he can have what he wants, but seems clueless af to get there

LL did you ever see 2 Days in Paris?

I loathed the third movie after loving the first two

xp - nope

I mean does he really get her?

I might just be being a stoopid romantic, and sure he gets her physically and emotionally for a night, but he basically falls for her and then they are separated.

Until the second movie, she will always be his "what if" and those can be fucking painful.

you're right, it's just that personally my sympathy for this guy is sub-zero
i am not a romantic!

although i do enjoy unexplored/unfulfilled romantic potential precisely because it is painful
life is full of those "what ifs" -- that's just the way it is

Jesse is a nicer version of his Reality Bytes character. The 90s had all sorts of these turnip, shitbag dream boys. I loved them all.

At least Celine has a personality and things to say in this movie.

Jesse was a fool from the start.

Jesse was a fool from the start.

I feel like I dislike all of Ethan Hawk's characters 10 x's more now because he cheated on Uma Thurman. The kid from Explorers...canceled!

if you're in this kind of mood i bet you'd like 2 Days In Paris LL! it's got a similar rambly vibe, and Delpy stars, writes, produces and directs, and there is a lot of people not quite getting what they want. it's also very funny (as i remember it). and the thing about French condoms is true ime

If you ever need to stoke the flames of Ethan Hawke hatred, watch his godforsake Chelsea Hotel movie

godforsaken

I've seen him around NYC with or w/out his kids occasionally, and the sight and sound of him just annoys me. Even when he's pitching for a nonprofit movie theater.

https://www.facebook.com/filmforumnyc/videos/10155506693112075/

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

WTF is this movie and how have I never heard of this!?! Maybe I blocked it out. Did everyone owe him a favor that year?

Everyone hates him and I never really understood why. OK, I do understand why but he's never bothered me. LOL Yerac - that kid from the explorers. Good EH knowledge. OK and fine yes he was my first celebrity crush and I will always love him so I might be biased but I still thing he's really talented. Also, Jesse's supposed to be what 23 - ish? Most 23 year olds are fools and still act like adolescents imo so that never bothered me.

I was smack in the middle of the target demographic for the movie when it came out and had no interest in seeing it then. I was a 20 year old who thought romance was for chumps. Now that I have finally seen it, I am glad I waited because I rather enjoyed the scenery, etc and would have completely hated the romantic content when I was 20. Will check Netflix!

embarrassing personal history story

I saw it in the theater when it was new, with a woman who I had been dating for a month or so. I guess I was 24. This was only my second grown up relationship (not counting high school stuff) and I definitely did not have a handle yet on how to manage/integrate the various feelings -- good odd and bad -- that come up within oneself during a romantic relationship. So we saw this movie and SOMETHING about it -- not the specific incidents but its overall effect, its 'geste' -- freaked me the FUCK out about relationships and the next day I broke up with her. I don't remember exactly what was going through my head. It was a good early-stage relationship before that & something about this movie 'proved' to me that it had to be ceased posthaste!

saw Before Sunrise once on VHS and am also now annoyed to learn that a later one says "they definitely fucked"

i'm still surprised that people thought they didn't ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

yeah, it seems so clear and unambiguous!

She's wearing a t-shirt under her dress when they enter the park. In the next scene the t-shirt is gone. That's how you know they had sex.

I lived in Vienna for 10 years and this film has always been very special to me

OK sure but she also could have just taken off her top.

I'm definitely watching this tonight. It's been a long time and I want to but also I want to go back and see if I can pinpoint what made me assume they did. I know that they do talk about not sleeping together but something about that scene and their next morning interactions just made me think it happened.

I feel like I dislike all of Ethan Hawk's characters 10 x's more now because he cheated on Uma Thurman.

par for the course with this guy! one good thing about getting older is forgetting a lot of things that don't really need to be remembered, like my seething repulsion for ethan hawke's characters and by extension, him.
i tried to list the things i didn't like about him in my head and the list got too long.

when i posted upthread, i really thought she had in a way rejected him -- said yeah we can have a fun evening and remember it always, but nah on the permanent longing emotional distress that comes from being attached to someone in that way. i liked her character a lot and don't begrudge her the decision to do it, but liked the movie better when i thought she hadn't. he is exactly the kind of american dude you would meet on the train. i like talking to strangers, i know how it is!

https://scontent.fphl1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/270555_185746998146674_3783784_n.jpg?oh=c659322957028d832e13754ec45c7d06&oe=5B019110

if you're in this kind of mood i bet you'd like 2 Days In Paris LL! it's got a similar rambly vibe, and Delpy stars, writes, produces and directs, and there is a lot of people not quite getting what they want. it's also very funny (as i remember it). and the thing about French condoms is true ime

this does sound appealing. will look it up!

i did like the cow dudes and was disappointed they didn't go to the play

alfred, care to say why you loathed the 3rd

before sunrise is one of my favourites

i also don't understand why people hate ethan hawke so much

i actually like quite a few of his movies

i guess i can understand if they don't like him because he cheated on his wife but i never read about that, so i'm not sure how public it was

i was stoked when one day i found someone had made a music video using footage from the movie set to mojave 3's in love with a view

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

also it was cool that most of before sunrise was adlibbed by ethan hawke and julie delpy

I remember it being pretty public, as with all celebs who go the nanny banging route.

That said, I did like Ethan Hawke in the 90s. He was a definite 90s kind of guy for young girls to like.

Was just reading the before sunset thread because I knew Alfred had talked about the 3rd somewhere.

https://humanizingthevacuum.wordpress.com/2013/06/08/we-talk-nonsense-in-order-to-live-before-midnight/

He's still with the nanny, I think.

Also

DO NOT READ THE ABOVE UNLESS YOU HAVE SEEN ALL THREE MOVIES

xpost TRUE LOVE

Ethan Hawke needs to play Guy Fieri in a biopic.

It might be? Idk - I try not to pay attention/judge celebrities because of that kind of stuff. Nobody's perfect and you never know what's going on in someone's relationship. That said, he's clearly a dumbass for leaving Uma but we can all prob agree on that.

OMG stop now you're just trolling lol.

I was looking for images of his teeth and came across one of him with bleached hair. Perfect for Fieri.

I love Linklater but I don't really totally forgive him for putting Alex Jones in two of his movies. I am scared to watch Before Midnight, ugh. I love how Before Sunset ended so much.

Loved the first, though not unreservedly. Loved the second more. Third was a bit traumatic, but worthwhile. I don't know that I'd particularly like Hawke or his characters but I find him pretty fascinating on screen.

x-posts - I know the picture and it's terrifying. Also, just to be clear, I'm not an enormous EH fan at this point in my life because that would be weird. I do, however, think he's a hell of an actor and feel bad that people give him such a hard time.

Y - I think the third is worth watching but it's definitely my least favorite of the 3.

i also like ethan hawke. there is an earnestness to him that i appreciate

She's wearing a t-shirt under her dress when they enter the park. In the next scene the t-shirt is gone. That's how you know they had sex.

also i am not picking on you anagram honestly but i find this post unintentionally hilarious esp when i think of it out of context. i want to start saying things like this "first this happened, then this. That's how you know they had sex!"

elephant in the room

ethan hawkes novel

c/d?

The one that all takes place in the space of a pop song?

xp - nightmare

He really was James Franco version 1.0

far from it

y'all should wait for First Reformed before you dismiss Hawke

He's not a bad actor and he's managed to star/co-star in indie things and studio films for twenty-five years. I think he's figured it out, regardless of his talents.

He really was Jess Mariano version 1.0

https://i.pinimg.com/564x/2e/67/61/2e67618c098b2c6f43067c9050f69fbf--sunrise-tumblr-before-sunrise.jpg

how did i miss that he was brandishing the (withdrawn first edition of) Kinski book when I saw this in the theater? I was already obsessed with that book. Is that a 'shop?

nope, that was the book he held up
i just watched it a few days ago

that book is doing a lot of heavy lifting establishing him as an interesting person iirc

It reminds me a lot of the train station scene in Rohmer's The Green Ray when Delphine exchanges glances and gets into conversation with a guy over her copy of The Idiot.

i had to google "jess mariano"
he is a gilmore girls character?

Yeah, he stole Rory's copy of Howl and returned it with his own notes in the margin. I think he ends up writing a book and makes a film...

uuuuuuuuuugh

I read his first book when it came out which must have been at least twenty years ago. It was . . . fine. Not worthy of any awards but certainly not terrible either.

I remember that night better than I do entire years.

― carrotless, turnip-pocketed (fionnland), Friday, March 16, 2018 2:39 PM (four hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Damn, this one hits home.

I'm with ENBB btw: I enjoy Hawke as an actor, he was at least good and at times great in everything I've seen from him. I don't think I get the hate tbh. It's not like he's Keanu or something.

Also he's hot, sue me.

Damn, this one hits home.

Opening this thread and immediately seeing this I was briefly worried Linklater was dead. Thanks for the scare.

. It's not like he's Keanu or something.

i have learned to truly love and appreciate keanu

Who hates Keanu?!?

^^ !!

I'd let Keanu do terrible things to me, then I realize all he'd wanna do is eat spaghetti and nap.

he is so beautiful

Sorry Josh!

I don't hate Keanu! He's not half as great as Ethan though.

I will meet thee Ethan Hawke haters behind the cafetaria after school lunch.

Pasta and naps? Sounds like he and I would get along just fine.

i don't hate anyone, definitely not keanu. at worst he's a goof. ethan hawke and by extension his characters all seem very selfish and fail to deliver on the charm he tries to lay on with a spatula.

well i should say i reserve the feeling of hatred for people who are evil (merchants of death etc)
ethan hawke does not rate on that scale

Keanu would smell like a nice mid-price soap bought at a good spa resort.

Ethan Hawke would smell like old Birkenstocks lying on stale raisins.

y u break heart

Is there was a channel on pornhub that was just pasta and Keanu...I might consider subscribing.

... which is actually Linklater’s next movie...

Keanu would smell like a nice mid-price soap bought at a good spa resort.

Ethan Hawke would smell like old Birkenstocks lying on stale raisins.

― morning wood truancy (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, March 16, 2018 3:15 PM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

both sound pretty good tbh

ethan is handsome. keanu is ... beautiful

Is there was a channel on pornhub that was just pasta and Keanu...I might consider subscribing.

― Yerac, Friday, March 16, 2018 3:19 PM (seventeen minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lmao

these movies are just like... life happening, maaan.

i would remind you that a Film Comment writer circa Boyhood was confident enough to call EH "rat-faced"

I read his first book when it came out which must have been at least twenty years ago. It was . . . fine. Not worthy of any awards but certainly not terrible either.

there was a short story in Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve series in the late '90s about the ghostwriter of a young actor's novel following the actor around on tour and watching him read from the book he hadn't written. always wonderssumed that it was inspired by actual events & about Hawke.

I knew the movie was taking the piss out of Jesse -- as if the first movie hadn't already signaled it, but I was younger -- when we see him in 2004 basking in the success of a thinly disguised bildungsroman. Of course Jesse would be an airhead who can write nothing except autobiograpy.

nope, that was the book he held up
i just watched it a few days ago

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, March 16, 2018 11:10 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

that book is doing a lot of heavy lifting establishing him as an interesting person iirc

― weird woman in a bar (La Lechera), Friday, March 16, 2018 11:12 AM (two hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

lol otm, the thing about the before movies is that jesse is a huge dingus

oh damn that's a solid xp

jesse is a huge dingus

this was obvious to me when she said he kissed like an adolescent!
he probably behaves like an adolescent in many ways.
which is why i was glad when i thought she had chosen not to lay with him in the meadow

from what i can tell he only gets more annoying with each movie!

That burgundy turtleneck did a lot of heavy lifting too. Never talk to a stranger wearing a turtleneck.

a turtleneck with a rather large hole in it
i could handle the turtleneck if he were a completely different person

i mean i don't hate him or anything but he's a dude who takes himself way too seriously, totally lacks self-awareness, and never works on himself. which means he's very real to me even as i'm certain he deserves to get divorced twice for his behavior in the third film

Brad you are back, fuck yeah! <3

Besides the beautiful European locations and the intense chemistry between the two stars and the snappy dialogue and the sexy kissing scenes, my favourite bit was Ethan Hawke’s wardrobe. His first outfit is a simple red turtleneck sweater with stonewash Levi’s 501s, and I liked it so much that it’s probably going to be my go-to for the next six months.

The internet is a wonderland.

http://isaaclikes.com/2014/12/before-sunrise.html

I read his first book when it came out which must have been at least twenty years ago. It was . . . fine. Not worthy of any awards but certainly not terrible either.

there was a short story in Adrian Tomine's Optic Nerve series in the late '90s about the ghostwriter of a young actor's novel following the actor around on tour and watching him read from the book he hadn't written. always wonderssumed that it was inspired by actual events & about Hawke.

― just noticed tears shaped like florida. (sic), Friday, March 16, 2018 4:23 PM (twenty-six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Huh, interesting. The book was actually really obviously autobiographical from what I remember but I never had any trouble believing it was written by him. He's clearly a smart well-read guy and it just seemed like the kind of first book someone like him would write. As I said though I read it 20 years ago so for all I know it's actually terrible.

Hawke *is* very good as the tortured minister in the new Schrader film. That and Boyhood are the best he's been in a long time, maybe ever.

i side with ENBB, i dont think I’ve ever fully stopped crushing on him

even when I dont like him & he’s a jerk and a goob i always sorta deep down still like him because he was my ultimate crushworthy go-to for so long

I was trying to think of something that Ethan Hawke smells like & all I got was “toothpaste” O_o
my brain is weird lol

I think he would smell like a hairless cat.

:/

Hey brad :)

That thing where bacteria on puppies' feet makes them smell like Fritos? That's Ethan Hawke's odor.

Puppy frito feet is the best smell!

I have now watched Before Sunset and understand the "I remember that night better than...." comments. It was alright. Jesse/Ethan Hawke was probably at his grossest imo. You guys did a nice job keeping the spoiler from me -- even though I knew that I was wrong about them doing it, that was a major point of the movie (afaict) and it seemed to go exactly where I hoped it wouldn't -- they both fixated for almost a decade on that one night and it interfered with their ability to find happiness or satisfaction elsewhere. They talked about sex a lot. I winced when he pulled her over to the bench and she kept making these uncomfortable faces and then working to hide them (I liked her facial expressions). The way he talked about his wife made me feel depressed for her.

What I thought I liked about the first one was the way it offered the option of encasing the entire experience in amber and then calling it up when you want to think about a good time but not fixating on it as some sort of WHAT IF missed opportunity.

Now I am watching the third one and -- wow. So far, extremely boring. I did like when she said she wound up with an American adolescent. Yeah -- he has always been like that!

also extremely corny of him to write a novel about it
imo

The third one is like taking the helium out of a balloon

haha holy shit Richard Linklater directed this new ad. "If somebody called my wife a dog, and said my daddy was in on the Kennedy assassination, I wouldn't be kissing their ass." https://t.co/dbRZM8RugE

— Andrew Kirell (@AndrewKirell) October 9, 2018

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qRYYqEgT9uI

Lol nice

C'mon…Ted

nothing like seeing an extremely old guy permanently slam some weasel's name between the bars of an air quote forever

— Tobin's Lifting Guide (@Mobute) October 9, 2018

his wife is going to call him "teeeeehhhhhd" and he's going to see that guy hovering in place of her face, shimmering there in front of the soup vault

— Tobin's Lifting Guide (@Mobute) October 9, 2018

I don’t recall ever seeing someone’s name turned into a dismissive insult before my very eyes

— Cake or Death (@Johngcole) October 9, 2018

Linklater as '80s curator

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6338-richard-linklater-s-1980s

New one supposed to be out late this summer (bumped from the spring).

a Cate Blanchett mystery...

Yeah. My Mom loved the book. Didn't realize the trailer went out last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKvOud9GcRQ

it's not really a mystery, unless they changed it a lot. the book is more of a quirky family drama

Exclusive: 'Boyhood' filmmaker Richard Linklater is directing a Sondheim musical that will be shot over the course of 20 years and star @BenSPlatt and @BeanieFeldstein https://t.co/DeCXGcj1XW

— Collider (@Collider) August 29, 2019

he's a little older than me, but i like his odds of finishing it more than mine of seeing it

Jokes on them, there will be no movies except Disney ones in 20 years.

‪ Sources say the film is being shot in reverse chronological order, as the play and musical end when the characters are in their mid-20s and just embarking on their entertainment careers.

Wait is it Merrily We Roll Along? D’oh!

watched BEFORE SUNRISE tonight and was pretty disappointed, having put off watching it for some time just to build anticipation after reading a little about it and figuring it would be my kind of film. I’m usually not the type to dismiss a movie because I “didn’t like” a character, but every time ethan hawke opened his mouth I winced — and it wasn’t only his teeth

I suppose this is how real life is, we’ve all dated people, fucked people we weren’t all that interested in — had aimless conversations we could actually picture enjoying with someone who we vibed a little better with... I did like the listening booth, and the pretend telephone conversation, and the times where she’s roast him for being dumb and adolescent... maybe I’d have liked this a little better if I were 20 when I saw it instead of 30. it was a nice-looking movie, I’ll give it that

Definitely a movie best to experience for the first time somewhere between sophomore year of high school and senior year of college.

Would Before Sunrise Hawke be as hateable without Reality Bites Hawke? (Probably, but maybe not.)

I watched the first two movies at the perfect time in my life to relate to but the third one I couldn't relate to at all. Maybe I'll see it again if/when I get to that point

My Mom loved the book. Didn't realize the trailer went out last year.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKvOud9GcRQ

Watched this movie on a plane knowing nothing about it except it was Linklater. it was like a Disney channel movie

if you're ever capable of relating to these, that's a worry

Part of Linklater's strategy is to frame Celine's reactions such that "Can you believe this callow fucker?" is never far from her mind. I found Jesse ridiculous at twenty too -- a teleological reason, I guess.

he's supposed to be seen that way, right? (I don't remember this movie well enough anymore.) but I still related to the excitement they both have

in fairness Jesse is a lot less obnoxious than actual American youngsters traveling in europe

Would Before Sunrise Hawke be as hateable without Reality Bites Hawke? (Probably, but maybe not.)

before sunset >>>> sunrise

they’re more interesting as actual adults (jesse, obviously, is still a dumbass)

re: not being able to relate to before midnight, have you ever been in a really terrible fight with someone you know and who knows you really well. alternately have you witnessed one among your married friends

i'll still love sunrise forever though. i watched it for the first time when i was 15 and it exerted undue influence over my terrible life

Exiting the theater after watching Before Midnight was an experience shattering enough to still make me tremble at the memory: a movie so amateurish (I couldn't get past how the camera in the airport scene was in the wrong position; hadn't he learned this yet?) and so transparently false that I doubted my responses to the first two films, both of which I still, thankfully, love (like Brad I too prefer Before Sunset). I understood the fights, I accepted the structure -- I didn't buy the dialogue, the performances, nothing.

who was it who said never trust memory

still i think your initial reaction is prob fair. movie managed to get through my defenses

and jesse talking about his writing... woof

yeeeaaah

that's still pretty real to me though! have you ever listened to a writer

It didn't help that Hawke as an actor was already past the constrictions of Jesse; his dad in Boyhood was a sharper, deeper portrait of a similarly callow guy and bad thinker.

i do agree with that, he's sooo good as the deadbeat boyhood dad it's ridiculous

managed to make an old guy talking about the fucking beatles my favorite scene in a movie

one of these days i'll buy the before trilogy but i'm really waiting for the criterion collection school of rock

have you ever been in a really terrible fight with someone you know and who knows you really well. alternately have you witnessed one among your married friends

My worst fights (or the worst fights I've seen others have) have not been like this movie. they've been as cold and had some yelling but never escalating into the level of rage and contempt here. I'm sure that kind of blowup does happen to people but my blowups haven't looked like that (yet). it was weird to see myself in the characters in the first two movies and then get to the third one and go "wait what"

Watched this movie on a plane knowing nothing about it except it was Linklater. it was like a Disney channel movie

I first started watching Before Sunrise aged 22. At that age self-loathing and the narcissism of small differences combined to make me find Jessie unbearable and I turned off after about half an hour.

I finally tried again at around 40, when I could have some distance, and enjoyed it a lot. Then enjoyed Before Sunset even more.

all of my thoughts about this movie are upthread

i remain disappointed that she ever talked to him again. the story was perfect and delicious with him as "soon-to-be that guy from a long time ago" -- he could have lived forever in her mind and instead the next several movies happened

i watched all of them in my 40s for the first time
not sure i felt differently than i would have when i was younger bc my feelings about romance went sour pretty early

I prefer Before Hollywood.

he does one for them, then one for nobody

(that's a joke I liked Bernie)

I prefer Before Hollywood.

Where'd You Go, Bernadette is such a bizarrely shapeless, boring and unconvincing movie. It kind of feels like one of those upper middle class angst dramas from the late 70s/early 80s, but shot and scored like a Lifetime movie. I cannot imagine why Linklater made it, unless it was to fund his 20-year Sondheim thing.

oh wow, I didn't realize that was a Linklater joint. my gf and I had to turn that off after about 10 minutes, was pure horseshit

wow yeah just watched bernadette and it was excruciating, wtf happened there

https://www.austinchronicle.com/daily/screens/2020-07-16/linklaters-lunar-latest-coming-to-netflix/

His Five Easy Pieces sort-of sequel is very forgettable. Steve Carell should have been forever consigned to tertiary roles in Will Ferrell movies.

The Last Detail, you mean.

Yeah, that one.

Looking upthread, how nuts is it that subUrbia still isn't out on disc?

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.

Still think about this on occasion. Easily the most obnoxious Q & A incident I've been audience to.

sort of can’t believe my reaction above to before sunrise... in retrospect, and after seeing the second one, I think I love it now. the second one is better, though — just insane chemistry between those two. and the last scene is all-time

I saw DAZED AND CONFUSED for the first time last night. it captures the inconsequentiality of suburban teenagerhood really well. seems like something that could be rewatched a hundred times. my biggest complaint is that the characters were all pretty one-dimensional and the acting was kind of bad

honestly shocked that it was a box office disappointment though! it’s such a breezy, charming film

managed to make an old guy talking about the fucking beatles my favorite scene in a movie

― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Tuesday, April 28, 2020 1:42 PM (nine months ago) bookmarkflaglink

The Black Album playlist Hawke put out gave me the impression the dad doesn’t really listen to much solo Beatles stuff outside of the hits.

iirc the studio didn't really know what to do with D&C and marketed it as a stoner comedy. tbf it was also the second movie by a little-known director with no stars in it. it would be more accurate to market it as american graffiti but for the '70s but i don't know if that would have drawn in any more people.

I saw DAZED AND CONFUSED for the first time last night.

!

I'd say I was jealous but I'm actually glad that I saw it for the first time when I was still a teenager.

yeah exactly, I thought it was very good but (again) something I can’t imagine wouldn’t have been all the more powerful if I’d seen it 12 years ago

the studio didn't really know what to do with D&C and marketed it as a stoner comedy

I just finished the book a month ago and should know this, but I think that's right. This original poster tied in with that idea.

https://www.originalfilmart.com/products/dazed-and-confused-1993-teaser

"seems like something that could be rewatched a hundred times."

Not 100 but I'm prob up to 30. 6 or so of which came within the same week when friend and I decided to watch it every day. D&C and Trading Places are my most watched movies.
I remember seeing the commercials for it and wanting to see it but being under 17 so waiting to came out on VHS. Commercial pull was "70s music/fashion + stoners + teenage wasteland + cute girls".

It's probably at least in my top ten most rewatched movies.

the new oral history, discussed in the D&C thread last week, is good.

Is that the book? I've got it in my wishlist

my biggest complaint is that the characters were all pretty one-dimensional and the acting was kind of bad

It depends. Jason London gets more shades into Pink than what even Linklater came up. We all guys like him: the ones who can hang with the jocks, stoners, and outcasts without damage. And Michelle Burke is relaxed.

i like wiley wiggins' performance. i don't know if it's "acting" but he is that kid.

I had no idea before reading the book that Shawn Andrews was supposed to be the breakout star.

Everyone hated him no? To the point where his part got drastically cut.

I don't know if there's a single performance I don't like, although, as I've said in the D&C thread, Rory Cochrane as Slater can be a bit much. Ben Affleck is really good conveying extreme aggression masking insecurity.

Both him and Jovovich, who got deeply involved during the filming. And they were the two who didn't participate in the book.

Yeah I'm not wowed by any performance but I can't think of any that break the spell the movie casts. I guess Wiley is the weakest link, and for a time I found his tic of pinching the bridge of his nose distracting. Think he only does that in one or 2 scenes tho? Yet at the same time I don't think a more polished actor would work as well in that part idk.

Lol apparently he touches bridge of his nose 42 times

Only recently recognized Michelle Burke as Connie in "The Coneheads".

why were you watching the coneheads

Ackroyd and Curtin's deliveries are great!

I haven't read the new book, but iirc from some of the other Dazed retrospectives I've read, going in Andrews had alot of buzz around him (from where idk, it was his first film) and was already acting like a big star, which alienated him from almost everyone else, and--coupled with the arrival of McConaughey--led to him sort of getting written out of latter part of the movie.

Ben Affleck is really good conveying extreme aggression masking insecurity.

― clemenza, Tuesday, February 23, 2021 3:15 PM (thirty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

perhaps playing himself...

great movie!

Ben Affleck is really good conveying extreme aggression masking insecurity.

Absolutely, he really nailed the very specific type of dipshit bully we had in our high school, just seething, simmering rage at all times.

in the book, a lot of the younger actors said they were genuinely scared of affleck and cole hauser. meanwhile affleck talks about how he hates bullies and bullying, that he had only been cast as bullies up to that point and that he wanted to break away from that, and that any perceived on-set bullying was misconstrued. hauser owned up a bit more to them going overboard at times.

I like the detail that he's the only guy who's in the process of turning his muscle car into a tacky '70s street machine.

https://www.goldeagle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Dazed-and-Confused-1973-Plymouth-Duster.jpg

Like he's four paychecks away from painting it metallic purple and installing a blower.

Cole Hauser is terrifying in a bunch of movies of that era. Isn’t he in All Over Me?

Wish there would have been a scene with Clint just tearing O'Bannion apart for his car.

xpost - yes, he is in that and plays a terrifying skinhead in Higher Learning

Huh, was shockingly old when I learned that Cole Hauser is the son of Wings Hauser.

i saw it when i was about 20 with a clutch of druggie friends from glasgow. we sat in the front row. all of us completely blown away by it

think I’m gonna go with EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! tonight

Most people seem to disagree, but I found it a PALE IMITATION!!

It's nowhere near as good as Dazed, but it's still pretty good imho and def worth a viewing if you liked D&C.

irc the studio didn't really know what to do with D&C and marketed it as a stoner comedy. tbf it was also the second movie by a little-known director with no stars in it. it would be more accurate to market it as american graffiti but for the '70s but i don't know if that would have drawn in any more people.

Just because it's not Half Baked doesn't mean it's not a stoner comedy, maaaan.

i had a bad experience watching this stoned because mike getting beaten bummed me out :c

I watched EWS! last week again. It's fine.

i had a bad experience watching this stoned because mike getting beaten bummed me out :c

That scene did cut a little close for me, lol.

mike is probably the nearest any character comes to my teenage self and looks a bit like my brother so yeah, same

Both D&C and EWS are among my comfort movies, so naturally I rescreened them after I got power back last week. The latter is terrific.

I watched EWS! last week again. It's fine.

You lopped off one of the exclamation points, though--I think that've very, very meaningful.

(I should have mentioned the one scene I thought perfect, which won't be hard to guess if you've seen the film.)

"that's" (eyes, brain, fingers, I never know with my parade of typos)

the ones who can hang with the jocks, stoners, and outcasts without damage

i like that this is what the movie considers an essentially heroic quality. a character who actually deserves edie mcclurg's catalogue of subcultures from ferris bueller.

jim in van / pbkr otm; there is more than one scene of prolonged sadism! and if any of them happen to catch you wrong it can be doubly unpleasant because the movie doesn't really seem to be remembering them any less fondly than anything else, even if it doesn't like ben affleck (it might like parker posey well enough). obv it is part of its greatness that it won't commit to comforting you (just remember what you're celebrating).

yeah so I just watched EWS tonight and it fuckin ruled. 118 minutes of guys being dudes. liked it better than DAZED I think

Also really enjoyed EWS but I remember D&C much more vividly

same

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

The women aren't as thought out, though, but, boy, those boys are just...

in which film are they not as thought out, you think?

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).

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

(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

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.

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/richard-linklater-portrays-the-mentality-of-an-athlete-in-everybody-wants-some

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.

sorry, EWS!!

yeah that's a grea

*great insight, it's a remarkable distillation of a certain experience

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.

yeah EWS is v joyful and endearing, qualities you do not expect from a house full of baseball jocks

the attractiveness of said jocks helps as well :D

once you like disco, it's hard to be a bully

otm

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

We got trailer...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dzuz5s_Qk-A

I’m on board with this

looks like archer

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).

Ineffectual but I enjoyed it more than you, I suspect

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.

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.

Pvmic, but overall I loved this.

That said, they could have also called it YAS BOOMER.

More thoughts to come.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gd72I33RGV4

Greatest shot in all of cinema?

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.

(That clip above is great, but I'll see your "Legend of the Rent" and raise you "Bonzo Goes to Bitburg.")

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

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).

It's rotoscoped.

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.

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

agree with the academy (because it was bad)

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

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.

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"

Oh come on, that John Brinkley movie could rule!

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...

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.

EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! is so underrated

^^It's become one of my comfort movies.

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...

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.

Before Midnight is dreadful, and I loved the first two.

Otherwise I more or less endorse his career moves.

That Bernadette one is dogshit, just the worst kind of DTV slop

Did you guys read that nyt profile it was zzz I was trying to remember the last movie of his I really enjoyed and it might be waking life or scanner darkly or dazed and confused

Hit Man is fantastic, really loved it, was a huge Linklater fan in the 00s etc and this is the first movie in ages that made me revisit my fandom and think he's still got it

The 2010s were still a good decade for him IMHO. Bernie, some would say Before Midnight (though I found it pretty disappointing after viewing the entire trilogy back-to-back-to-back), Boyhood and Everybody Wants Some!! got plenty of good press and I would put three of those four among my favorite films of the decade.

His next two, Last Flag Flying (2017) and Where'd You Go, Bernadette (2019), had me a little concerned, but I really liked his last film Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022) which didn't seem to get much of a theatrical release since it's a Netflix film. So aside from two consecutive disappointments, I don't think he really lost his way and already plan to see this at a theater next week.

I think he just wrapped Nouvelle Vague which should be interesting - if it was anyone else, I'd probably skip it, but coming from Linklater, I imagine he has some idea about the story that could prove interesting and engaging.

Hit Man is a very decent, fun watch and I hope it doesn’t get lost in the streaming algorithm. It’s much more in Bernie’s lane than I was expecting, but seeing as how it’s based on a piece by the same writer I shouldn’t have been surprised.

Also liked his episode of the God Save Texas documentary from earlier this year.

I admire Linklater's commitment to making small films.

I could probably take slacker and waking life and leave the rest

The God Save Texas doc is really good. I thought the interview he did with David Marchese for the NYT Mag was fine! Unless there's another profile?

do we blame him for unleashing Glen Powell, an actor I can't figure out yet?

Slacker and waking life are great. I love RL so much but c'mon what about the trilogy?????

Better lived than watched

A Scanner Darkly still my favourite

Am stoned. Just picked up remote to see I can find dazed. Also so good.

Xpost - true. Have done both though I think and still love the movies.

I found it. :)

This movie is when I first fell in love with parker posey omg I am so happy to be watching it.

Would get stoned and kick it with ENBB tonight

liked this a lot! super charming. glen powell rules

xpost - yesssss. My dad is moving to FL permanently this month so I will be there a few times a year. We can make this happen. :)

watching EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! tonight

It's fun!

otm deep fave <3

I honestly wonder whether EWS!! might be his best film: it’s so incredibly perceptive in its depiction of the transformational nature of…college, and meeting women — and the delicate politics of group friendships. it’s so sensitively conceived. and glen powell is so good in this, his charm is irresistible

I can't remember Glen Powell outside of the three Linklater films he's in (actually four, but his role in Fast Food Nation decades ago was small enough that I can't remember him there either). But those three appearances are all excellent.

Really liked the new one, it was full of surprises, though the few detractors I've encountered seemed to read it completely differently.

Never seen EWS!! and this thread now has me putting this next on my list so thanks

New interview in The Film Stage:

https://thefilmstage.com/richard-linklater-on-sex-murder-hit-man-and-the-infantilization-of-culture/

New one is good fun, if unexceptional. I enjoyed how the plot feels like one of those 90's erotic thrillers ppl have been clamouring to return, though obviously the tone is radically different, goofy and amiable.

Search me though how what the cops were doing in this, and what the guy it's based on was doing, was not always entrapment and what possible usefulness it could have. Something to take up with the US legal system rather than Linklater.

Can anyone imagine his upcoming "making of A Bout De Suffle" movie will be good? Read an interview with him in S&S and he was all "Demy, Varda, Truffaut, Godard, they are all dead but we can bring them back" and thought "yeah Godard died recently and I'm guessing you waited for that to happen 'cause you knew he'd be withering about it".

I really liked his last film Apollo 10 1⁄2: A Space Age Childhood (2022) which didn't seem to get much of a theatrical release since it's a Netflix film

I don't know if I had even heard about this when it came out, or maybe I had just forgotten, but thanks for the reminder! I just started watching this last night and it's great. The first 5 minutes hint at some kind of semi-silly fantastic plot, but then the next 40 minutes are just richly detailed sociological depiction of life as a 10-year old boy in a new-development outer suburb of Houston around 1969. As a Gen-Xer I'm a few years later, but I can definitely relate to a lot of this.

https://thefilmstage.com/richard-linklater-on-sex-murder-hit-man-and-the-infantilization-of-culture/

good interview

dejavu

Search me though how what the cops were doing in this, and what the guy it's based on was doing, was not always entrapment and what possible usefulness it could have. Something to take up with the US legal system rather than Linklater.

Linklater actually brings this up in that interview, and it was an aspect to the whole story that troubled him, especially coming on the heels of that prison doc (which he finished filming before he started production on Hit Man). It was definitely something he wanted audiences to think.

The film moves briskly and can seem frothy in tone, but I think it's morally complicated and very unsettling underneath the surface. One thing that caught me off guard was how a few critics were angered by the ending, with one going as far as calling it "amoral." Pretty sure Linklater knew exactly what he was doing and the ending was deceptively a happy resolution.

I just started watching this last night and it's great. The first 5 minutes hint at some kind of semi-silly fantastic plot, but then the next 40 minutes are just richly detailed sociological depiction of life as a 10-year old boy in a new-development outer suburb of Houston around 1969. As a Gen-Xer I'm a few years later, but I can definitely relate to a lot of this.

I think this is something most adults can relate to, even if they weren't part of that era. Every generation has had a similar dynamic play out where you have these shared cultural experiences, not just within the community but across the country. It may be something most people take for granted, and it may be less potent now due to the internet and social media greatly diminishing any sense of distance or cultural isolation, but in hindsight there's something pretty awesome about a film, a record or some sociological trend making its way through an entire culture and leaving a lasting impression on everyone.

Yes, among other things it captured something of the monolithic dominance of network television in the imaginative life of a young person in those days, and the way all of its little quirks and oddities became known by heart.

It’s also good on how TV as a central cultural medium tended to cultivate the formation of rituals. Participation required conforming to a predetermined schedule.

Hit Men was sound, solid.

yeah, i didnt think it was all it was cracked up to be but it was funnand solid

i enjoyed just how evil she was pretty much throughout, the idea it "got dark" at the end is....weird

The “thank you” bag was hilarious

This film reminded me a bit of Grosse Pointe Blank! Not as overtly comedic as that was, but felt tonally similar.

Pretty sure Linklater knew exactly what he was doing and the ending was deceptively a happy resolution.

Deceptive as in it doesn't actually end happily for them? Or it does and since they are bad people that isn't a happy ending?

My viewing was influenced by the Sight&Sound interview Linklater gave, where he said something along the lines of "people are complicated, people make mistakes, I like to give them a break", and so I guess I took the ending at face value - I feel like the movie wants us to be on the protagonist's side, to root for the relationship and to be happy it worked out. In real life this would indeed be amoral asthey killed two people but this is movie magic and I don't mind being seduced into rooting for a couple of murderers.

Of course it helps that both the people they kill are awful. I enjoyed the film without loving it. There are some awkwardnesses in its conception and execution, but Powell and Arjona are very likable.

I don't think it brought off the amorality; it either chickened out or Linklater didn't know how to, pun intended, execute it.

At first I was annoyed by how little character development Adria Arjona got after her first excellent scene. She just seemed to hang around being very attractive. But then I realized that she's the encapsulation of his speech to his students to decide who they want to be and then passionately pursue being that person. She wanted to be happily married to some guy who was prepared to kill for her, and she got that. I still thought the whole film was only OK. I don't agree with the idea that everyone should write like Elmore Leonard all the time, but feel like this is the kind of film that could have done with a bit more of an Elmore Leonard vibe.

the real story is quite a read:

https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/hit-man-2/

I forgot it was based on a true story and kept expecting twist after twist but it was all very straightforward and predictable, but likeable enough

I can't get the spoiler tags to work, so look away if you haven't seen this film!

xps What Gary and Maddy achieve is the ultimate goal so many of the film's supporting characters had when they tried to carry out their ridiculous but horrendous fantasies of having someone wiped out of existence - to have their lives completely fulfilled once they were free of the one obstacle (or two) to their happiness. It's pro forma for a "moral" film not to have this happen, to have a reckoning, to show how impossible it would be for its characters to realize this, etc., and sometimes you have something like "Crimes and Misdemeanors" where it's allowed to happen at the service of a dark view of the world, but I think what Linklater pulls off is trickier and very much apiece with his warmer and optimistic view of the world. He shows the complete realization of that dark fantasy, but I also believe he trusts the audience to feel put off by the implications, to also see it as a complete fairy tale that could never happen this way even as we're seeing it play out as the "happy ending." I saw this film in a packed theater and got the impression everyone around me felt a little gross (and amused) by those final scenes, but I think that's EXACTLY how it's supposed to play.

This feels apiece with "Bernie" in this respect, though with the earlier film we're not dealing with a fabrication inserted into a real-life story, that aspect of the story really did happen.

I mean, to what degree is the film presumed to be on their side? I think it’s as much an interrogation of the romcom as an endorsement of it.

Absolutely. The movie more or less presents itself as a form film theory and criticism in the first act, then keeps developing those ideas as it progresses.

Upthread the idea of entrapment was suggested, but think about the moral (not legal) implications of that and what it says about people - then tie that to what the film says about hit man movies (after claiming it's a Hollywood invention while showing how Gary uses familiar movie references to gain people's trust). For me at least, it was pretty fascinating to see how those ideas were explored over the course of the movie.

The most telling moment may be the married couple we see in court. Linklater alludes this in the Film Stage interview, but when that moment played out, my first impulse was more or less "the husband's a sucker. His wife tried to have him killed." But look how it plays out afterwards, culminating in that look they give to Gary. There's no getting around she did try to have her husband killed, but at the same time I'm kind of left feeling there's a lot that I don't grasp about this couple, especially if you can frame their case truthfully as entrapment. The split between what's taken from real life and what's complete fiction is interesting to me because on some level it played like a film within a film - from the moral observations Linklater and Powell make about the real-life Gary Johnson, the nature of his work and the people he encounters (all of which we see dramatized), Linklater and Powell explore the questions that arise through a hypothetical story which turns out to be the romantic comedy between Gary and Maddy.

*after claiming hit men are a Hollywood invention

Before this vanishes from my head tomorrow morning and then forever...

I went in with low expectations--based on the trailer, based on Dazed and Confused/School of Rock/Boyhood being long ago (and Everybody Wants Some not)--so not bad.

What I liked: Adria Arjona--never seen her before.

What I loved: "Cast Your Fate to the Wind" (twice)--what a great, largely forgotten song. Thought I was hearing the Sound Orchestral hit, but looks like it's Allen Toussaint.

What I didn't like: my second Glen Powell movie (see above)--don't like him at all. Switch him up with somebody I do and I'd probably give this a 7.0

Better films that crossed my mind: Double Indemnity (obviously), To Die For, Blood Simple. Must be dozens. I enjoyed the reminders.

Better crafted on technical level, but the latter two have enough shortcomings that I would never call them better, especially Blood Simple which came off worse every time I saw it. I don't think I could revisit it again, but I'd probably revisit To Die For.

They're both highly stylized movie concoctions, but for me, clearly superior.

Honestly, Blood Simple just feels even more empty and contemptuous when I put it next to Hit Man and To Die For. I like some of the Coens' films much more than others, but Blood Simple isn't one of the better ones.

Adria Arjona--never seen her before.

She was great in Good Omens as Anathema Device!

I lied--she was in six episodes of the Vince Vaughn True Detective season (Emily). No recollection.

i thought powell was fine in it - if anything, the brief moments when he played the hitman characters struck me more as a self-indulgent "look at my potential range, hollywood" that i'd imagine any performer would relish getting a chance to do in a single production and pull off.

Having rewatched Blood Simple recently, in no fucking universe is Hit Man on the level of Blood Simple.

I mean one has M Emmett Walsh playing one of the seediest men ever, the other has sitcom-level cops doing stale jokes.

I did enjoy the actor playing Jasper - knew his lane and stayed in it with aplomb.

M Emmett Walsh was a great actor and he nailed what he was given, but every time I watched that film I was put off more and more by how nasty it came off. I know the movie has its fans, but it just left me feeling emptier each time out.

Part of it is that it's come to the point where craft and style now has its limits when I see a movie. The Coens are great storytellers, they're often hilarious, they're visually inventive, and that's a big reason why I see everything they do. It's probably a big reason why I voluntarily watched Blood Simple multiple times over the years. But I'm valuing what a filmmaker has to say more and more - how are they viewing the world, what are they asking about it, and the dialogue they're essentially creating with the viewer. In the beginning, Linklater didn't grab me as much as his contemporaries, but over time he's come out ahead for me, partly as someone with the kind of curiosity one would have when they’re seriously interested in people and how they think and act in life. Once in a while I'll think about the reasons a filmmaker would create what I'm seeing, or think about the kind of view they would have on life or the world to create such a thing - the answers can be good or bad or even unresolved, but it often seems valid when I'm trying to engage with what they're saying. Linklater's films aren't always perfect, but they do a lot more than others in getting me to look at or examine life in a different way.

Was Maddy a real person or a composite? I ask because, though not nearly as egregious as American Graffiti's coda, I felt a twinge of unfairness in making Hit Man's coda entirely about Johnson. But if she's fictionalized, that's all you can really do.

i thought powell was fine in it - if anything, the brief moments when he played the hitman characters struck me more as a self-indulgent "look at my potential range, hollywood" that i'd imagine any performer would relish getting a chance to do in a single production and pull off.

― Western® with Bacon Flavor, Tuesday, 11 June 2024 04:20 (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

felt exactly the opposite

his limits were never more exposed than at any stage we might have to believe the paper thin character under the hit men

he was tbh quite annoying as this guy

A friend pointed out to me yesterday, when I told them that Glen Powell feels like a scam thought up by Hollywood bizzers who think millennials and Gen Z don’t understand sex appeal or get enough sex, that Powell is a psyop.

he actually had four eyes in this role, so uh no

I did not feel sickly or partic troubled, have rooted for far more morally compromised characters in the past. Did feel "none of this would go down like this in real life", but that's what I think every time I watch a romantic comedy?

Aside from Ron I don't feel like there were any moments where we had to believe in any of the characters Gary makes up, they are designed as OTT caricatures and we're meant to think "haw, these rubes are really falling for it" more than we are supposed to marvel at the transformation imo.

I did enjoy the actor playing Jasper - knew his lane and stayed in it with aplomb.

Yeah, he was great. Stole every scene he was in, imo.

when I told them that Glen Powell feels like a scam

He's Tom Cruise approved, and probably cheaper than a lot of other leading men, for a little while, anyway. Grateful to be working, by the sounds of it, and happy to generate his own projects as well. And he was never a child star, so we don't all look at him as if he's kind of a perpetual baby. I feel like all these things are working in his favour. But I agree that I don't get it. He does nothing for me at all. I mean, I've nothing against him, he seems like a perfectly nice man, but really? This is The Hot Guy?

I liked glen powell as tilda Swinton

Tilda Swinton could totally play Glen Powell.

Josh O'Connell should play every Hot Guy imo