In my mind, Richard Linklater is one of the best working filmmakers we have. He didn't really begin to get his just due until around when Boyhood came out, but he's always been at the forefront of American indie cinema, dating all the way back to the early 90's with Slacker. Critics at the time said that Soderbergh's Sex Lies and Videotape, along with Linklater's Slacker really ushered in the 90's wave of independent cinema.
I've always loved and connected to Linklater's fascination with time. Over and over again time is a theme of his work. Whether it's the one day plots of Dazed and Confused, SubUrbia, and Tape, or the passage of time in Boyhood (of course, his Before trilogy falls into both categories), Linklater loves to view the passage of time. Even movies of his like Last Flag Flying, which I haven't seen but understand that the passage of time is a major theme. I'm not 100% sure what it is about the theme of time that I connect to so deeply, but I know that I find it fascinating and in Linklater's hands a wonderful storytelling tool.
He has worked with many of his actors multiple times, like Ethan Hawke (whom he's worked with the most, I believe 8 movies so far), Julie Delpy, Patricia Arquette, Matthew McConaughey, Jack Black and many others. And he always gets great work out of his actors, Black should have an Oscar on his mantle for the work he did in Bernie. Arquette has an Oscar on her shelf from working with Linklater.
I still have a few of his to see, but I always look forward to exploring his work. What about you?
- Before Sunset - 10/10
- Dazed and Confused - 10/10
- Before Sunrise - 10/10
- Boyhood - 10/10
- Before Midnight - 9/10
- Bernie - 8/10
- A Scanner Darkly - 8/10
- Waking Life - 8/10
- School of Rock - 7/10
- Slacker - 7/10
- SubUrbia - 6/10
- Bad News Bears - 5/10
- Tape - 5/10
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