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Directors DIRECTOR FILMOGRAPHY - The Films of RICHARD LINKLATER (1 Viewer)

Jim_K

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DIRECTOR FILMOGRAPHY - The Films of RICHARD LINKLATER

Rank ‘em, rate ‘em, review ‘em or whatever.

[SIZE= 12px] RICHARD LINKLATER[/SIZE]

Me and Orson Welles (2008)

[SIZE= 12px]Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach (2008)[/SIZE]

[SIZE= 12px]Fast Food Nation (2006)
A Scanner Darkly (2006)
Bad News Bears (2005)
Before Sunset (2004)
$5.15/Hr. (2004) (TV)
The School of Rock (2003)
Live From Shiva's Dance Floor (2003)
Tape (2001)
Waking Life (2001)
The Newton Boys (1998)
SubUrbia (1996)
Before Sunrise (1995)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Slacker (1991)
Heads I Win/Tails You Lose (1991) (V)
It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988) [/SIZE]
 

Jim_K

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Ratings out of :star: :star: :star: :star:


[SIZE= 14px]RICHARD LINKLATER (1960 - )[/SIZE]


Me and Orson Welles (2008) :star: :star: 1/2

Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach (2008)
Fast Food Nation (2006) :star: :star: 1/2
A Scanner Darkly (2006) :star: :star: :star:
Bad News Bears (2005) :star: :star:
Before Sunset (2004) :star: :star: :star:

$5.15/Hr. (2004) (TV)
The School of Rock (2003) :star: :star: 1/2
Live From Shiva's Dance Floor (2003)
Tape (2001) :star: :star: :star:
Waking Life (2001) :star: :star: :star:
The Newton Boys (1998) :star: :star:

SubUrbia (1996)
Before Sunrise (1995) :star: :star: :star:
Dazed and Confused (1993) :star: :star: :star: :star:
Slacker (1991) :star:
Heads I Win/Tails You Lose (1991)
It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988)
 

george kaplan

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RICHARD LINKATER

Seen: 3
Like: 0
Own: 0

Rank order:

The School of Rock (2003)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
Slacker (1991)
 

Brook K

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1. School of Rock - A-
2. Tape - B+
3. Waking Life - B-
4. Dazed and Confused - C+
5. A Scanner Darkly - C+
6. Slacker - D
7. Bad News Bears - D


Own: 0

One of these days I'll do a Before Sunrise/After Sunset rental.
 

Marc Fedderman

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Out of 4 stars:

Waking Life :star: :star: :star: 1/2
Before Sunset :star: :star: :star: 1/2
Before Sunrise :star: :star: :star: 1/2
School of Rock :star: :star: :star:
 

SteveGon

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Fast Food Nation (2007) ***
A Scanner Darkly (2006) ***
Bad News Bears (2005) **1/2
Before Sunset (2004) ***
The School of Rock (2003) ***
Waking Life (2001) ***
The Newton Boys (1998) **
SubUrbia (1996) **1/2
Before Sunrise (1995) ***
Dazed and Confused (1993) ***1/2
Slacker (1991) ***1/2
It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988) **1/2
 

Bill McA

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Ratings from (Own the DVD)
Heads I Win/Tails You Lose (1991) (V)
It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books (1988)

Seen 13
Own 4
 

Kirk Tsai

Screenwriter
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Ranking:

1. Before Sunset
2. Before Sunrise
3. School of Rock
4. Tape
5. Waking Life
6. A Scanner Darkly
7. The Bad News Bears
8. Slacker
 

Brook K

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I didn't hate either of them, but found D&C to be an ok but generally unfunny comedy and Slacker to be dreadfully boring.
 

Rich Malloy

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Linklater's my favorite of the first wave of American Indie directors of the 90s, and these are my favorite of his films in order of preference:

Before Sunset - best film of its year IMO; and to think I'd always wished for an American Eric Rohmer.

Slacker - for me, this is the one that really started it all (that is, not "Sex lies and videotape"). I was an undergraduate in Texas when this film was made/premiered and so it's something of a personal sociological tract for me, not unlike a filmed college yearbook. It distills those times and that sense of place to their very essence - put it in the time capsule should anyone else ever care to know. I'd been placing "Slacker" at the top of my list in the many "What movie should Criterion release next?" threads over the years, but I never expected a release that was as amazing and comprehensive as the one we finally got. Keep your Soderberghs and Kevin Smiths, but leave me the Linklater!

Dazed and Confused - I sorta hesitate to place this one so high on the list, given that Slacker, Before Sunrise/Before Sunset, and Waking Life are the key films in Linklater's ouevre IMO. It rates as great mainstream entertainment a la "School of Rock", but it also falls somewhat within the context of the auteur-autobiography that the other films I mention reflect so well. And since I also went to high school in Texas (though in the early to mid-80s rather than the 1970s), this film also has something of a personal connection for me, and really works the nostalgia gland in acceptably unsentimental ways though not to the same extent as "Slacker".

Before Sunrise - jesus, is this guy following me or what? I also had a brief and memorable fling with a woman in Vienna the summer after my first year in law school. And, yes, I was probably a callow know-it-all, too. Like "Slacker", the film rings true in ways that aren't always flattering, and better yet never falls into the trap of sentimentalizing either youth or youthful romance. Everything from the "meet cute" to the "sweet poem that perfectly distills" is subverted and deconstructed, revealing them to be not only illusions, but illusions that our two young protagonists recognize as such... and yet nonetheless pine for.

Waking Life - basically a rotoscoped sequel to "Slacker", with roughly the same narrative form, setting (save a brief excursion to NYC, etc.), and even a few characters (not to mention Jesse and Celine from "Before Sunrise/Sunset"). I think a strong argument could be made that this is Linklater's best film (or perhaps second best after "Before Sunset"), but I'm listing in order of my preference!

School of Rock - Linklater in his director-for-hire role delivering mainstream fare that somehow manages to be just a little more subversive than it appears on the surface with a hero who's just a little less than likeable and certainly a far cry from heroic... aw hell, those kids are so damn cute.

Tape - without presuming some breakthrough in simplicity or "chastity" (dogme 95) or leaning on any particular cinema/theatrical tradition (the chamber dramas of Bergman), Linklater limits the action to three characters and a dingy hotel room, and oodles of anger, regret and recrimination. It's no surprise that perception and truth are invariably at odds, but to see this in an American film where emotional truth is generally a hackneyed explication of the conventional wisdom (vis "date rape", for example)? Almost astonishing.

It's Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books - hey, everybody has to start somewhere! Odd that a director who's made some of the "talkiest" films of the last decade began with a near wordless reverie like this.

I haven't seen any of the others except for Suburbia and The Newton Boys, both of which I'd previously dismissed as "not sufficiently Linklaterish". I've been meaning to give them both another viewing soon, and I hope to see whatever merit I missed the first time. Or not. I doubt they'd ever crack the list of favorites.
 

ThomasC

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out of :star: :star: :star: :star:

Before Sunrise :star: :star: :star: :star:
School of Rock :star: :star: :star:
Before Sunset :star: :star: :star: :star:
 

Elizabeth S

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Before Sunset (2004)
Before Sunrise (1995)
Dazed and Confused (1993)
The School of Rock (2003)
SubUrbia (1996)
Waking Life (2001)
Slacker (1991)

Seen the above, in order of preference. "Tape" is still sitting in my to-watch DVD pile.
 

Rich Malloy

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Andrew Sarris (the film critic most identified with the "auteur" theory) wrote up a fairly long piece on the career of Richard Linklater in this week's New York Observer that I thought appropos of this thread. As I seem to be one of the few people who consider Linklater to be one of the two or three most important directors starting with the American indie movement of the 90s, I'm especially pleased that someone with Sarris' pedigree seems to agree. It would be a shame IMO if Linklater's brilliance remains eclipsed by the far lesser directors who seem to be the object of endlessly fauning and mostly undeserving praise. As the link is only good for this week, I'm quoting a bit more of his piece than I otherwise would: http://www.observer.com/culture_sarrismovies.asp

 

Kirk Tsai

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htf_images_smilies_smiley_jawdrop.gif
 

george kaplan

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Well, his 'pedigree' may be good, but some of his opinions are, well, not to my taste.

In his top 10 films of the year for 1958 he left out Vertigo, though he did include Topaz and Torn Curtain in their years.

In 1972 and 1974 he left out The Godfather and Godfather Part 2. But in 1990, Godfather Part 3 made his top 10.

He did not include either Dr. Strangelove or 2001 in the top 10 those years, but Full Metal Jacket made it.

He included neither Some Like It Hot or the Apartment in their years, but did include Wilder's Front Page.

It's all a matter of taste, but I don't think Mr. Sarris is someone I would turn to for advice about films.
 

Rich Malloy

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Many of his opinions are not to my taste either, and I could make a list even longer than yours. And the same goes for my favorite critics, currently Rosenbaum and Hoberman. But the value of a film critic (and film theorist in the case of Andrew Sarris) has less to do with the final subjective "thumbs up/thumbs down" and everything to do with their ability to apprehend the significance of a film within the context of the established canon. This is what separates the important writers from those that pollute the pages of your daily newspapers with their 3-paragraph glosses, whether or not their subjective opinion happens to align with your own.

Take Armond White, for example. He's as iconoclastic as they come (alright, maybe he's just downright nutty). Anyway, though I occasionally share the same subjective opinion as he (for example, we both adore the largely reviled "A.I."), I actually rarely agree with him. But I always read him, and I certainly come away with a much deeper understanding of cinema and the particular film reviewed than I do after reading something by Ebert, Travers, Gleiberman, et al.

Sarris is not nearly as iconoclastic (ok, nutty), but he's the thread that stretched back to Bazin, through Kael, and into today. To dismiss him for failing to acknowledge your favorite movie (and "Vertigo" is certainly one of mine, too) is to dismiss one of the most important critics/theorist who ever wrote about cinema. The man has a wealth of knowledge, and the rare ability to write about cinema without descending into a fog of overwrought plaudits and copy-ready quips.

I mean, do you reject Bazin because he refused to acknowledge the brilliance of "Casablanca"? Do you reject Kael because she dismissed "2001" as ultimately a cop-out? I would hope not! Though I certainly disagree with them vehemently regarding some of their opinions, I've learned far more about great cinema by reading their works. And by giving Sarris the same chance, I've learned a thing or two from him, as well.
 

george kaplan

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Well I will concede that there is a big distinction between a film scholar and a critic, and most critics fall into one of 2 piles: those who I disagree with a lot, but they're knowlegable about film, and those that I disagree with a lot, and aren't very knowlegable about film. :)

In the end, most of the big name critics know more about film in general than I do (Michael Medved being a notable counterexample), but I always value my opinions about films more than any of them. :)
 

Justin_S

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Ranks and ratings on a scale of * to *****:

1: A Scanner Darkly (2006) *****
2: Fast Food Nation (2006) ***½
3: Slacker (1991) ***
4: Bad News Bears (2005) ***
5: The Newton Boys (1998) **
6: Dazed and Confused (1993) **
7: The School of Rock (2003) *

Own 1
 

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