Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writer: Richard Linklater
DOP: Shane F. Kelly
Cast: Blake Jenner, Glen Powell, Zoey Deutch

In 1980, a group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood. It takes over the course of 3-4 days leading up to the opening of college year with a group of freshmen joining their seniors from the baseball team as they occupy an independent apartment instead of the usual central dorms.

The film is considered to be a spiritual sequel to Linklater's breakout film 'Dazed & Confused' which was set on the last day of high-school in 1976. He had this story in mind back then itself but got financing to make it only now, possibly on the back of the success of Boyhood. Boyhood also ends with a guy getting into the college and that also is sort of a continuity coming to this film. Linklater's characters are generally very talky and the subject of much of the talk can be existential. This is something that you don't expect in a film with baseball jocks as its characters. I was slightly put off by it initially as it all seemed a bit too scripted and had turned it off after about 20 minutes a month back. Gave it a try yesterday and the film was indeed pretty great. Things that put me off like the philosophic nature of some of the conversations and what seemed to be the presence of token black guy in the group could be argued against by the fact that Linklater was himself a baseball player for his college team and the protagonist character is a version of him. It is conceivable that he indeed had these sort of conversations with his team mates and he might have had only one black teammate.

There is not much of a plot to speak of, which should never be a complaint when you are watching Linklater films, and there is not even a character arc or coming of age aspect to it. They are just moving from one party to another and in between we see them playing all sorts of games which most of them take very competitively. Some of them are at the same time very self-aware and not. You have one of the characters looking at normal students and commenting that they will go on to have a very average life with regular jobs while they all will have very interesting lives to look forward to as if all of them are going to make it as baseball players. It is a meandering watch and enjoyably so. It is always a good when you don't want the film to end. Performances are all good and the soundtrack is great.  It is a must watch for Linklater fans.

Rating: 4/5

Boyhood (2014)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writer:    Richard Linklater
Cast:       Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Lorelei Linklater

The life of a young man, Mason, from age 5 to 18. It was filmed over twelve years with the four main actors working with Richard Linklater to film for a few weeks every year to capture the young man's life though it is as much a story of his mother's life. Mason and his sister Samantha are raised by their mother Olivia (Patricia Arquette) who is already separated from their dad (Ethan Hawke) when the story begins. She gets back into college and get a proper job and along the way marries two other people who are prone to be alcoholic over the course of the film. His Dad who starts off as a man chasing his passions ends up as quite a  financially successful career guy with some regret over leading a more prosaic life. 

It is a hard film to describe but is certainly one of the best films I have ever seen and is a cinematic achievement. I don't know if something like this has been ever attempted before. It was not even possible for Linklater to tie the actors to a contract due to the De Havilland law, which makes it illegal in US to contract someone for more than seven years of work. I don't know how well charted out the story outline was when they began, but I suspect Linklater must have improvised as they went on to suit with how the kids were growing up. Mason grows up to be a introvert who is passionate about photography and art. He is also very existentialist and I guess it is Richard Linklater that is talking to us through him. 

There is a point in the film where the transitions in all of their lives comes through clearly. It is Mason's fifteenth birthday and his dad is taking him and Samantha  to visit his wife's parents. As he collects them it is evident that he is now more of a rich family guy who has let go off his passions and Mason's mum is still quite poor, now with her third husband who is ex-marine. The gifts that Mason receives that day from his Dad's family are- a Bible, a suit and a shot gun, all of which are completely at odds with whom he actually is. 

Another great sequence in the film is towards the end when Mason is leaving his mother to go to college. She is now back in a small house without any companions and when Mason refuses to take the first picture of her that he took with him, she breaks down completely. She laments about how her life has just been a series of milestones and the next step is her funeral.'Indian Culture Upholding' assholes can point out how this film is depicting the sad state of Western family system where there is no stable environment for growing kids and how alone the parents would be in their retirement life. Well, then things are not much different in India these days when it comes to the latter point, You can take a look at how rounded individuals these kids are when they are about to hit twenty whereas these careerist fuckwits in India don't really have a clue on how to live a good life (subjective to each individual) till it is too late.

It is funny to see how much Richard Linklater is projecting himself on to Mason's personality. I can safely hazard a guess that he is also a liberal existentialist guy without taking any of of his other films into account. I don't know whether I relate so much to his films just because of our similar outlook to things. I think Republicans won't take the film too kindly. The film ran close to three hours and I didn't want it to end (take note Christopher Nolan) and could have easily seen another three hours of it. I hope they revisit Mason's story again after a few years and he is at a stage where you don't need to film every year. Or as Linklater put it, you can see Boyhood as a prequel to the Before trilogy. 

It is criminal how underrated Richard Linklater is. I think he will certainly be in my top-25 directors of all time list and Boyhood is his master-piece. It now holds a score of 100 in metacritic and 99 on rottentomatoes. 

Rating: 5/5

Dazed and Confused (1993)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writer:    Richard Linklater
Cast:       Jason London, Wiley Wiggins, Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck

The film follows the various groups of teenagers during the last day of school in the summer of 1976. The incoming junior high students are given the initiation along the expected lines with them being given  a backside thrashing and other lame hazing rituals. As in real life, only some of the seniors are overly enthusiastic about this with the character played by Ben Affleck being the prime candidate for the alpha dickhead. His character also reminded me of the one he played in Mallrats. 

This was Linklater's second major film and it shares some similarity with his debut feature 'Slacker' in the sense that there is no large narrative or story arc about it. It is just a bunch of high school kids doing some random stuff. If you are to call one character central it would be Floyd (Jason London), the school team quarterback who is pissed off with his coach and authority. Film was a moderate success upon its release but is now a cult classic with even Quentin Tarantino naming it quite high up in his list of best films of all time. Linklater is quite an underrated director and I never think of him when I list my favorite directors but the sheer number of his films that I found to be great should warrant him to be in the list. Before Trilogy, A Scanner Darkly, Waking Life, Bernie, Dazed & Confused- that is some real good filmography he has got there. His latest one 'Boyhood' which was shot over a 12 year period is also getting rave reviews and one reason I watched Dazed & Confused again is due to my frustration about not getting access to watch Boyhood. Lets hope it turns up in the usual places soon.

This was also Matthew McConaughey's debut film and the role is quite memorable with his characteristic opening line of 'Alright, alright, alright'. He plays a creepy guy who dropped out from school long time back but likes to hang out with them. His line in the film about schoolgirls is also quite legendary: "That's what I love about these high school girls, man. I get older, they stay the same age. ". He reminded me of Mohanlal's character in 'Sarvakalshala'. Shame that he wasted his career over the next two decades doing shitty rom-coms, none of which I have watched. 

Dazed and Confused is one of the best films of its genre along with 'Stand by me' and 'Breakfast Club'. 

Rating: 4.5/5

Bernie (2011)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writers:  Skip Hollandsworth, Richard Linklater
Cast:      Jack Black, Shirley MacLaine, Matthew McConaughey

In small-town Texas, a very well liked local mortician strikes up a friendship with a wealthy widow and things go bad subsequently.

The film is based on a true story and it is a black comedy dealing with death. Story is narrated through interviews with the townsfolk and many of them are the real people from that town. It gives the film a very real feel and it is wonderful to hear their Texas accent. Matthew McConaughey comes up with a storming performance and he has been in some real good films recently. Richard Linklater is among the best directors that are active now and his filmography speaks is top quality with great variety and quality. Its another film in which he has put Jack Black to good use.

All things said the film is a bit one-sided which is expected when it is based on real story and the crew is interacting with the protagonist. The film would have been interesting even is it is not based on a true story with the theme being the way in which public sympathy operates and how it can turn a blind eye sometimes so easily.

Rating: 4.5/5

Before Midnight (2013)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writers:  Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
Cast:      Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy

Nine years after Before Sunset, we meet Jesse and Celine in Greece. Almost two decades have passed since their first meeting in Vienna and now they live together with two kids.

For the first time in the trilogy, we see them interacting with other characters and this portion of the film felt a bit forced. Then we see them going for a long walk to a hotel room where they talk and talk and the film just gets better and better. The first one Before Sunrise was great, second one Before Sunset was even better and this one is arguably the best. All the innocence and rosiness of the first two films is lost and this one depicts the harsh reality of staying in a relationship for a long time with kids. I don't know if they are going to bring out another one nine years from now but I really cannot see it without giving prominence to other characters. Like in the first two films, this one also ends with us wondering 'Will they, won't they'?

Rating: 4.5/5

Waking Life (2001)

Director: Richard Linklater

Writer:    Richard Linklater

Cast:      Wiley Wiggins, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpie

A man shuffles through a dream meeting various people and discussing the meanings and purpose of the universe.

Similar to Scanner Darkly,  this film was also using the animation technique called rotoscoping where live action footage is overlaid with animation. It is great film for those who are interested existentialism and I personally connected to lot of the ideas being discussed in the film. One find books and films to be great when it conveys ideas very close to what you have thought of originally and I find lot of Richard Linklater's work in that category. 

Rating: 5/5

Slacker (1991)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writer:    Richard Linklater
Cast:      Richard Linklater, Rudy Basquez, Jean Caffeine

Presents a day in the life in Austin, Texas among its social outcasts and misfits, predominantly the twenty-something set, using a series of linear vignettes. It just follows a character for some time and then move onto another and so on. The little stories are not resolved and just moves on to another one.

It is an experimental film and serve as a prelude to Linklater's later films in terms of the sort of discussions the characters engage on. It is a good watch but nothing more.

Rating: 3/5

Before Sunset (2004)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writers:  Richard Linklater, Julie Delpy, Ethan Hawke, Kim Krizan
Cast:      Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
It's nine years after Jesse and Celine first met; now, they encounter one another on the French leg of Jesse's book tour.

The film is in real time with many long takes. You can the see that the characters are more wiser and is a reflection on the time that passed from the previous film. It is as great as or even greater than Before Sunrise.

Rating: 4/5

The School of Rock (2003)

Director:Richard Linklater
Writer:   Mike White
Cast:      Jack Black, Mike White, Joan Cusack
A wannabe rock star in need of cash poses as a substitute teacher at a prep school, and tries to turn his class  into a rock band.

It is an alright film but the weakest of the Linklater films I have seen so far. Normally he writes the screenplay for his films but he didn't for this film.

Rating: 2.5/5

A Scanner Darkly (2006)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writers:  Richard Linklater, Philip K. Dick
Cast:      Keanu Reeves, Robert Downey Jr., Winona Ryder
An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.

The film is supposedly a faithful adaptation of Dick's novel and the animation technology used is rotoscoping. Even though the story is  very dark there are some really witty scenes especially involving Robert Downey Jr. and Woody Harrelson. It is a thought provoking and wonderful film. Philip K.Dick wrote the novel inspired from his real life events wherein which his wife and his friend had addiction problems. He brings a totalitarian dimension into it and kind of predicts the state in which US is now, with regards to its war against drugs.

Rating: 4.5/5

Before Sunrise (1995)

Director: Richard Linklater
Writers:  Richard Linklater, Kim Krizan
Cast:      Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy
A young man and woman meet on a train in Europe, and wind up spending one romantic evening together in Vienna. Unfortunately both know that this will probably be their only night together.

Its a great film and is based on a similar event that happened to the director Richard Linklater. The film was followed up 9 years later by 'Before Sunset' and another one is due out next year called 'Before Midnight'.

Rating: 4/5