Joey Magidson
There are few filmmakers out there like Richard Linklater. He more or less invented the hang out movie, has been one of the more widely accepted experimental directors out there, and often just feels like one of the coolest guys in the business. He never calls attention to it, because he’s always got his nose to the grindstone, but Linklater is a master filmmaker, which he has never fully gotten credit for being. With Nouvelle Vague having hit select theaters yesterday, in advance of coming to Netflix, as well as Blue Moon currently being in limited release, a ranking of Linklater’s films seems to be well in order. I spoke to him earlier in the month here with Ethan Hawke about Blue Moon, while I’ve previously spoken to him here for Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood. Today, however, it’s time to go down his resume and showcase just what a talent he is.
In my review of Nouvelle Vague back at the Toronto International Film Festival (here) I said this about Linklater’s work:
Director Richard Linklater is absolutely delighting in recreating not just period Paris, but the making of Breathless as well. The screenplay by Holly Gent, Vince Palmo, Michèle Halberstadt, and Laetitia Masson feels well researched, which lets Linklater through a lot of names at the audience. He does it in a very accessible way, too, having everyone get a short introduction. You don’t even need to know who many of them are, so it feels like an easter egg in a way. The spirit of creation and the spirit of the French New Wave is all over Nouvelle Vague, capturing what made Breathless the one of a kind picture it is.
Out of the Telluride Film Festival, my review (here) of Blue Moon includes the following:
Richard Linklater directs a screenplay by Robert Kaplow with a keen eye towards performance. Linklater has achieved a wonderful visual effect completely practically in basically shrinking Hawke, though without ever calling attention to it. Kaplow’s script is verbose and Linklater lets the performances sink. In some ways, this is another of his hangout flicks, just in a time period he’s never tackled before. Blue Moon is clearly a project that meant a lot to Hawke and Linklater, with the results speaking for themselves.
Below, you can see how Linklater’s resume stacks up for me. I’m not including his little seen feature debut It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, but all of his other narrative works are here. For yours truly, Boyhood is very much a crowning achievement, along with the Before trilogy (Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, and Before Midnight), though how you arrange those three beautiful flicks is a matter of personal preference. Then, it’s hard not to have Dazed and Confused way up on high, as it was an early home run from Linklater. Where do I have Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague falling? What about last year’s ridiculously fun gem Hit Man? Find out next…
Here now is my ranking of the films of Richard Linklater. Behold:
23. Where’d You Go, Bernadette
22. SubUrbia
21. The Newton Boys
20. Tape
19. Fast Food Nation
18. Bad News Bears
17. A Scanner Darkly
16. School of Rock
15. Waking Life
14. Me and Orson Welles
13. Slacker
12. Last Flag Flying
11. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
10. Bernie
8. Blue Moon
7. Hit Man
6. Everybody Wants Some!!
5. Dazed and Confused
4. Before Midnight
3. Before Sunrise
2. Before Sunset
1. Boyhood
What are your favorite Richard Linklater films? Let us know!
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