Along with Quentin Tarantino, Kevin Smith, and Robert Rodriguez, Texan native and filmmaker Richard Linklater helped usher in the era of independent film boom of the 1990s.
Whether as a contributing writer or not, Linklater has routinely proven a master director of dialogue-driven stories. From raunchy "day in the life" ensembles to gobsmackingly poignant, minimal personnel-required romance, there is perhaps no one better than Linklater at a running point on a film set where action only outperforms the spoken word when a perfect soundtrack needle-drop arrives.
10 Slacker (1990) - 7.1
Linklater burst onto the scene with this plot-less, but never-pointless work that fellow indie pantheon Kevin Smith (Clerks) credited as fostering his belief that anyone with a vision could make a "budgetless" movie and impact an audience. Moreover, Slacker provided the blueprint for a more commercial Linklater work on the horizon - offering a taste of what was in store in the aimless, quasi-coming-of-age subgenre he essentially co-created.
9 A Scanner Darkly ( 2006) - 7.1
What the filmgoing world lost in Charlie Kaufman's rejected adaptation of Philip K. Dick's 1977 novel was the gain of Linklater's unexpected, but not entirely foreign plunge into the sci-fi/paranoia oeuvre.
Following an undercover LAPD officer (Keanu Reeves) in a not-too-distant, alternate future as he quickly grows addicted to the drug he's been assigned to eradicate, A Scanner Darkly was also notably filmed with the same rotoscope, trace-animation technology Linklater had familiarized himself with a few years prior.
8 School Of Rock (2003) - 7.1
Eventual frequent Linklater collaborator Jack Black admitted the studio was not initially as confident in the director on a project that called for him to approach matters more commercially than he had on earlier works.
Sure enough, the end result offered a film that solidified Black even further as a leading man - and Kids Choice Award staple - while helping Linklater to prove he had more tricks up his sleeve than Hollywood originally thought.
7 Tape (2001) - 7.2
Currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video, the little-seen and intentionally-insular experimental exercise includes tour-de-force performances from Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman. The trio star as three high school friends who confront painful memories with rapid-fire pacing in a Michigan motel room. Fans of Hitchock's Rope need not look further than Tape, which Linklater impressively shot himself from one unique angle after the next.
6 Dazed And Confused (1993) - 7.6
Launching the careers of then-unknowns like Ben Affleck and Matthew McConaughey, Dazed and Confused instantly surpassed its lone predecessor on its iconic music catalog and undisputed quotability.
The film follows various intersecting plots all related to the incoming underclassmen and just-been-christened upperclassmen of a Texas High School on the final day of classes in 1976. Quentin Tarantino memorably included the film in his list of "30 Movies to See," calling it "the best hangout movie ever made."
5 Waking Life (2001) - 7.8
A literal lucid dream of a film, Waking Life reunited Linklater with Dazed and Confused's Wiley Wiggins, who plays a slumber-trapped narrator receiving advice and wisdom of all kinds from philosophers both real and fictional. To this day, Linklater's first rotoscope-animated outing still has its most devout fan base finding themselves caught in multiple layers of a dreamscape - and not so quick to will themselves awake.
4 Before Midnight (2013) - 7.9
Cinema's most unexpected, untraditional film trilogy concluded by casting fan-favorites Jesse and Céline unlike they had ever been depicted prior: together at last, with nothing keeping them apart. As parents now, and far-removed-from-their-fleeting youth, the couple partake in one devastating argument after another; thereby rattling the viewer while reminding them that even perfect relationships experience the grandest of hurdles.
3 Boyhood (2014) - 7.9
The innovative and original, multi-Oscar-nominated Boyhood brought Linklater his first directorial nomination - and a supporting actress win for Patricia Arquette.
Shot over the course of twelve years, the film follows a Texan boy from age 6 to the day he leaves for college, along with his family's ever-unfolding rise from the ashes of his parents' pre-narrative failed marriage.
2 Before Sunset (2004) - 8.1
"Baby, you are gonna miss that plane."
Though the original was not conceived as a franchise-starter, the unexpected sequel is oft-argued as the superior vehicle. Picking up right where they left off, Jesse and Céline - now in their thirties - can no longer rely on time being on their side, and must make concrete decisions as to whether or not their love is real, or if it were meant to only last for that one fateful night ten years earlier.
1 Before Sunrise (1995) - 8.1
With Dazed and Confused becoming enough of a box-office smash for Linklater to earn the luxury of choosing his next project, no matter how daring - he wasted no time in putting out a picture that would redefine romantic cinema with 1995's Before Sunrise. Taking place over the course of one night, Linklater and co-writer Kim Krizan's compelling screenplay, as performed by future Linklater regulars Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, allows the viewer to escape their own sexual insecurities by watching a pair of twenty-somethings fall in love in real-time.
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