Richard Linklater

Boyhood

Richard Linklater’s name isn’t one that you would associate with hugely successful films. They aren’t usually massive box office successes, nor are they touted around as potential winners during award season. But since emerging from the American independent filmmaking scene with Slacker almost a quarter of a century ago, his contribution to popular cinema has been significant, and his loyal fan base continues to grow. Now, with his most ambitious, and most remarkable piece of work to date, Boyhood, set for release in the UK this month, he has announced himself as one of the true auteurs of modern cinema.

A college dropout and former worker of the offshore oilrigs, Linklater studied film at a community college in Austin, Texas, where he would later set up the hugely successful Austin Film Society with long-time collaborator Lee Daniel. His first feature, which for years remained largely unseen, and has only recently been made available on certain DVD editions of Slacker, was It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books. It featured a protagonist travelling through the country, making various acquaintances whilst going through the routines of a regular day. Featuring little dialogue, the character undergoes no serious changes, with the action staying at an almost continuous pace throughout. This seemingly directionless narrative style, coupled with minimalist camera movement, would dominate Linklater’s work for the majority of his career.

His breakout came in Slacker which, to date, remains the purest example of his free-flowing directional style. Set over a single day in Texas, Slacker follows a series of eccentric characters, one after another throughout a pointless, plotless day. Within the interactions with these characters exist moments of seemingly improvised genius. During a recent talk at the BFI Southbank, Linklater stressed that in all his films, actors are heavily involved in the scripting process during rehearsals, but never improvise on camera. 

Dazed and Confused

Slacker was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival, which allowed Linklater the opportunity to make the now cult-classic Dazed and Confused, a coming of age tale that portrays a group of teenagers on their last day of school in 1976. Named by Quentin Tarantino as the tenth greatest film of all time, it cemented Linklater’s growing reputation as one of the true artists of the burgeoning independent film scene, making a star of Matthew McConaughey in the process.

Following the success of Dazed and Confused, Linklater’s next project was the first in the trilogy for which he is arguably best known. 1995’s Before Sunrise, the first of three films each filmed nine years apart (Before Sunset in 2004 and Before Midnight in 2013). The beautiful film follows young American Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Parisian Céline (Julie Delpy) as they wander the streets of Vienna following a chance encounter on a train. One of the most simple, emotive and stunning romantic films of recent years, the Before… trilogy displayed Linklater’s penchant for extensive actor collaboration, as well as his interest in blending real time with the fictional expanse of time that exists between his films.

His first foray into Hollywood filmmaking saw him fare less well. The Newton Boys, again starring Ethan Hawke and Matthew McConaughey, received mixed success critically and fared worse at the box office. The story of the gang of peaceful robbers from the 1920’s struggled to find its pace narratively, displaying the first limitations of Linklater’s talent when working out of his usual, free-flowing environment. Of his experience, Linklater said, “I’ve never been a guy who had more that a toe in Hollywood anyway, so my toe is more easily lopped off than most.”

Linklater on the set of Before Sunrise with Julie Delpy and Ethan Hawke.

Returning to his usual experimental side, Linklater had his first forays into animation with Waking Life (2001) and A Scanner Darkly (2006). The former, a collage of explorations into philosophical conversations, and the latter, a more structured science fiction thriller. His stock continued to rise, mostly amongst actors who remain keen to work with Linklater.

A lack of ego, or perhaps a lack of the desire to control that consumes most directors, has led to some of the biggest actors wanting to work with him. Robert Downey Jr., Jack Black, Matthew McConaughey and Zac Efron have all featured in his films in the last ten years alone. More mainstream success followed in 2003, when School of Rock became a hugely unexpected success both critically and commercially. A further collaboration with Jack Black, in 2011’s Bernie didn’t fair as well at the box office, but was well-received amongst critics. This pattern unfortunately follows the majority of his work, including Me and Orson Welles, which despite the presence of Zac Efron (as well as the finest ever screen portrayal of Welles by a remarkable Christian McKay) made back little over £1 million of its £25 million budget at the US box office.

It has been suggested that his style is more suited to audiences outside the US, with Linklater himself admitting, “Before Sunrise did very well internationally.  It made as much in Italy and Korea as it did here.” Hopefully, Boyhood will be the film that finally delivers the box office success his films deserve.

The films of Richard Linklater are the epitome of what popular cinema should be: he doesn’t pander to an audience whose intelligence he respects, nor does he overcomplicate the screen with unnecessary aesthetic choices or elitist philosophy. His films, so beguilingly simplistic, but rich in emotion and naturalism, stem from a philosophy derived from the expectations he himself feels as a lover of cinema, as he says; “You have to keep your faith in the fact that there are a lot of intelligent people who are actively looking for something interesting, people who have been disappointed so many times.

Boyhood will be shown at Broadway Cinema from Friday 11 July 2014.