Ranking Richard Linklater's movies

We can understand wanting to do a remake of “The Bad News Bears” featuring a bit less problematic content. Hiring Linklater for such a film also feels like it makes sense. However, while the original underdog sports comedy is an acerbic R-rated comedy, for better and for worse, the Billy Bob Thornton starring remake is PG-13. Also, it is utterly inert. All the studio, the screenwriters, and Linklater managed to do was deliver a remake decidedly worse than the original, and just mediocre in general.

“Last Flag Flying” is kind of the adult drama equivalent of “Bad News Bears,” in that it lands inertly and barely blips in your mind, even as you watch it. That’s a shame, because when people lament the dearth of serious adult dramas, studios can say things like, “Well look at how ‘Last Flag Flying’ did!” Bryan Cranston, Laurence Fishburne and a “It’s no longer inherently interesting when he does drama” Steve Carell play Vietnam veterans who reunite when Carell’s son is killed in Iraq. It’s not bad, but it is utterly unremarkable, so it can’t even grasp at anything interesting. A couple films on this list are, all in all, lesser, but at least have ambition.

This film may have put Linklater in director jail, though with his interests, maybe he just drifted away from mainstream moviemaking for half a decade of his own accord. What’s clear is that “The Newton Boys” flopped critically and commercially and made on a $27 million budget in 1998; he was given real money by a studio and did not deliver the goods. The crime Western set in Texas is directed by a Texan in Linklater and also starred Linklater discovery, and fellow Texan, Matthew McConaughey. “The Newton Boys” also crimped McConaughey’s rise as a movie star in the process.

Eric Schlosser wrote the non-fiction book “Fast Food Nation” in 2001, a muckraking look at the fast food industry. Schlosser and Linklater then co-write a screenplay based on his book. It’s a fictionalized take on “Fast Food Nation,” but it is also shot in mockumentary fashion, further blurring the line between reality and fiction. Of course, the somewhat famous faces in the film, including a young Paul Dano, make it clear it is a narrative work. That’s interesting, and the pointedness of the look at fast food has punch, but as a movie, it barely hangs together. Which is weird, because as films further up this list make abundantly clear, Linklater can knock it out of the park when it comes to shambling ensemble pieces.

“Tape” is based on a play. It’s set entirely in a motel room. Linklater shot it on a camcorder. It takes place in real-time. The movie was made for $100,000. “Tape” is purely an experiment. That is how to view it, and that is how it works. With a filmography like this one, though “noble experiment” only gets you so far.

We are not on team “the book is always better than the movie,” but people who espouse that assertion can definitely point to “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” as one for their win column. Maria Semple’s novel is very good, and when we found out that Cate Blanchett was starring in the adaption, and that Linklater was directing, we were excited. Of course, by the time the movie was getting pushed over and over until it was pushed by more than a year, we were worried. Indeed the film adaptation of “Where’d You Go, Bernadette” is decent, but decent is not what we expected. Maybe the book was tougher to adapt than we envisioned.

Zac Efron has figured out his niche in film, but that was not a straight path. He definitely feels miscast, and overshadowed, in “Me and Orson Welles.” Efron plays Richard Samuels, a teenager who gets a job working for the iconic Orson Welles’ Mercury Theatre. By being set in 1937, the movie avoids well-worn “Citizen Kane” content. Christian McKay plays Welles, and the movie is worth seeing for his turn as the famed filmmaker. The problem is that the rest of the movie feels skippable, so the overall result is just fine.

After an all-killer, no-filler first three movies (obviously, all to be gotten to later), Linklater was not quite ready to leave the nest, so to speak. That would happen with his fifth film, the aforementioned “Newton Boys.” Before that, he adapted an Eric Bogosian play that Bogosian himself wrote the screenplay for. That’s not what you do when you are looking to make a commercial splash. “SubUrbia” is basically, “What if ‘Clerks’ was all Jay and Silent Bob, and intellectual instead of crass?” There’s something in that, but only so much.

Alright, now we are starting to get into some of Linklater’s better-known, and flat-out better, movies. It starts a stretch of several films that straddle the pretty good/straight-up good line. “Before Sunset” is the middle film in the “Before Trilogy” starring Ethan Hawke and Julia Delpy. Coming years after the first film, “Before Sunset” features Jesse and Celine reuniting after nine years, which is also the time between the movies. It has plenty going for it, to be sure. The screenplay was nominated for an Oscar. It just has the least heft of the three movies in the trilogy. The curse of falling in the middle perhaps.

Linklater is probably only matched by Steven Soderbergh when it comes to successful filmmakers who love to experiment with the genre. Although, with all due respect to Linklater, Soderbergh runs circles around him in terms of commercial success and experimental forays. However, Soderbergh seems to be the most well-adjusted maniac to work his way through Hollywood, so comparing anybody to him is unfair. Anyway, Linklater’s “A Scanner Darkly” is a rotoscope-animated adaptation of a Phillip K. Dick novel. It looks fascinating, and the performances still pop. “A Scanner Darkly” succeeds in terms of toying with animation techniques, but also as a movie. So congratulations to Linklater and…let’s take a look at the list of executive producers…Steven Soderbergh!?

Before the oversaturation of true crime, Linklater made a true crime movie. His bold take, other than including conversations with people who knew the real murderer and murder victim, is that “Bernie” is a story about murder that is comedic and even kind of gentle. Skip Hollandsworth, the journalist who wrote the piece the film is based on, co-wrote the script with Linklater. The general vibe among the small-town Texans who knew the real Bernie Tiede seems to be that he was a really nice guy, save for the murder thing. That energy is captured by Jack Black in the lead role, who really helps make “Bernie” work as well as it does.

In terms of “experiment versus quality” in these rankings, “Boyhood” is getting the most points for “experiment” compared to “quality.” That being said, this is also a case where the experimental element actively makes the movie better and more interesting as well. Linklater wanted to make a movie about growing up, and so he decided to shoot “Boyhood” from 2002 through 2013. Yes, really. He would check in with Ellar Coltrane throughout the years as he grew up, while also bringing back in Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette to play young Mason’s parents. For the role of Mason’s sister, Linklater made things easier for himself, filming-wise, by casting his own daughter. Just as a story, “Boyhood” is pretty good. However, when you factor in how he films the movie, and his dedication to telling a story about growing up without using multiple actors, it becomes kind of remarkable. Also, Arquette won Best Actress at the Oscars for “Boyhood.”

By far, “School of Rock” is Linklater’s biggest crowd-pleasing success. It was a hit, and it was adapted into a Broadway musical. There was even a Nickelodeon show based on the movie years later. “School of Rock” ditches experimentation for middle-of-the-road comedy, built on the comedic persona of Jack Black. That’s why it finished here, though. This is not a list of Linklater’s commercial successes, but our critical assessments. We like “School of Rock.” It’s fun. It’s no masterpiece, though, and many similar films are better than “good and fun.”

Linklater made a seminal period piece high school film, which we will get to later, but many years after that he figured he’d do that for college. Like he did with his high school movie, “Everybody Wants Some!!” borrows from Linklater’s own Texas youth. He went to Sam Houston State on a baseball scholarship before a heart condition ended his playing career and he got into movies. The movie centers on Blake Jenner as Jake, a freshman who joins the baseball team at a Texas college in 1980. He and his teammates play baseball, drink, party, hook up with girls, and…that’s pretty much it. There’s no larger lesson. What, was your own college experience any more substantive than that?

Once again, Linklater, Hawke, and Delpy (the actors deserve a lot of credit for shaping this trilogy as well) reunited after nine years to check in with Jesse and Celine. This time, it’s not about romance and whirlwind glimpses of what your life could be with a certain somebody. Now, Jesse and Celine are married with children. Life is different. Life is trickier, even when you are on vacation in Greece. What if the love you thought you were waiting for your whole life seemed like it might fall apart? That’s “Before Midnight,” and that hits like a ton of bricks.

All of Linklater’s filmmaking quirks and pet projects come together in “Waking Life.” It’s rotoscoped. It has no real plot. There is an ensemble cast of characters who flit in and out for moments. An unnamed young man is floating through life…or is it lives…or is it a dream that feels like life…or a life that feels like a dream? There is an assortment of different conversations. Jesse and Celine pop in. It’s a smidge too self-indulgent to climb higher than five, but there is a lot of ambition to “Waking Life,” and it delivers pure, uncut Linklater.

Bless Linklater for getting the bag from Netflix to make “Apollo 10 1/2.” The animated story is, ostensibly, about a boy who is asked by NASA to fly a secret test mission before Apollo 11. It’s stylized somewhere between Linklater’s beloved rotoscoping and Saturday morning cartoons, which was the feel Linklater wanted. However, and this is kind of a spoiler for a film we really think is worth seeing, the movie is 90 percent just Linklater saying, “Hey, here’s a bunch of stuff I remember from being a nine-year-old kid in Houston in 1969.” TV shows, movies, fast food, the one time that one kid broke his arm playing Red Rover. We aren’t criticizing when we call this the best bit of cinematic navel gazing we can recall.

The first of the “Before Trilogy” is the last to get mentioned. We meet Jesse and Celine for the first time. The two are on a train in Europe heading back from Budapest. She’s headed back to Paris where she is in college. He’s headed to Vienna to get a plane back to the United States. They decide, on a whim, to spend the night together in the Austrian capital. From there, well, Linklater won Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival and the movie was nominated for Best Kiss and the MTV Movie Awards. That’s the power of “Before Sunrise.”

If you don’t really know the name Richard Linklater, your favorite film of his is probably “School of Rock.” If you know Linklater’s name, well, then there’s a good chance it’s “Dazed and Confused.” The director’s sophomore film became his calling card. It is, even now, considered an iconic coming-of-age film. It’s the last day of school at a high school in Austin, Texas and, well, a bunch of kids have a bunch of stuff to do. Mostly drinking and listening to ‘70s rock. “Dazed and Confused” may bump for some who have grown accustomed to more sanitized depictions of teenaged life because, well, teenagers can often be pretty awful. We will grant you that it isn’t always pleasant to watch some poor incoming freshmen being chased by a deranged Ben Affleck (one of a few future famous faces in the movie) hellbent on smashing them with a paddle, but 60 percent of “Dazed and Confused” is just the coolest, dopest stuff. Alright, alright, alright.

“Slacker” is Linklater’s first movie, which means the top three of this list are his first three films in reverse chronological order. Talk about coming out the gate with gusto. “Slacker” is a great movie. It’s also one of the most important films ever made probably? Now living in Austin, Linklater set out to make a movie about, well, life in Austin. “Slacker” jumps from character to character, few of them with known names, as they live their lives. Most of the cast are not professional actors. It’s how it was made, though. “Slacker” is DIY indie filmmaking at its core. Linklater made the movie for a mere $23,000. He just went around Austin (reportedly without permits) and shot stuff. And it’s awesome. The cult success of “Slacker” helped recontextualize the possibilities for independent filmmaking. Kevin Smith, and others, have cited “Slacker” as the movie that inspired them to make movies. Like we said, truly important stuff.”