Few directors can match the buoyancy of Richard Linklater at his best: His shaggy hangout comedies and twilit coming-of-age fables glide by on waves of empathy and exhilaration, the feeling of smooth sailing through untroubled waters. (Think of the gorgeous passage in Before Sunset where Céline and Jesse literally go boating.) But, as with any genuinely ambitious artist—and there’s a case to be made for the autodidactic Austinite as the stealth American master of his entire Gen X cohort—there’s also an undertow to Linklater’s cinema, one that can drag unsuspecting viewers into some sunken places.
Read Full Article »
