Before Midnight

Before Midnight (Richard Linklater, 2013)

Nine years after the conclusion of Before Sunset, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) are a couple and parents to twin girls conceived when they got together for the second time. Jesse is also struggling to maintain his relationship with his teenage son, Hank, who lives in Chicago with Jesse's ex-wife and who, after spending the summer with Jesse and Céline on the Greek Peloponnese peninsula, is being dropped off at the airport to fly home. Jesse has continued to find success as a novelist, while Céline is at a career crossroads, considering a job with the French government.

Dazed and Confused

Dazed and Confused (Richard Linklater, 1993)

Of the many films I planned to watch from the 1000 Greatest Films of All Time list from They Shoot Pictures, Dazed and Confused was one of the most anticipated. I caught it on IFC and taped it on my DVR. Well, what a marvelous thing is this DVR, I acquired it late august and it gave me the gift of time! Simply because I can easily save several hours of television and movies and I don't have to tape it on VHS or be at the right moment in front of my TV!

Dazed and Confused is the kind of movie coming with a cult surrounding it. It tells, the final day of school of 1976 lived by freshmens and High Schoolers. Depicting a somewhat simpler time of our teenage years. Despite the time period, the occupations look the same and I remember having hang out with approximately the same kind of characters back then. The time of your first drunken evening, first love, the discovery of the possibilities of life and everything that surrounds drugs, alcohol, hanging out with friends, and partying. Dazed and Confused has a thin plot and luckily, Linklater (Slackers, Before Sunrise, Before Sunset, Waking Life, Me and Orson Welles, School of Rock) knows how to direct a film with no real tension but human interactions. He also understands teenage years and translate it in a way that brings us back to this time of our lives.

When I got into this film I did not knew how to perceived it, first because I tend not to like smoke head movies, since I haven't been one when I was at the High School but also because I don't really like them at all. In this case, there are many scenes of drug and alcohol abuse, but unlike Larry Clark's Kids or any pothead flick around it is a meditation of the effects of our actions as teenagers and the intercourses involved in this confusing time in a human's life. I think I may have liked this film even more than I actually expected. Recommended.

Me and Orson Welles

Me and Orson Welles (Richard Linklater, 2009)

Only the evocation of this title leaded me to great expectations for this film. Its director, Richard Linklater (Before Sunrise, Waking Life, School of Rock) is capable of bliss but also of so-so films.

The idea of a film about one of the most mythical persona in film history is very interesting. Although, I think the man himself would have hate to see a film about him. But, the cinephile I am the subject captivated me. In 1937, Welles directed Shakespeare's Julius Ceasar setting it in the fascist Italia of Mussolini. It was a terrible success and it helped the ever growing fame of Orson Welles.

However, this story is only a real event set-up for a fictional rom-com starring teen sensation Zac Efron. Well, this part of the plot feels like "déjà vu" and really tired. The better scenes of the movie are the ones with Christian McKay impersonating Orson Welles with an outstanding capacity. Many anecdotes of Welles' life are put here and there among the film and they are interesting blinks to the cinephile who can recognize them.

Overall, Linklater offers an above average film from with a mouth watering prime idea. The whole problem here is that the entire film lacks of consistency and some scenes are excellent while others just turn flat... I must admit that the film let me hungry and thirsty. I should probably rewatch something like Touch of Evil or the Criterion edition of Mr.Arkadin to fill the void Me and Orson Welles let in my montruous cinephile appetite.

Waking Life

Waking Life (Richard Linklater, 2001)

Richard Linklater is one of the most versatile directors working out there. He goes from doing a authorist oeuvre like Before Sunrise to a more mainstream film like School of Rock and having success in both cases. This original animated feature made with an uncommon technique of "drawing" over actual shoot footage results in a beautiful, but dreamy, graphical picture.

Apart from being visually stunning this Odyssey of dreams into dreams recalls Luis Bunuel's Le charme discret de la bourgeoisie for its many states of awakening dreams. Waking Life is mostly philosophical and alike Before Sunset/Before Sunrise the story evolves around many conversations. Some of these conversations are set with concrete matters and others just play on the metaphysical level. Waking Life feels like a film essay about life and our perceptions of the present time.

I actually enjoyed most of the film and how the story slowly evolves around the main character. The lower point of the visual effects is that sometimes there are so much movement that it makes you a little dizzy. A must see.