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Glen Powell is already making an impact in Hollywood with his impeccable projects that well showcased his acting prowess. However, the actor is yet far from achieving one record that Ethan Hawke and Hitman director Richard Linklater will attain with the upcoming project that they’re set to collaborate on.

Glen Powell in Hit Man (image credit: Netflix)

It is quite a great feat as the actor-director duo have already collaborated on numerous projects that even actor-director duo, Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese have yet to attain.

Ethan Hawke and Glen Powell’s Hitman director Richard Linklater Will Work on the 9th Project Together

Ethan Hawke and Richard Linklater have long been collaborating on projects that produced some of the most critically acclaimed films over the last three decades. From bringing innovative narratives to authentic character portrayals, their partnership has continued to expand the horizon of storytelling on the big screen cinema.

Jack Black in Bernie Photo: Castle Rock Entertainment/Kobal/Shutterstock At the end of an experimental decade, director Richard Linklater returned to a story that had been rattling around his brain since the ‘90s. Written by Skip Hollandsworth for Texas Monthly, the 1998 article “Midnight In The Garden Of East Texas” follows a mortician,...

Jack Black in Bernie

Photo: Castle Rock Entertainment/Kobal/Shutterstock

At the end of an experimental decade, director Richard Linklater returned to a story that had been rattling around his brain since the ‘90s. Written by Skip Hollandsworth for Texas Monthly, the 1998 article “Midnight In The Garden Of East Texas” follows a mortician,...

Ethan Hawke goes back behind the camera for Wildcat, and here are details of his new film – plus a trailer.

Ethan Hawke is better known as an actor than a director, with a prolific career that has included many collaborations with Richard Linklater – the sublime Before trilogy, Tape, The Newton Boys and Boyhood stand tall. Plus, films as diverse as Dead Poet’s Society, Training Day, The Purge, Predestination and Lord Of War – the sequel to the latter is currently in development, with writer and director Andrew Niccol and star Nicholas Cage on board. It has not been confirmed if Hawke will appear.

However, he has also steadily built up an impressive career behind the camera. Besides co-writing the last two Before films with Linklater and Julie Delpy, he has directed several documentaries and three feature films – Chelsea Walls in 1999, The Hottest State, adapted from his own novel in 2006, and...

It’s a new month, and Hulu subscribers are getting a slew of new movies and TV shows to enjoy.

June 1 is jam-packed with more than 30 titles that have landed on the streamer, including the seventh and final season of Ava DuVernay’s “Queen Sugar,” the Jack Nicholson-led film “Hoffa,” Sacha Baron Cohen’s “Borat” and the entire “Twilight” franchise.

Mixing in a little of the old with new come goodies from 2023, like “Flamin’ Hot,” which tells the story of Mexican migrant Richard Montanez who came up with the idea for Flamin’ Hot Cheetos while working as a janitor at Frito Lay. The film lands on Hulu June 9.

Ending June with a bang will the be second season of “The Bear,” (June 22), Season 20 of “The Bachelorette” (June 27) and the sixth and final season of “Grown-ish.”

Here’s everything you can expect to hit Hulu this June.

Also Read:

The Best Free Movie Streaming Sites,...

Season 2 of last summer’s hit breakout series “The Bear” is set to premiere on Hulu on Thursday, June 22. After a tumultuous return to his family’s hole-in-the-wall Chicago restaurant, chef Carmen “Carmy” Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White) and his staff transform the greasy sandwich joint into a first-class dining experience after he discovers the slush fund his brother left behind. Despite having the extra money to make his dreams a reality, the future proves to be both a personal and professional challenge for Carmy and the crew.

Watch the trailer for Season 2 of “The Bear”:

Beginning on June 14, the new series continuation of the beloved film “The Full Monty” arrives on Hulu. It’s 25 years later and the men and women of Sheffield, England, are in reboot mode, navigating life and family. The original 1997 movie focused on a group of down-on-their-luck, blue-collar men who put on a strip show to make ends meet.

Skeet Ulrich is an American actor. He is best known for his roles in Scream (1996 & 2022), As Good As It Gets (1997) and Riverdale.

Skeet Ulrich Biography: Age, Early Life, Family, Education

Skeet Ulrich was born on January 20, 1970 (Skeet Ulrich: Age 53), in Lynchburg, Virginia to Caroline Wax, owner of Sports Management Group. Ulrich considers his first stepfather D.K. Ulrich to be his father. He has one older brother, Geoff Ulrich.

Ulrich’s biological father kidnapped him and his brother when he was six and they spent the next three years moving from Florida to New York and lastly to Pennsylvania. As a child, Ulrich had poor health and had several cases of pneumonia. At ten years old he underwent open heart surgery to fix a ventricle.

Ulrich’s original name was Bryan Ray Trout. He got the nickname Skeet from his Little League coach who called him ‘Skeeter’ because he was as...

May on the Criterion Channel will be good to the auteurs. In fact they’re giving Richard Linklater better treatment than the distributor of his last film, with a 13-title retrospective mixing usual suspects—the Before trilogy, Boyhood, Slacker—with some truly off the beaten track. There’s a few shorts I haven’t seen but most intriguing is Heads I Win/Tails You Lose, the only available description of which calls it a four-hour (!) piece “edited together by Richard Linklater in 1991 from film countdowns and tail leaders from films submitted to the Austin Film Society in Austin, Texas from 1987 to 1990. It is Linklater’s tribute to the film countdown, used by many projectionists over the years to cue one reel of film after another when switching to another reel on another projector during projection.” Pair that with 2008’s Inning by Inning: A Portrait of a Coach and your completionism will be on-track.

Casting director and producer Don Phillips, who helped launch the careers of such actors as Sean Penn, Matthew McConaughey and Mary Steenburgen, passed away on Thanksgiving Day from natural causes. He would have turned 81 on Dec. 21.

Phillips received his first break when he landed an entry-level job in the casting department of filmmaker Otto Preminger’s 1971 movie Such Good Friends. Impressed by Phillips, Preminger took an ad in Variety and Backstage to praise the novice’s work on the film.

The acknowledgement led to Phillips getting hired to do extras casting on Sidney Lumet’s Serpico starring Al Pacino with his job subsequently expanding to casting the entire film. Lumet then tapped him as casting director on his next film, Dog Day Afternoon, also starring Pacino. Phillips is credited with holding out for actor John Cazale to be cast opposite Pacino as Sal.

Phillips went on to cast the cult...

Karlovy Vary Intl. Film Festival, the leading cinema event in Central and Eastern Europe, will honor American actor, director, and writer Ethan Hawke, who will receive the Festival President’s Award at its 55th edition, taking place Aug. 20-28. The award is given to actors, directors, and producers who have “contributed in a fundamental way to the development of contemporary world cinema.”

“We are thrilled to welcome to Karlovy Vary an artist we’ve been admiring for a long time. In 2018, Kviff paid tribute to the Austin Film Society and it is exciting to extend our appreciation of this renowned organization’s work by honoring an actor and director who is so closely connected to the Texas independent film scene,” said artistic director Karel Och and executive director Krystof Mucha.

Hawke will personally introduce Paul Schrader’s thriller “First Reformed,” in which he portrays a parish pastor experiencing a crisis of faith.

With theaters in an unprecedented nationwide shutdown, we look back at the game-changing titles in play on this weekend in box-office history.

Under normal circumstances, this weekend would likely have been the best of 2020 to date. With “Mulan” (Disney) set to open and “A Quiet Place Part II” (Paramount) in its second week, grosses totaling $200 million were likely.

More from IndieWirePremium VOD Dominates FandangoNOW Top 10, Led by 'The Invisible Man'Exhibitors Sweat as Audiences Warm to the Studios' VOD Experiment

And in 1998, this was the weekend after the Oscars — a date then known as something of a box-office dead zone. Streaming didn’t exist, and theater windows were longer than 90 days, which meant new films stayed away because they didn’t want to compete with the post-Oscar bump. Today, Oscar movies are no threat since most winners are on some form of VOD, or in wider release.

Last year, much of...

With “Last Flag Flying” arriving in theaters, we’re taking on the not-so-simple task of ranking the movies of genre-hopping director Richard Linklater. The top titles on this list could rightfully be called modern classics, but every one of his films somehow evokes the heartfelt philosophy of his hypnotic “Waking Life”: human interaction is the highest form of spiritual communion.

20. “Bad News Bears” (2005)

The 1976 original was a true product of its time, with an all-star lineup led by Walter Matthau and Tatum O’Neal, but this unnecessary remake just felt like it was trying too hard. By 2005, the sight of an aggressively un-pc Little League coach (Billy Bob Thornton) encouraging outrageous behavior in his young team seemed less subversive than sad.

19. “Fast Food Nation” (2006)

When truth is stranger than fiction, why turn it into fiction? Linklater admirably attempted to create a multi-course meal out of Eric Schlosser’s bestselling book,...

By Todd Garbarini

Film historian Douglas Dunning has informed Cinema Retro that Laemmle’s Playhouse 7 and Ahrya Fine Arts will be presenting the 50th anniversary screening of Sam Peckinpah’s influential 1969 film The Wild Bunch and special guests are scheduled to appear at both locations. The film stars William Holden, Ernest Borgnine, Robert Ryan, Edmund O’Brien, Warren Oates, L.Q. Jones, Jaime Sanchez, Bo Hopkins, Strother Martin, Albert Decker, Emilio Fernandez, and Alfonso Arau and runs 145 minutes.

Please Note:

Screening #1 is on February 26th at the Playhouse 7 at 7:00 pm, and at press time W.K. Stratton, the author of a new book, The Wild Bunch: Sam Peckinpah, a Revolution in Hollywood, and the Making of a Legendary Film, will participate in a discussion after the screening. He will also sign copies of his book at the theater.

Screening #2 is at the Ahrya Fine Arts on March 2nd at 7:30 pm.

In his new film “First Reformed,” Ethan Hawke stars as Reverend Toller, an ailing former military chaplain, who counsels an expectant father so disturbed by climate change that he wants his wife to get an abortion. As the narrative — from writer/director Paul Schrader — progresses, Toller learns that one of the nation’s biggest polluters paid for the upgrades to his church, yet nonetheless assumes the young man’s environmentalist mantle.

A clergyman is “not a role that you often see fully explored in movies,” Hawke told IndieWire during a recent interview. “You see people dressed up as priests and they’re robbing a bank, or they’re in ‘Cannonball Run,’ or you see evil priests in horror movies, and things like that…I really was grateful for not the opportunity to play a [pastor], but this one.”

Meanwhile, Hawke concedes, “There’s about 80 million cop movies,” including his own “Brooklyn...

James + Semaj is a column where James Franco talks to his reverse self, Semaj, about new films. Rather than a conventional review, it is place where James and Semaj can muse about ideas that the films provoke. James loves going to the movies and talking about them. But a one-sided take on a movie, in print, might be misconstrued as a review. As someone in the industry it could be detrimental to James’s career if he were to review his peers, because unlike the book industry—where writers review other writer’s books—the film industry is highly collaborative, and a bad review of a peer could create problems. So, assume that James (and Semaj) love all these films. What they’re interested in talking about is all the ways the films inspire them, and make them think. James is me, and Semaj is the other side of me.

The maestro behind Dazed and Confused, Boyhood, and the Before Trilogy had humble begins before he was swept up into the world of film. Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny, which has just received its first trailer, explores Linklater’s early life as he began making movies, showing patience and care as he crafted his first feature, Slacker. From there, Dazed and Confused would make a name for the Texas boy with big ambitions, sending him on a path that would make him one of the great American directors. The trailer shows the documentary’s up-close nature with Linklater himself going through old journals and discussing his long and acclaimed career.

We said in our review, “Borrowing its title from the opening moments of his Waking Life — a film that itself represented a rebirth for the Austin-based filmmaker following his second studio feature The Newton Boys — and combining behind-the-scenes footage...

Premiering at Sundance 25 years after his seminal second feature film, Slacker, Richard Linklater: Dream is Destiny, produced for the PBS series American Masters, is the kind of documentary that requires little introduction. Borrowing its title from the opening moments of his Waking Life — a film that itself represented a rebirth for the Austin-based filmmaker following his second studio feature The Newton Boys — and combining behind-the-scenes footage from many of Linklater’s films (from Slacker to his upcoming Everybody Wants Some) with a history of Austin’s independent film scene, as developed by Linklater and the Austin Film Society, the picture reflectively weaves together a history of a master filmmaker whose work is squarely interested in the passage of time. The picture includes commentary by the late Siskel and Ebert, along with critic / scholar Kent Jones and, very briefly, Kevin Smith.

Directed by Louis Black (SXSW and Austin Chronicle founder) and Karen Bernstein,...

New on Amazon November 2015 will be the fascinating original series The Man in the High Castle on Prime Video (pictured), while Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation is a blockbuster available for purchase on Amazon Instant Video. Piv: New In November 2015 — Available for Streaming on Prime Instant Video Available November 1 Desk Set The Enemy Below The Craft Adam Sandler’s Eight Crazy Nights The Newton Boys Available November 5 Tell Awakenings The Adventures of Milo and Otis The Mask of Zorro Seven Years in Tibet The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus Available November 7 The Yes Men Are Revolting Available November 10 Prince Wolf Hall Available … Continue reading →

The post What’s new on Amazon November 2015 appeared first on Channel Guide Magazine.

It's one thing to be a part of a huge franchise, spanning several films and carrying the weight of untold box office expectations, but it's an entirely separate thing to be involved in two huge franchises. And that's the position that Miles Teller has found himself in, with the second chapter in the "Divergent" series, "Insurgent," opening this week, and a brand new reboot of Marvel's "Fantastic Four" hitting theaters later this summer. But if he's feeling the pressure, he's certainly not showing it.

I sat down with Teller in Austin, Texas, during the South by Southwest Film Festival, a weeklong celebration of mostly independent films, to talk about "Insurgent," a towering behemoth of a movie whose production budget is probably equal to most of the independents screening at South by Southwest combined. (We also talked about Teller's "Whiplash," the indie movie that seduced Sundance last year and went on...

Most Richard Linklater fans can tell you which film – and sometimes which scene – ignited their enthusiasm for the director, whether it was 1991’s influential indie Slacker, 1993’s high-school classic Dazed and Confused or 2003’s comedy School of Rock.

But, it all began with Before Sunrise.

Released 20 years ago this week, Before Sunrise boasted fresh-faced actors and a swoon-worthy premise: An American man (Ethan Hawke) meets a French woman (Julie Delpy) on a train, and they spend one magical evening together in Vienna. That alone was enough to attract my 17-year-old self to the theater, as was the case with many of my peers.

News: Julie & Ethan Reunite 'Before Midnight'

The true magic of Before Sunrise, however, lies beyond the picturesque scenery and smitten gazes. Building upon his gift for crafting relatable and engrossing conversation, Linklater’s characters feel fully formed, discussing everything from philosophy and religion to love and their hopes for the future.

"[link...

Celebrating this year’s honorees at the trendy Meat Packing District restaurant Tao, the New York Film Critics Circle offered starry salutes to Richard Linklater’s Boyhood, double-winner Marion Cotillard (for The Immigrant and Two Days, One Night), and a broad range of other films and stars. The presenters also seemed determined to make sure no one forgot the alleged villain of last year’s festivities. Critic Armond White was ousted from the group in the wake of the 2014 ceremony following accusations that he insulted 12 Years A Slave director Steve McQueen. White, who writes for National Review, denied having made the remarks both at the time and in an essay published yesterday, in which he also slagged the group as “just one among dozens of celebrity-worshipping awards-givers.”

Circle Chairman Stephen Whitty quoted those words Monday night during his opening remarks at the group’s 80th awards ceremony. Sometime later, film polymath Paul Schrader cryptically wondered,...

“The truth will only be told over a career.” This quote by Richard Linklater opens a new documentary on the filmmaker and also could be applied to another that just hit Netflix Watch Instantly this week. The first is called 21 Years: Richard Linklater and follows a career spanning more than two decades, beginning with 1991’s Slacker and ending with Before Midnight — there’s no mention of this year’s Boyhood. The second is Altman, about Robert Altman, whose long career ended eight years ago as he was scouting for locations for his next feature, at age 81. Linklater’s statement isn’t saying a life story is told over a career (you can see the context in the Reverse Shot interview it comes from), but with both films it’s hard not to expect some sort of biographical portrait of their subjects through their work. The lives of artists, Linklater and Altman included, are...

In a development that feels more inevitable than surprising, Matt Damon and Paul Greengrass are in talks to get back into the Bourne business. The two had sent mixed messages over the years, ever since Jason Bourne disappeared in the murky East River at the end of The Bourne Ultimatum in 2007, with the major roadblock being Damon’s insistence that a reluctant Greenglass direct, while Universal handed the franchise over to writer-turned-director Tony Gilroy. But with Gilroy’s Bourne Legacy, starring Jeremy Renner, failing to live up to the original three Bourne films at the box office, and Damon’s recent non-Bourne projects,...

Considering their relaxed, easygoing personas, why wouldn't a conversation between longtime friends Richard Linklater and Matthew McConaughey be genial and delightful? Sitting down for Interview Magazine, the director and actor — who have collaborated on "Dazed and Confused," "The Newton Boys," and, most recently, "Bernie" — start off discussing critics' fave "Boyhood," from the film’s novel approach to time to doing promo duties, and move on to the story of Linklater's Austin ranch burning down. Check out Toh's interviews with Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Eller Coltrane and potential Best Actress nominee Patricia Arquette as well as this scene clip from "Boyhood" — which may seem small, but is one of the film’s bigger dramatic moments. This isn't the kind of movie that burns down a ranch.

Ethan Hawke and Richard Linkalter must have a great relationship.  Since the actor starred in Linklater's film Before Sunrise back in 1995, the pair have teamed up for two Before sequels and a handful of other projects (The Newton Boys, anyone?).  They've also spent every summer for the past twelve years together.

Each summer, Linklater has reunited a cast and crew to film the movie Boyhood, which hits theatres this Friday. The fictional film documents the life of a young boy as he grows and matures from age 5 to 18.  Hawke and Patricia Arquettestar as the parents of Mason (Ellar Coltrane) in this unique and original film, who have watched the young star grow in front of their eyes, both on and off screen.  

With almost 30 years of acting under his belt, Hawke has treated us to everything from sci-fi and real-life dramas such asAlive, to Shakespearean adaptations and comedies like Reality Bites which define a generation.

After Slacker and Dazed and Confused but before Bernie, Before Midnight and the soon-to-be-released Boyhood, Richard Linklater made a charming little movie called The Newton Boys. Filmed in Texas and featuring a band of charismatic actors (most of whom have gone on to considerable success in film and/or television), this true story depicts the bank-robbing exploits of four entrepreneurial and adventure-loving brothers in the early 20th century. 

Raised in Uvalde County, Texas in a cotton farming family, the Newton brothers are an unruly bunch whose lives tell a one-of-a-kind story of American idealism and brash (but mostly non-violent) outlaw behavior. After Dock and Willis, the oldest two brothers (Vincent D'Onofrio and Matthew McConaughey), experience various real and perceived injustices (including class-based discrimination, wrongful imprisonment and general mistreatment by authority figures), they give up on trying to live lawful lives and instead decide to take what they think should be theirs.

Sure, Matthew McConaughey's mom is thrilled her son took home the Best Actor Oscar last Sunday. But in Kay McCabe's book, McConaughey was already a winner. "Matthew makes me proud because he is very humble and sincere and a very thoughtful person," she tells People. "He is just a great son." Not to mention a natural family man. As husband to Camila, 31, and father to their kids Levi, 5½, Vida, 4, and 15-month-old Livingston, Matthew, 44, couldn't have had a better role model than his own dad, James, a gas-station owner who died in 1992, says Kay. "I had no doubt when he decided to marry,...

Odd List Ryan Lambie Simon Brew 14 Nov 2013 - 06:19

The overlooked greats of the year 1998 come under the spotlight in our list of its 25 underappreciated movies...

Dominated as it was by the financial success of two giant killer asteroid movies, gross-out comedy hit There's Something About Mary and Steven Spielberg's Saving Private Ryan, 1998 proved to be an extraordinary year for cinema.

Okay, so history doesn't look back too fondly on Roland Emmerich's mishandled Godzilla remake, and Lethal Weapon 4 was hardly the best buddy-cop flick ever made, despite its handsome profit. But search outside the top-10 grossing films of that year, and you'll find all kinds of spectacular modern classics: Peter Weir's wonderful The Truman Show, John Frankenheimer's rock-solid thriller Ronin, and Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line.

Then there was The Big Lebowski, the Coen brothers' sublime comedy that has since become a deserved and oft-quoted cult favourite.

Odd List Greg Foster 18 Oct 2013 - 06:16

We look at 20 former A-list actors, and the interesting film choices they've made...

There comes a time in every A-list actor's life when they gather their thoughts and take a step back into smaller budget or more leftfield fare - and for a variety of reasons. They may want to work with a certain director or an emerging directing talent. They might be taken by a fantastic script. They might fancy a new artistic direction. They may even have a spiritual epiphany and decide to eschew Hollywood and all its decadent trappings, or they may simply just not have a choice, since the big roles have long since dried up for them.

The reason for this list then, is to look at some of those shining lights, the household names, and at the films they took up as proof of their artistic integrity.

The Independent Filmmaker Project will honor Richard Linklater with its Director Tribute at the 23rd annual Gotham Independent Film Awards, set for Dec. 2 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City. Linklater, whose most recent film is this year’s Before Midnight, distributed by Sony Pictures Classics, has been making films since 1988's It’s Impossible to Plow by Reading Books. He made his name with 1991’s Slacker and 1993’s Dazed and Confused. His credits also include Suburbia, The Newton Boys, The Waking Life, Bad News Bears, A Scanner Darkly and

read more...

Feature Ryan Lambie 4 Jul 2013 - 06:30

With Sinister and The Purge on his recent CV, and Getaway on the horizon, Ethan Hawke's becoming one of the finest genre actors working...

Mention of Ethan Hawke's name might conjure up some of his critically lauded performances in movies such as Reality Bites, Training Day or Before Sunrise. You might associate him with his successful stage career, or his two well-received novels, or the documentary he made last year about Shakespeare's Scottish Play.

Yet since the very beginning of his career, Hawke has made occasional - and often excellent - forays into science fiction, thrillers and horror. His first screen role was in Joe Dante's 1985 sci-fi fantasy Explorers, in which he played a young boy who, along with his friend Wolfgang (the late River Phoenix) creates a spaceship and heads off on an intergalactic adventure. Although not a financial hit,...

In one version of the world, Ethan Hawke and Owen Wilson could have had nearly identical careers.

Both Texas-born and vets of the Austin indie filmmaking scene of the mid-90s, the two actors have since floated through independent, art house, and mainstream projects to varying degrees of success. Hawke, for the most part, stayed indie while Wilson went big. They are the story of Generation-x: Former malcontents grasping for authenticity and fame in an industry that is designed to make those dual aspirations somewhat impossible.

When observed as a series of choices beginning in 1994, the careers of Hawke and...

Sneak Peek director Richard Linklater's 1998 action crime drama "The Newton Boys", now available on DVD from Anchor Bay, starring Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke, Skeet Ulrich, Vincent D’Onofrio, Dwight Yoakam and Julianna Margulies :

"...it seems the only way the 'Newton' boys can make good is by goin’ bad! Faster than you can say 'nitroglycerin', they’ve knocked over more than 80 banks from Texas to Canada.

"Now their sights are set on a multimillion-dollar 'Federal Reserve' train robbery, but the Feds are about to turn up the heat..."

Click the images to enlarge and Sneak Peek "The Newton Boys"...

Having debuted here at the London Film Festival two years back, Richard Linklater’s darkly comedic character study finally receives a theatrical release. This gap may have been, in part, down to the distributor, as the film isn’t the easiest to market. It’s a quiet, muted affair with a style of humour worlds away from the kind of broad farce now associated with its lead, Jack Black (for better or worse, it was Linklater that set him on that path back with 2003’s School of Rock).

Thankfully, the director reigns in that signature anarchic shtick Black is now renowned for, resulting in not only the comedian’s finest lead role to date, but also allowing the gregarious performer to lose himself in the part in a way he’s never done before.

Bernie Tiede (Black) is the pillar of the community in a small Texan town, stretching his...

His films put talk before spectacle and character before bombast. John Patterson pays tribute to an indie traditionalist

Richard Linklater, the Quiet Man of American indie cinema, will soon be releasing Before Midnight, the third panel of his sublime Ethan Hawke-Julie Delpy triptych, and the word-of-mouth is good. But British viewers can whet their appetites before that on Bernie released a year ago in the States, but still fondly remembered in the best-films-of-2012 polls.

Bernie embodies the Linklater virtues: he's interested in characters, and he seems to like people, which counts as a gift these days; he loves talk and talkers, and loves to listen and watch. If an actual narrative arc should amble into view, hey, he might let it shape things up too. If not, well, just lighten up and go with it. He's relaxed.

While many of Linklater's movies unfold in a single day, Bernie...

Back in 2003, filmmaker Richard Linklater teamed with Jack Black for a musical comedy called School of Rock that would elevate both their careers dramatically. Their most recent collaboration, Bernie , was released earlier this year--April to be exact--to less fanfare, but even with a lower-key release, word soon got around about what a great performance Jack Black gave playing the title role. It ended up becoming one of Linklater's biggest independent films since 1998's The Newton Boys . In this true story, Black plays funeral director Bernie Tiede of the small town of Carthage, Texas who befriended and then killed a rich widow named Marjorie Nugent, played in the movie hilariously by Shirley MacLaine, before putting her in a freezer for nine months. Nowadays, any...

0:00 - Intro 6:45 - Review: Lawless 31:45 - Headlines: Justice League Movie Coming Right After Man of Steel, Beverly Hills Cop TV Show, Sony Movie About Video Game Console Wars, Female Version of The Expendables in the Works, Chinese Zodiac Trailer 44:15 - Other Stuff We Watched: Eight Men Out, The Darkest Hour, New Jack City, Shame, The Raid: Redemption, Kill List, Red Hill, Project X (1968), Compliance, The Damned United, Leviathan, The Newton Boys, The Ambassador, Broadcast News, A Dangerous Method 2:07:15 - Junk Mail: Tony Scott Story, Highest Octane Movies of All Time, How to Appreciate Movies That Are an Acquired Taste, Unofficial Sequels, Favourite Horror Movies, A Game + Top Secret 2:32:25 - This Week on DVD and Blu-ray 2:33:45 - Outro

Film Junk Podcast Episode #384: Lawless by Filmjunk on Mixcloud

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While "Moonrise Kingdom" and "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" have been getting the majority of press regarding "summer indie breakouts," there's been a considerable success story flying under the radar: Richard Linklater's "Bernie," which just crossed the $7 million mark this past weekend. The film is already far and away the highest grossing film ever for distributor Millennium Entertainment (which never had a film cross the $1 million mark before), and should top "Dazed and Confused" in the next week or so to become Linklater's highest grossing independently released film (three of his studio efforts -- "The School of Rock," "Bad News Bears" and "The Newton Boys" -- have all grossed more).   "Bernie" found Linklater reteaming with "School of Rock" star Jack Black, who stars as Bernie Tiede, a mortician who becomes the only friend of a wealthy widow...

If Matthew McConaughey is best known for forgettable romcoms, then his latest film, Killer Joe, might come as quite a shock. But then he has really been a serious actor all along, he says

For Matthew McConaughey, as someone whose name escapes me once said, the handsome lessons have definitely paid off. Chiselled of jaw, glittering of eye, radioactive of tan, McConaughey has spent the best part of the past decade nailing down a rugged-yet-sensitive screen persona that has seen him crowned as the smirking prince of the romantic comedy, the repository of apparently inexhaustible yearnings for a tamed alpha-male mate. His screen foils read like a rollcall of the romcom damned: Jennifer Lopez, Kate Hudson, Sarah Jessica Parker, Jennifer Garner. For all his crimes against motion pictures – The Wedding Planner, Failure to Launch, Fool's Gold – McConaughey is despised as much as he is envied. He is, after all, an actor who,...

Ethan Hawke sure is loving genre films lately. Outside of working on almost anything directors Richard Linklater and Antoine Fuqua do, Hawke somehow stumbled into 2005's ill-advised remake of "Assault on Precinct 13" and 2010's vampires-curing-vampirism movie "Daybreakers," and has finally made his first straight horror film (outside of 1998's "The Newton Boys" - Zing!) with the upcoming "Sinister." That's not the most impressive run in genre films ever recorded, but considering Hawke has spent most of his career doing arthouse fare since debuting in Joe Dante's "Explorers," we're considering it a trend.

Directed by "The Exorcism of Emily Rose" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still" director Scott Derrickson, "Sinister" stars Hawke as a true-crime novelist who makes a huge mistake: moving into a house where a family was gruesomely murdered. Happens to the best of us! Once he discovers a box of old 8mm films of other murdered families in the attic,...

Given that he's one of the more diverse and prolific filmmakers out there, it's been a disappointingly long four years without a new movie from Richard Linklater ("Me and Orson Welles" premiered at Tiff in 2008). Fortunately, the Austin, Texas-based filmmaker is back with "Bernie," a dark comedy which reunites him with two of his most memorable leads, Jack Black and Matthew McConaughey, that has picked up strong reviews and, opening in limited release last Friday, has been performing surprisingly well at the box office.

With "Bernie" expanding wider this weekend (read our review), it seemed like the perfect time to look over Linklater's diverse and eclectic career. He'd already made his mark by founding the Austin Film Society in 1985 (which has gone on to be the center of the industy in the Texas city), but since his debut with an ultra-low-budget student film in 1988, Linklater's tackled everything from romance to...

It may be tough to get a consensus reaction to Bernie. The latest Texas-based film from Richard Linklater changes tones throughout as it moves from comedy, dark comedy, to trial farce. The fact that it’s actually based on a real story of murder and regret is troubling to realize as you laugh and you begin to question whether someone who committed such a terrible crime is really troubled or just had a very bad day. I had the opportunity to sit down at SXSW for a roundtable interview with Linklater and Matthew McConaughey as we discuss the tone, meeting Bernie and the other real-life counterparts, and much more.

In some of your best movies you play a lawyer. There’s The Lincoln Lawyer, A Time to Kill, Amistad…and you wanted to be a lawyer originally?

Matthew McConaughey: I did. That’s where I was heading, and then...

Writer/director Richard Linkater is a filmmaker who can never be accused of making one thing. Dazed and Confused, Before Sunrise, School of Rock, Tape, The Newton Boys, A Scanner Darkly, Waking Life, and his latest film Bernie, about the nicest murderer you’ll ever meet, all make for an eclectic filmography. If there’s one noticeable connection in Linklater’s works, it that he’s always mixed comedy and tragedy. As the director puts it, that’s just how he sees the world, and he generally shows that view in different structures. Unlike, say, A Scanner Darkly, Bernie is a plain and simple story, with zero tangents to speak of. Although Linklater isn’t a fan of the normal three-act structure, a fact you can see in his films, Bernie mostly fits into that box. This, along with his writing process and where he draws inspiration from, is one of the few things I discussed with...

Ever since his debut, “Slacker,” earned him a spot on the national filmmaking stage, Richard Linklater has been one of Texas’ favorite sons. It’s certainly helped that so many of his movies not only took place in the state, but paid real and honest tribute to its citizens, without insult or parody. But in “Bernie,” his latest, he skirts that line between celebrating and satirizing Texans with his retelling of the true story of Bernie Tiede, a funeral director who killed an elderly widow and threatened to go free thanks to his hometown’s near-universal affection for the man. Jack Black stars as the title character, and Matthew McConaughey plays the self-aggrandizing prosecutor who despite his legitimate pursuit of justice ultimately proves to be the film’s unexpected villain.

The Playlist sat down with Linklater and McConaghey last week at the SXSW, where “Bernie” had its regional premiere. In...

A couple of posters for your eyeballs as we head into the weekend, so let's just get right to it... Richard Linklater (much like fellow '90s indie darling Steven Soderbergh) is a directorial chamelon, and since his breakout film "Slacker," he's managed a wide range of films from big studio work ("School Of Rock," "Bad News Bears"), animated flights of fancy ("Waking Life," "A Scanner Darkly"), single location dramas (the underrated "Tape"), coming of age classics ("Dazed & Confused") and even period movies ("Me And Orson Welles," "The Newton Boys"). And his latest is another shift in gears. "Bernie" is a dark comedy in the "Fargo" vein that brings together a pretty ace cast including Matthew McConaguhy, Jack Black and Shirley Maclaine to tell the story of a beloved mortician (Black) in a small Texas town who befriends a mean old widow (Shirley...

A couple of posters for your eyeballs as we head into the weekend, so let's just get right to it...

Richard Linklater (much like fellow '90s indie darling Steven Soderbergh) is a directorial chamelon, and since his breakout film "Slacker," he's managed a wide range of films from big studio work ("School Of Rock," "Bad News Bears"), animated flights of fancy ("Waking Life," "A Scanner Darkly"), single location dramas (the underrated "Tape"), coming of age classics ("Dazed & Confused") and even period movies ("Me And Orson Welles," "The Newton Boys"). And his latest is another shift in gears.

"Bernie" is a dark comedy in the "Fargo" vein that brings together a pretty ace cast including Matthew McConaguhy, Jack Black and Shirley Maclaine to tell the story of a beloved mortician (Black) in a small Texas town who befriends a mean old widow (Shirley MacLaine) and commits a horrific crime. McConaughey plays the confident local D.

Chicago – When I interviewed Tomas Alfredsson, the director of “Let the Right One In” and “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,” he told me a wonderful story about Gary Oldman watching daily footage of himself on the set of “Tinker” as his character, George Smiley, fried an egg in his robe. Exciting stuff. Gary turned to Tomas and said, “I used to be Sid Vicious.” See what he meant by that with the Collector’s Edition of this 25-year-old film.

Blu-ray Rating: 3.5/5.0

There are only a few people in the history of rock ‘n’ roll that can accurately be called forces of nature more than mere musicians — Jimi Hendrix, Kurt Cobain, Robert Plant, the people who changed their art not by attempting to do so but by being honest to their own vision. Sid Vicious didn’t set out to change music by basically inventing punk, but that’s exactly what he did.

While several characters in the "Mission: Impossible" films are taken from the original 1960s TV show, Tom Cruise's Ethan Hunt was created specifically for America's movie star extraordinaire. Hunt's M.O. is that he doesn't stop ... ever. The unflappable Imf super-agent will do whatever it takes to stop a madman from unleashing warfare, be it chemical, nuclear, or other.

Who could possibly go head-to-head with such a deadly adversary? We chose New York-based actor, writer and Gen-x slacker icon Ethan Hawke, not so much because he has the necessary skills to beat someone of Hunt's caliber, but because their names are kinda similar.

On the eve of the "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" release, find out who comes out on top in this battle of monumental proportions.

Occupation

Ethan Hunt: Agent of the elite Impossible Mission Force (Imf)

Ethan Hawke: Actor, director, screenwriter and novelist

Advantage: Hawke,...

Well, this is the best news I’ve read all month. All year? Maybe all year. In a recent interview with Allocine (via The Playlist), writer/director/actor Ethan Hawke revealed that he, Julie Delpy and Richard Linklater have been talking and are hoping to start writing a third film in the Before Sunrise/Before Sunset saga that has a poignant, much-loved following in the indie film community. Sunset earned the trio (along with Kim Krizan) an Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay back in 2005.

“Well, I don’t know what we’re going to do but I know the three of us have been talking a lot in the last six months,” Hawke said, in regards to the third film.

“All three of us have been having similar feelings that we’re ready to revisit those characters. There’s nine years between the first two movies and, if we made the film next summer,...

Despite a brief flirtation with major stardom, Ethan Hawke has stayed relatively true to the independent scene with his relationship with fellow Texan Richard Linklater seemingly personifying this notion. The two have teamed up for no less than six films including "Waking Life," "Tape," "The Newton Boys," "Fast Food Nation" and, of course, "Before Sunrise" and its sequel "Before Sunset." While Hawke and Linklater also have their long-term project "Boyhood" in the works as well (more on that later), it looks like the two are at it again plotting a reunion with Julie Delpy for a third installement of the uber-popular 'Before...' series.