21 Years: Richard Linklater
Matthew McConaughey was responsible for seizing Richard Linklater’s second featured film “Dazed and Confused” by his role as Wooderson, the eternal high school stud; therefore it is not surprising that he would steal the documentary “21 Years: Richard Linklater”, a feature length look at all the movies of the director which is disproportionately focused on one of them, ‘Dazed”. On the other hand, contemplating about Austin based writer director’s body of works, McConaughey improvises monologues with an infectious grin and utilizes his hands like a pastor or motivator.
The film lasts 78 minutes whereby at least 15 minutes are devoted to “Dazed”; this recent Oscar and Emmy winner just shrugs them off into his back pocket like a can of snuff. Nevertheless, McConaughey’s idiot savant like intensity does ruinously establish that there exists a character type called “Matthew McConaughey,” and Matthew himself created it.
Boom! We go to set, I get my ‘70s Chevelle,” says the actor recollecting the filming of a movie in Austin, Texas back in 1992. “It’s gonna be my first scene in the movie, and I’m like ‘Fuck, here we go!’, and I’m really scared about it all; I’m going ‘Who am I what can I say, who am I what’s mine man, who am I what’s mine man.’ As Wooderson’s voice echoed on my mind saying: ‘Well alright then ’m about pot, rock n roll ,my car and p—-y’”. Well I was high in my Chevelle listening to Nugent when “action” came.
In another part describing Linklater’s modern calmness McConaughey remembers telling him one day that he is so Buddhist without even knowing it.
Directed by Michael Dunaway and Tara Wood, “21 Years” does not cover every Linklater film, just highlights that keep popping up whenever the director’s films are discussed. These include “Dazed”; “Slacker”; the experimental animated features “Waking Life” and “A Scanner Darkly”; “School of Rock”; “Bernie” and “The Newton Boys” (which featured McConaughey); a remake of The Bad News Bears; and the Before films.
The latter is called as such because Ethan Hawke apparently described them as cinema’s worst successful trilogy ever made because they suffer from low ticket sales (although some reports have cast doubt on this statement). There is nothing in this film about Richard Linklater’s secret magnum opus Boyhood which was still unknown during its production but referred to as such for twelve years project only.
Delpy says she loves working with Linklater because his shoots are fun and he has a lot of humor around him; yet she cannot recall any funny moments between them during the time they have worked together. (Surely Matthew McConaughey’s charisma can hold our attention for a minute or two, without “help”?
Linklater does not sit for any interviews. Instead, he is an absent presence. In endearing ways, Linklater may have done this because he didn’t want to seem self aggrandizing or to lead anyone else’s thinking including that of the viewers’. On the other hand it hurts the film because other participants (mostly actors) wax eloquent about Linklater without going into much detail about his movies’ techniques and themes.
The best comments on Linklater as an artist, cultural observer and community organizer come from Louis Black, founder of Austin Chronicle, who appeared in Slacker and has been friends with Linklater since forever but seems more detached than some of the actors who’ve worked with him once, would work with him again.
The ‘tribute to an old pal” structure makes “21 Years” feel less like a freestanding narrative movie than like additional material tacked onto a set of Linklater DVDs or something that you might screen at his surprise birthday party. It contains just enough analysis to interest those outside Linklater’s personal circle, but not much more. Interviewees wax eloquent about their fascination with subcultures and what it’s like working with him; especially noting his relaxed way of controlling and directing action as well as his ability to guide actors towards notes he wants them hit without being too pushy about it.
This documentary will suit you if you are a fan of Linklater, but honestly an “American Masters” episode would be better. Warm and amusing, a few such as the ones where Thornton is being profane nonsense have their outtakes played during the end credits.
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