What is manhood? How are men to act in the world, and where do truth and responsibility fit in? Having studied boyhood in depth, now director Richard Linklater tracks the next phase of masculinity in his new film Last Flag Flying. To help visualize the maturation arc, he once again tapped cinematographer Shane F. Kelly. They both like progressions. Their previous collaboration Everybody Wants Some!! was billed as a follow up to Linklater’s Dazed and Confused,...

As part of the 30th Anniversary celebration, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival will expand its ever popular director’s panel into the Outstanding Directors of the Year Award, presenting to some of the most talked about and innovative filmmakers from the past year. The tribute will begin at 8pm on Wednesday, February 4 at the Arlington Theatre and will be moderated by The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg. Filmmaking is a collaborative effort, spearheaded by the direc...

As part of the 30th Anniversary celebration, the Santa Barbara International Film Festival will expand its ever popular director’s panel into the Outstanding Directors of the Year Award, presenting to some of the most talked about and innovative filmmakers from the past year. The tribute will begin at 8pm on Wednesday, February 4 at the Arlington Theatre and will be moderated by The Hollywood Reporter’s Scott Feinberg. Filmmaking is a collaborative effort, spearheaded by the direc...

by Quendrith Johnson, Los Angeles Correspondent (*Richard Linklater also just received the Sonnny Bono Visionary Award at the 26th Annual Palm Springs Film Festival.) Two things will happen as Writer/Director Richard Linklater* (Slacker) hits the stage with Elvis Mitchell for Film Independent’s “An Evening With … Richard Linklater” in the Bing Theater at LACMA (Los Angeles County Museum of Art) presented by Film Independent, the BAFTA Awards are poised to tip the dir...

Richard Linklater, the American indie cult director behind such hits as SLACKER, DAZED AND CONFUSED, BEFORE SUNRISE and last year's ME AND ORSON WELLES, has announced that his next project will be the dark comedy BERNIE. Jack Black, who starred in Linklater's audience pleaser SCHOOL OF ROCK, is onboard again for the film, which also co-stars cinema icon Shirley MacLaine. BERNIE is set in the small town of Carthage, Texas and follows a Renaissance man-community leader-morticia...

It is should be news to no one that the Americans and the French are still locked in their love/hate relationship. We Americans do love the French culture and its emphasis on beauty, refinement and good taste. The French do love our the American can-do attitude and our pioneering spirit. But since 9/11, our different geopolitics has driven a wedge into that relationship that has pushed us both into separate corners. Perhaps that is the reason why so many American films that are openly critical ...