21 Years: Richard Linklater

Michael Dunaway & Tara Wood – 2014 – USA

Of any American director of his generation, Richard Linklater is certainly deserving of a documentary, but 21 Years is a pretty flimsy tribute, however well-intentioned.  It’s comprised of only two types of material; extensive interviews with a handful of collaborators interspersed with cute animated bits that occasionally underscore what’s being said.  There isn’t much biographical information, no comments by Linklater himself, and – most importantly – very little analysis of Linklater’s style, methods and themes save for quick, scattered observations by the participants.  The film appears crafted entirely around the few celebrities who could be persuaded to take part; whose interviews are then milked to death since the filmmakers opted against finding a way to augment them with anything else.  Of all the interviewees, it seems to me that only Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy are especially relevant, especially Hawke, who has been more-or-less Linklater’s alter ego in some half-dozen films.  Others, like Keanu Reeves and Jason Reitman, don’t seem to have much more of a right to be there than anyone else.  Where are Wiley Wiggins, Jason London, any of the many stars of Slacker, or even any substantial scholars or critics who may have something more interesting to say about Linklater than about what a cool guy he is?  Dunaway and Wood offer no explanation – in the film itself, at least – about why they settled on a fixed period of years, 1991-2012, when Linklater was also quite active prior to 1991’s Slacker, as any true fan knows.  The complete absence of any mention of his 1988 debut feature, It’s Impossible to Learn to Plow by Reading Books, is an egregious oversight.  To ignore that film while letting Billy Bob Thornton ramble on about the remake of The Bad News Bears (2006) is a miscalculation at best and at worst an insult to the very people who care enough about Linklater to bother seeking out a documentary about him.  The filmmakers come off as startstruck, allowing Reeves, Zac Efron and Matthew McConaughey to pontificate endlessly as though they were quite the genius philosophers without equal.  I suppose you can argue that the film is at least better than nothing… well, you can; I’d rather not.