Rick Linklater: Dream is Destiny (2016)

Rick Linklater (b.1960) has been one of the few truly independent writers, producers, and directors who has flourished making movies outside of the commercial and formulaic confines of New York and Los Angeles.  In 2015, Time magazine listed him as one of the 100 most influential people in the world.  Raised in Huntsville, Texas, Linklater moved to Austin, where he has remained ever since and made about 25 films in the last 30 years.  Linklater's films typically defy a traditional narrative structure.  Rather, they are about time, place, relationships, and the power of a single moment in time, however banal it might seem on the surface.  Like getting a haircut, or your first day in school (Boyhood).  His movie Slacker, made for $23,000, pretty much put that word in the dictionary, and defined the Zeitgeist of Generation X that cared more about talking than working.  Roger Ebert compared his films to "anthropology" — that is, they explore how real people think, act, behave, and dress.  This documentary interviews Linklater, along with actors who have worked with him (Ethan Hawke, Jack Black, and Matthew McConaughey (a fellow Texan)), critics, family, and then combines them with clips from his movies and footage of his sets.  Linklater himself comes across as a likeable and self-effacing artist, a real person, if you will — his cinematic message is rooted in the man himself.