Sight and Sound June 2024

It’s not difficult to map Linklater’s fascination with hustlers, fakers and forks in roads on to his own origin story and attitude to his art. The magnanimity for which he’s known is also the adaptability of someone who forged his career without much institutional backing and with no nepotistic networks. To the casual observer, he has looked like an insider ever since the time of Slacker… Linklater’s own experience, however, has always been that of an interloper. He’s not from New York or Los Angeles; not from money or arty origins; not even from film school. His identity as a Texan also remains key to his work and life.

 

Numerous times in our conversation, and despite a distinctly affable and open demeanour, he refers to himself as insecure or shy. Talking about his 30-year career, meanwhile, has become “kind of abstract. High points, low points, biographical signposts… at some point, it’s like, is that even you?” Well, that’s the question.

 

— Hannah McGill on Richard Linklater, for the cover feature