The Act of Killing (Dir: Joshua Oppenheimer, Drafthouse Films) Anwar Congo and Herman Koto are the two most memorable characters I met at the movies this year. They are larger than life, full of charisma and swagger. They are also mass murderers. Director Joshua Oppenheimer sought out the victims of Suharto’s 1960s Indonesian death squads for what could have been …

“This town has always had its fair share of crazies; I wouldn’t want to live anywhere else.” There’s a level of comfort that comes from being taken in by the relationship certain directors have with certain cities, the way Martin Scorsese and Woody Allen make films that feel like New York no matter where they’re set, or how Quentin Tarantino’s …

A few weeks ago, more than 3 million assholes shelled out $42 million to see Grown Ups 2. As we take the rest of the week off and recall the wonderful movies we’ve screened so far in 2013, it is hard to believe that people are still spending their $12 to see Adam Sandler and friends act like a bunch …

[xrr rating=3.5/5]There’s an interesting moment towards the end of Richard Linklater’s new film Bernie where the title character, a mortician played endearingly by Jack Black, makes a joke during his own murder trial, causing the courtroom to erupt in laughter. The way Bernie’s humor and the ensuing laughter cut through the tension in the courtroom makes us feel a kind …

Oeuvre is an in-depth examination of the entire body of work of an important director. By the time Richard Linklater’s take on Fast Food Nation appeared – four months after his similarly political adaptation A Scanner Darkly, five years after the book was released – Eric Schlosser’s incisive industry tell-all had already attained near-epic stature as the most complete work …

Oeuvre is an in-depth examination of the entire body of work of an important director. “What does a scanner see? he asked himself. I mean, really see? Into the head? Down into the heart?. . .if the scanner sees only darkly, the way I myself do, then we are cursed, cursed again and like we have been continually, and we’ll …

Oeuvre is an in-depth examination of the entire body of work of an important director. Now here’s a movie that’s clearly a product of its time — one of the myriad Hollywood remakes of the 2000s with a post-Bad Santa Billy Bob Thornton coasting in one of his several roles as a misanthropic dickhead in a position where he has …

Oeuvre is an in-depth examination of the entire body of work of an important director. Nine years after tantalizing audiences with one of cinema’s most delicious “what-if” endings, Richard Linklater returns to the characters from Before Sunrise in the near perfect sequel Before Sunset. Following the deliciously dopey Jack Black-vehicle School of Rock, Linklater revisited the fecund ground of philosophizing …

Oeuvre is an in-depth examination of the entire body of work of an important director. On paper, Tape sounds like a director taking it easy: a movie based on a play by Stephen Belber, shot on digital cameras with only three actors in it, taking place in a motel room. It seems like an easy feat compared to Waking Life, …

I initially approached Richard Linklater’s 2001 effort Waking Life with a mixture of eagerness and cautiousness; the story (such as there is of it) concerns a young man caught in a dream filled with philosophical discussion, animated monologues and the kind of strange visual effects that only rotoscoping can achieve. What concerned me, on the other hand, are my lifelong …