Every Richard Linklater Movie, Ranked
Updated March 2022 to add Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood.
First emerging during indie cinema's golden age in the early 1990s, Linklater has (with just a few exceptions) stayed true to his indie (and Austin) roots, earning mostly stellar reviews along the way. While only 4 of his films have grossed more than $10 million, all but two of his features received acclaim from critics, making him one of the finest directors of the past 30 years. In the gallery above, we rank every one of his films from worst to best by Metascore.
After a brief slump in the late 1990s, Linklater kicked off the 21st century with a pair of 2001 films, including this unusual animated feature when became the director's best-reviewed film to date upon its release. Originally filmed using live actors and then converted to animation using a rotoscoping process (which Linklater would later use again for A Scanner Darkly), Waking Life is an episodic, dreamlike exploration of reality and existentialism with star Wiley Wiggins joined by an ensemble that includes Linklater regulars like Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy, plus Linklater himself and fellow director Steven Soderbergh.
“So verbally dexterous and visually innovative that you can't absorb it unless you have all your wits about you. And even then, you may want to see it again to enjoy its subtle humor and warm humanity.” —Stephen Holden, The New York Times
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