Richard Linklater

On the evening of March 31, 1943, legendary lyricist Lorenz Hart confronts his shattered self-confidence in Sardis bar as his former collaborator Richard Rodgers celebrates the opening night of his ground-breaking hit musical "Oklahoma!".

The film starts with Bernadette Fox (Cate Blanchett) rowing a canoe through Antarctica while we hear the voice of her daughter Bee (Emma Nelson) musing about how life appears to some people, and how her dad failed to notice the way his wife was feeling about her own life. Bernadette lives with her husband Elgin Branch (Billy Crudup) and Bee. Bee surprises the family with tickets for a trip to Antarctica, which does not appeal to either of them. Bernadette is a stay-at-home mom while Elgin is a developer for Microsoft, and he has created a gadget called Samantha 2 that can send messages through thought control. She doesn't get along with other moms, but especially her neighbor Audrey Griffin (Kristen Wiig). As Bernadette passes Audrey's house, she asks Bernadette to get rid of the blackberry bushes outside her house to convenience Audrey. Bernadette also sends emails to a personal assistant from India named Manjula to help with some tasks, while Manjula sends Bernadette things when she asks. At Bee's school, Audrey is waiting with fellow mom Soo-Lin Lee-Segal (Zoe Chao), who has recently started working for Elgin. They see Bernadette pick Bee up, and Audrey goes to try and give her a paper. Bernadette punches it at Audrey gets closer, and Audrey falls, pretending that Bernadette ran over her foot. Bernadette is approached by an eager young woman who recognizes her from a video. She asks Bernadette for a photo, but she silently rejects her. Bernadette goes to look up the video, which is a document of her work as an architect. She was well-regarded in her field due to being the only woman in a predominantly male environment. She was also responsible for building a uniquely structured house, which was later demolished by the person who bought it. Afterwards, Bernadette left architecture and settled down with Elgin. Elgin and Bernadette have lunch together. She expresses her feelings about being around the other moms, and also expresses concern about Soo-Lin working for Elgin, though he tries to assure her that she is worried about nothing. Audrey is hosting a brunch with other parents and their kids on a rainy day. With the blackberry bushes removed, it gives way to a mudslide that breaks through Audrey's living room and floods the place with mud. She catches Bernadette coming home with Bee and starts to chastise her for the incident. She starts to go off on Bernadette about how none of the other moms like her, which doesn't bother her until Audrey mentions that the other moms had a sleepover with their daughters and didn't invite her or Bee. She orders Audrey to leave Bee out of it, though Audrey insists that they love Bee, but think Bernadette isn't a good mom. Bee defends her mom and tells Audrey "fuck you" along with Bernadette, while also informing her that her son makes fun of her at school and comes home stoned. Elgin meets with a therapist, Dr. Kurtz (Judy Greer) after he starts to grow concerned over Bernadette's behavior. At the same time, Bernadette meets with her old professor, Paul Jellenik (Laurence Fishburne). Through their conversations, we learn that she had several miscarriages before having Bee, and she got worried when Bee was born because her heart wasn't properly developed. Bernadette also expresses regrets with not continuing her architecture work. Bernadette goes home to find Elgin, Dr. Kurtz, and an FBI agent gathered for an intervention. They inform her that "Manjula" is the handle of a Russian hacker who has obtained Bernadette's personal information and are planning to defraud her and Elgin. Thinking her unwell, they try to commit Bernadette to an institution. Bernadette retreats to the bathroom before escaping out the window. Everyone finds out too late. She runs to Audrey's house for help, and they bury the hatchet so that Audrey can help Bernadette get away. When Audrey sees Bee again, she informs her that she took her mother to the airport, which Bee figures must mean that she went off to Antarctica on her own. Despite learning from the agent that "Manjula" has been apprehended at the airport, Elgin and Bee head off to Antarctica to find Bernadette. Meanwhile, she joins a group of people working in a research station, and she befriends a woman named Becky (Troian Bellisario). Bernadette asks the head of the station if she can join the team to work on it. Although the woman appears hesitant to let her join, she agrees after Bernadette makes a compelling argument regarding her past work. As the two continue their search, Elgin and Bee stop for a while. Elgin informs Bee that Samantha 2 is no more due to the changes that his employers want to make to it. Eventually, the two wander into the station and overhear Bernadette talking on the phone over the station project. They come out of hiding to approach Bernadette, who is surprised to see the two of them there. They support her desire to follow her dream and go ahead with working on the station. The film ends with the family watching the sunrise on the ice. The end credits show the construction of the station based on Bernadette's plans.

The unfortunate demise of Ngozi's father places the family burden on her.

Filmed over 12 years, Boyhood charts the rocky terrain of childhood, snapshots of adolescence, from trips and family dinners to birthdays, graduations and everything in between.

The United States has lost the war on drugs. Substance D, a powerful drug that causes bizarre hallucinations, has swept the country. Approximately 20% of the total population is addicted. In response, the government has developed an invasive, high-tech surveillance system and a network of undercover officers and informants. Substance D is manufactured from components of a blue flower that can be grown in select climates. New-path is the only company that help addicts overcome this devastating addiction. Bob Arctor (Keanu Reeves) is one of these undercover agents, assigned to immerse himself in the drug's underworld and infiltrate up the supply chain. Arctor has a vision of being in his house with a wife and two children in Anaheim, California (he remembers a sense of dread as he feels trapped in his family and thinks that nothing new could happen with his life); today he has two drug-addicted, lay about housemates: Luckman (Woody Harrelson) and Barris (Robert Downey Jr.). The three spend time taking D and having complex, possibly paranoiac examinations of their experiences. At the police station, Arctor maintains privacy by wearing a "scramble suit" that constantly changes every aspect of his appearance and voice (making the wearer undetectable by any facial or voice recognition systems); he is known only by the code name "Fred." Arctor's senior officer, "Hank" (Winona Ryder), and all other undercover officers, also wear scramble suits, protecting their identities even from each other. Since going undercover, Arctor himself has become addicted to Substance D, and buys from Donna, who Arctor hopes to purchase large enough quantities of D from so that she is forced to introduce him to her own supplier. They have a tense, at times caring romantic relationship, but she rebuffs his physical advances. Charles Freck (Rory Cochrane) is Barris's friend and hangs out with the gang. Barris wants Freck to register into rehab with New-Path, but Freck has heard stories of sexual abuse at that place. At work, Hank orders "Fred" to increase surveillance on Arctor himself and his associates. Arctor's house is now at the center of his own investigation (with the police secretly installing cameras all over the house and live feed going back to the station), since this is where Donna and the other addicts spend time. Arctor is inexpertly negotiating a double life, and his prolonged use of D is damaging his brain (as determined by a series of cognitive tests administered by Medical Deputy 2 (Chamblee Ferguson) & Medical Deputy 1 (Angela Rawna)). Barris is informing on Arctor to Hank, arguing that Arctor is a terrorist, and angling to be hired as a cop himself. However, Barris unknowingly conveys this information in the presence of Arctor himself, whose identity at the time is hidden behind his scramble suit. Looking at the surveillance tapes of his own home, Arctor sees that Luckman falls down due to the side effects of drugs. but Barris does not help Luckman even though he sees him falling down. Freck commits suicide when the hallucinations drive him towards insanity. Fred/Arctor undergoes additional tests and it is clear that his condition is getting worse by the day. The doctors confirm that substance D has caused damage to the left hemisphere of Arctor's brain. Arctor can't figure out why the police would be interested in him, and suspects that something big is going down. Hank reveals to "Fred" that he has long known that he is Arctor. Arctor seems legitimately surprised, and repeats his own name in a disoriented, unfamiliar tone. Hank informs him that the real purpose of the surveillance was to catch Barris, and that the police were deliberately increasing Barris's paranoia until he attempted to cover his tracks. Hank reprimands Arctor for becoming addicted to Substance D and warns him that he will be disciplined with a financial fine. Hank explains how seriously brain damaged Arctor has become from D, and Hank "phones" Donna, asking her to come pick up Arctor and take him to New-Path, a corporation that runs a series of rehabilitation clinics. Hank immediately leaves, and in private removes his scramble suit, revealing Donna. At the New-Path clinic, Arctor and other D addicts show serious cognitive deficiencies. "Donna", now known as Audrey, meets with Mike (Dameon Clarke), a fellow police officer. They discuss how New-Path is secretly responsible for the manufacture and distribution of Substance D. Audrey expresses her growing ethical aversion to their police work, in which they deliberately recruited Arctor - without his knowledge - to become addicted to D; his health sacrificed so that he might eventually enter a New-Path rehabilitation center unnoticed as a genuine addict, and collect incriminating evidence of New-Path's D farms. Audrey and Mike debate whether Arctor's mind will recover enough to grasp the situation. New-Path sends Arctor to a labor camp at an isolated farm, where he mindlessly repeats what others tells him. Tending to corn crops, Arctor discovers hidden rows of the blue flowers that produce D. He secretly hides one flower in his boot, to bring to his friends at his next holiday from the farm.

A grizzled little league coach tries to turn his team of misfits into champs. To scrape up some extra cash, the semi-inebriated, cigar-smoking, former minor-league pitcher and now professional exterminator, Morris Buttermaker, agrees to coach the inept little-league baseball team of young misfits, the Bears. Against the backdrop of a tough championship and an intense rivalry with the impeccable Yankees, Coach Buttermaker goes as far as to recruit Amanda Whurlitzer, the twelve-year-old daughter of one of his ex-girlfriends and star pitcher, and the troubled bike-riding baseball hitter, Kelly Leak. Under those circumstances, do Morris' uncoordinated boys have what it takes to start winning? Did the maladroit Bears bite off more than they could chew? —Nick Riganas Morris Buttermaker, an alcoholic pest removal worker and former professional baseball player (for a very short time), is recruited to coach and train a failing baseball team of 12-year-olds which is about to be thrown out of the league. —Anonymous

Nine years have passed since the events of Before Sunrise, when Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Celine (Julie Delpy) had met in Vienna. Since then, Jesse has written a novel, This Time, inspired by his time with Celine, and the book has become an American bestseller. To help sales in Europe, Jesse does a book tour. The last stop of the tour is Paris, and Jesse is doing a reading at the bookstore Shakespeare and Company. It is springtime in Paris and the city is in full bloom. Jesse denies that the book is an autobiography of an actual encounter in his life. As Jesse talks with his audience, flashbacks are shown of him and Celine in Vienna. The memories of their night together have clearly remained with him despite nine years having elapsed. Three journalists are present at the bookstore, interviewing Jesse: a romantic (Louise Lemoine Torres) who is convinced the book's main characters meet again, a cynic (Rodolphe Pauly) who is convinced that they don't, and a third one who, despite wanting them to meet again, remains doubtful they actually do. Jesse says what happens next is not really important. He says that it is a good test to check if a person is a romantic, a cynic or a hopeful practical person. As he speaks with his audience his eyes wander to the side, and he can hardly believe it: Celine is smiling at him. Once the presentation is over, the bookstore manager (Vernon Dobtcheff) reminds him he has a plane to catch and must leave for the airport in a little more than an hour, and so just like in Before Sunrise, Celine and Jesse's reunion is constrained by time. Jesse and Celine are forced to make the best of the little time they have together, making it easier for their conversations to become ever more personal, beginning with the usual thirty-something's themes of work and politics and then, with ever increasing passion, approaching their love for each other, just as their time together is running out. Early in their conversation, they broach the subject of why they did not meet as promised six months after their first encounter. Celine wanted to know if Jesse showed up for the meeting, because Celine did not, because her grandmother had suddenly died before the scheduled date of the meeting. The funeral for the grandmother was held on the same day that Jesse and Celine were supposed to meet, December 16th. Because Jesse and Celine had never exchanged addresses, there was no way for them to contact each other, which resulted in their missed connection. Jesse claims that he did not come for the meeting and Celine is relieved as this question had been troubling her for 9 years. But then Celine is angry about why Jesse missed the meeting and says that she would have been there if she could. Jesse admits that he did come for the meeting. He waited in Vienna for a couple of days before leaving for US. He put up signs and posters all over the city with his number, hoping that Celine would see it and eventually get in touch with him. Jesse says that he wrote a fictional version of his novel in which Jesse and Celine did meet in Vienna, made love for 10 days straight, and then as they got to know each other better, they realized that they were very different people and parted ways amicably. Jesse says that it took him 4 years to write the book. Celine felt that her character in the book came across as a bit neurotic but admits that it might be just her own perception. Celine says that she thought Jesse would have forgotten about her. As they talk, each reveal what has happened in their lives since first meeting. Both are now in their early thirties. Jesse, now a writer, is married and has a son. Celine has become an advocate for the environment, lived in America for a time, worked on a water conservation project in India, and has a boyfriend, a photojournalist. Celine says that she studied in NYC for a few years and Jesse is distraught as he had been living in New York since Vienna. She says that she returned to Europe, after a particular incident in NYC. She heard a noise and called 911. The cops came and advised her to get a gun instead for self-protection. Celine tried to complain about the cop, but was buried in paperwork, and she had the fear of being deported, so she completed her masters degree and returned. It becomes clear in the course of their talk that both are dissatisfied to varying degrees with their lives. Jesse reveals that he only stays with his wife out of love for his son. Celine says that she does not see her boyfriend very much because he is so often on assignment. Their conversation as they traverse Paris takes place in various venues, including a cafe, a garden, a Bateau Mouche, and Jesse's hired car for his stay in Paris. Their old feelings for each other are slowly rekindled, even with tension and regret over the missed meeting earlier, as they realize that nothing else in their lives has matched their one prior night together in Vienna. Jesse eventually admits that he wrote the book in the distant hope of meeting Celine again one day. She replies that the book brought back painful memories for her. At one point, in the hired car, during a tense moment when Jesse is confessing his loveless, near sexless marriage, Celine reaches her hand out to touch Jesse but pulls back just as he turns to her. Celine and Jesse arrive at her apartment. Jesse had learned that Celine plays the guitar and persuades her to play a waltz song for him. The waltz (written by Delpy) is revealed through the lyrics to be about their brief encounter. Jesse then plays a Nina Simone CD on the stereo system. Celine dances by herself to the song "Just in Time" as Jesse watches her. As Celine imitates Simone, she playfully imitates Simone's voice and says to Jesse, "Baby ... you are going to miss that plane." As the camera slowly pans in, Jesse smiles while nervously fidgeting with his wedding ring and responds, "I know", as the film ends.

Celine and Jesse meet on the Budapest-Vienna train and find their lives forever changed. They may have only one night, but anything can happen Before Sunrise.

The story opens in May of 1976 on the last day of school at Lee High School somewhere in Texas. The junior class is looking forward to the summer season and also eager to become senior students in the Fall. Though the story doesn't have a central plot, it follows one day in the lives of several students and the trials and tribulation they go through making the transition from one grade to the next. Randall "Pink" Floyd is a quarterback for the school football team. Randall is a sort of bridge between the cool kids like his teammates and their girlfriends and the more average students whom he also hangs out with. Arriving for the last day he meets with his friend Don who reminds him they have to take a brief trip over to the junior high school to torment the 8th graders who will move up to their freshman year. A longstanding tradition has the newly-minted seniors chasing and torturing the new freshmen boys with paddles they've made themselves in wood shop. Don also hands Pink a slip of paper from their coach that every player is now required to sign: the document declares that no team player will do any drugs or drink alcohol. Though his teammates have signed with the intention of ignoring the new pledge anyway, Pink refuses, believing it to be another oppressive form of control. Pink is also harassed by his coach because he hangs out with friends who belong to the school's stoner crowd. Pink, Don, Benny and Melvin all pile into Benny's pickup and drive to the junior high. Also joining them is O'Bannion, a senior who flunked out and is returning. Benny announces to the students in the junior high over his CB radio that they'll be gunning for all the new freshmen. If the kids voluntarily give themselves up right after school, they'll only be paddled a single time. If they run, then it's open season all summer. Right before they left, Jodi, older sister to Mitch, had asked the guys to go easy on Mitch, which Benny immediately dismisses. Mitch is directly named by Benny and his friends tell him to take off in a different direction to take the heat off themselves. As school finishes up, Mitch asks his teacher, on behalf of his friends Carl, Tommy and Hirschfelder, if he'll let them go early to avoid the seniors gunning for them. Their teacher gives them a speech telling them to man up because he had to while a soldier in Vietnam. When the boys try to sneak out, they bolt for the car that Hirschfelder has procured for them from his brother and race off with Benny and O'Bannion in hot pursuit. Carl and Mitch are dropped off at Carl's parents' house. O'Bannion grabs them both and is about to paddle them when Carl's mother bursts out the front door pointing a shotgun. O'Bannion retreats, yelling he'll get them later. The freshmen girls also receive their own vicious hazing from the senior women. They're forced to put infant pacifiers in their mouths, conduct air raid drills (they have to fall on the ground quickly or be forced to repeat the action), are covered in ketchup, mustard and flour and ask the senior men present humiliating questions. They're later taken in the back of a pickup to a local car wash and go through the cleaning cycle. After they're dropped off at home, one of their number, Sabrina, is asked by Jodi to come hang out with them that night. Sabrina agrees. At Kevin Pickford's house, his girlfriend Michelle, Pink and their friend Slater hang out and smoke weed. Pickford's parents suddenly inform him that a guy delivering kegs of beer is out in front of the house. Pickford had been planning a large keg party while his parents would be out of town on vacation. He's able to talk the delivery guy into leaving but his parents tell him their vacation is cancelled. The group will have to come up with a new plan to throw a party. That night Mitch has to pitch for his local little-league baseball team, with Benny, Melvin, O'Bannion and Pink watching and taunting him from the stands. Stalling on the mound doesn't work very well and Mitch throws his final strike to give his team the game. As he walks out the gate in right field, the guys are waiting for him. He's given a vicious beating while bent over the hood of a car. Pink happens by and makes like he'll get his licks in but he spares Mitch, even offering him a ride home. He relates his own story from three years ago when he got the same treatment. However, he invites Mitch to hang out with him that night, advising him that if he shows up it'll show the seniors that the beating really doesn't bother him that much. Pink also tells him to sit on some ice for a couple of hours to ease the pain. Pink arrives at Mitch's house later in a 1970 Chevy Chevelle driven by a friend, Wooderson, a former student at the school who dropped out and works for the city. They drive to their local hangout, a pool hall called The Emporium. Though most people at first seem a bit suspicious of Mitch, he's eventually accepted. He goes out on a run with Pink, Don in their friend Pickford's 1970 Pontiac GTO. Cruising at high speed, they destroy a few mailboxes with stolen trash cans and encourage Mitch to throw a bowling ball through the back window of a parked car. The brazen act seems to up Mitch's points with the guys. They stop at a local convenience store where Don, claiming he's out of money, will boost some beer while Mitch stands watch outside. Don actually tells Mitch he's going to pay for it but he wants to play a prank on their friends. Don rushes out and they both jump in Pickford's car. Before they can scream off, they're stopped by an angry man with a pistol. Thinking that it's the clerk from the store, Pickford tells Don to pay for the beer, but the man is furious about his mailbox being destroyed. They're able to escape and roar off with the man firing at them. When they return to the Emporium, Melvin gives Mitch some money to go out and buy him a six-pack. Mitch is able to bluff the clerk at the store and returns triumphantly with the beer. Wooderson spreads the word that there'll be a keg party at a place called the Moon Tower in a few hours. Meanwhile, Sabrina drives around with some the senior girls. They eventually bring her to the Emporium where Mitch catches up with her. She tells him that his friend Hirschfelder got caught by Don, Benny & O'Bannion and was mercilessly paddled. Mitch comes up with a plan: he gathers his friends and has them help him lure O'Bannion outside when the word is spread that Carl has been captured and awaits a paddling. O'Bannion stakes is claim and is ready to beat Carl mainly for the shotgun the boy's mother pulled on him when he's hit by paint thrown on him by Carl's friends. Humiliated, O'Bannion leaves the scene while his friends smirk, roaring out in his Duster. Some of Pink's other friends, Mike, Tony and Cynthia ride around in Cynthia's car, discussing what their futures might hold for them. Mike had wanted to be a lawyer and work for the ACLU but has second thoughts and nervously admits he'd like to be a dancer. Mike is nervous about going to Pickford's party but they all retreat when they get to the house and his father answers the door. At the Moon Tower, the party goes into full swing and everyone becomes pleasantly drunk. Benny confronts Pink about his refusal to sign the coach's loyalty agreement. Benny thinks Pink is only thinking of himself and doesn't care about the team. Pink explains that he'll play for the team but not under oppressive rules. One of the drunken senior women, Darla, tries to get Sabrina, who has been hanging out with Tony, to perform an air raid. Sabrina, having already gone through the afternoon's humiliation, is told by Tony she doesn't have to do anything Darla says. Mitch climbs the tower with some of the guys, who tell him that other freshmen have gotten drunk and fallen off the tower. Slater, an eternal stoner, pontificates on the possibility that George Washington may have grown massive fields of marijuana as a cash crop for the Southern states - in truth, Washington grew fields of hemp both for rope-making and the oil. Mike walks past a group of guys led by Clint, while he works on his Pontiac Firebird. Mike remarks that he can smell the weed their smoking and Clint takes offense. Mike is shaken by the threat and later, while he's semi-drunk, takes a cheap shot at Clint, knocking him down. Clint retaliates and pins Mike to the ground, hitting him a few times until Pink and Wooderson break it up. Mike runs off with Cynthia, who drives them to a remote spot and takes care of him. The two of them make out. Mitch leaves the party with a sophomore girl and ends up lying out on a blanket under the stars making out. When he arrives home at dawn, his mother catches him. She tells him he gets one "get out of jail free card" but will be in trouble the next time he comes home at dawn. Pink, Wooderson, Slater and Don join Simone and Shavonne at the 50 yard line of the school's football field to smoke a joint and wait out the rest of the night. While there, Don talks about how it's important to have a reputation and enjoy life before graduating. Wooderson come back from retrieving some rolling papers from Pink's car with the coach's document. Pink finalizes his refusal to sign it. Just then, a police car shines its spotlight on them and they're ordered to get off the field. Pinks coach shows up at dawn and admonishes Pink for not signing the document and for hanging out with the stoner crowd. Pink stands up to his coach and tells him he'll play for the team but won't sign the paper. The coach leaves in a huff. The gang go with Wooderson to Houston to buy tickets for the big Aerosmith concert that's coming up. They drive down the highway while "Slow Ride" by Foghat plays.