Richard Linklater: The Newton Boys (1998)

Matthew McConaughey, Ethan Hawke and Vincent D'Onofrio sleepwalk through your pretty traditional straight down the line Western that came out in the late 90s, long past the point there was still a market for these kinds of films. Here are two people with very limited knowledge of Westerns trying to parse why a major studio thought this was a good idea and additionally why on Earth they thought Richard Linklater was a good choice to direct it.  

 

The characters are unlikeable and bland, the story is supposedly true and all the more uninteresting because of it, and the rest is pretty competent I guess? If nothing more. Somehow even less plot seems to happen over the course of a two hour film spanning five years than in any of his previous films which took place over one day. Still, at least Linklater got his check and the next one looks like his classic blend of pretention and surface-level philosophy.

 

Next: Waking Life (2001)