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The Best Richard Linklater Movies Ranked And Where to Watch them
If you're looking for the best Richard Linklater movies of all time then here is a definitive list. We rank every movie directed by Richard Linklater based on their popularity score from IMDB from best to worst. Click on the ‘see more’ button to find out where to watch them in Australia covering all streaming services. In May 2025 there are 19 films in this list.
List of the Best Movies Directed by Richard Linklater In Order of Popularity
- Before Sunset
- Before Sunrise
- Boyhood
- Before Midnight
- Waking Life
- Dazed and Confused
- Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
- School of Rock
- A Scanner Darkly
- Everybody Wants Some!!
- Last Flag Flying
- Bernie
- Me and Orson Welles
- SubUrbia
- Where'd You Go, Bernadette
- The Newton Boys
- Bad News Bears
- Tape
- Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
Stream the top 19 Movies directed by Richard Linklater
Rated: R
8.1/10
Nine years later, Jesse travels across Europe giving readings from a book he wrote about the night he spent in Vienna with Celine. After his reading in Paris, Celine finds him, and they spend part of the day together before Jesse has to again leave for a flight. They are both in relationships now, and Jesse has a son, but as their strong feelings for each other start to return, both confess a longing for more.
Rated: R
8.1/10
On his way to Vienna, American Jesse meets Céline, a student returning to Paris. After long conversations forge a surprising connection between them, Jesse convinces Celine to get off the train with him in Vienna. Since his flight to the U.S. departs the next morning and he has no money for lodging, they wander the city together, taking in the experiences of Vienna and each other.
Rated: R
7.9/10
The film tells a story of a divorced couple trying to raise their young son. The story follows the boy for twelve years, from first grade at age 6 through 12th grade at age 17-18, and examines his relationship with his parents as he grows.
Rated: R
7.9/10
It has been nine years since we last met Jesse and Celine, the French-American couple who once met on a train in Vienna. Now, live in Paris with twin daughters, but have spent a summer in Greece on the invitation of an author colleague of Jesse's. When the vacation is over and Jesse must send his teenage son off to the States, he begins to question his life decisions, and his relationship with Celine is at risk.
Rated: R
7.7/10
Waking Life is about a young man in a persistent lucid dream-like state. The film follows its protagonist as he initially observes and later participates in philosophical discussions that weave together issues like reality, free will, our relationships with others, and the meaning of life.
Rated: R
7.6/10
The adventures of a group of Texas teens on their last day of school in 1976, centering on student Randall Floyd, who moves easily among stoners, jocks and geeks. Floyd is a star athlete, but he also likes smoking weed, which presents a conundrum when his football coach demands he sign a "no drugs" pledge.
7. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
Rated: M
7.2/10
A man narrates stories of his life as a 10-year-old boy in 1969 Houston, weaving tales of nostalgia with a fantastical account of a journey to the moon.
Rated: PG-13
7.2/10
Fired from his band and hard up for cash, guitarist and vocalist Dewey Finn finagles his way into a job as a fifth-grade substitute teacher at a private school, where he secretly begins teaching his students the finer points of rock 'n' roll. The school's hard-nosed principal is rightly suspicious of Finn's activities. But Finn's roommate remains in the dark about what he's doing.
Rated: R
7/10
An undercover cop in a not-too-distant future becomes involved with a dangerous new drug and begins to lose his own identity as a result.
Rated: R
6.9/10
A comedy that follows a group of friends as they navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.
Rated: R
6.9/10
Thirty years after serving together in the Vietnam War, Larry "Doc" Shepherd, Sal Nealon and the Rev. Richard Mueller reunite for a different type of mission: to bury Doc's son, a young Marine killed in Iraq. Forgoing burial at Arlington National Cemetery, Doc and his old buddies take the casket on a bittersweet trip up the coast to New Hampshire. Along the way, the three men find themselves reminiscing and coming to terms with the shared memories of a war that continues to shape their lives.
Rated: PG-13
6.8/10
In small-town Texas, affable and popular mortician Bernie Tiede strikes up a friendship with Marjorie Nugent, a wealthy widow well known for her sour attitude. When she becomes controlling and abusive, Bernie goes to great lengths to remove himself from her grasp.
Rated: PG-13
6.7/10
New York, 1937. A teenager hired to star in Orson Welles' production of Julius Caesar becomes attracted to a career-driven production assistant.
Rated: R
6.7/10
A group of suburban teenagers try to support each other through the difficult task of becoming adults.
15. Where'd You Go, Bernadette
Rated: PG-13
6.5/10
When architect-turned-recluse Bernadette Fox goes missing prior to a family trip to Antarctica, her 15-year-old daughter Bee goes on a quest with Bernadette's husband to find her.
Rated: PG-13
6.1/10
Four Newton brothers are a poor farmer family in the 1920s. The oldest of them, Willis, one day realizes that there's no future in the fields and offers his brothers to become a bank robbers. Soon the family agrees. They become very famous robbers, and five years later execute the greatest train robbery in American history.
Rated: PG-13
5.8/10
Morris Buttermaker is a burned-out minor league baseball player who loves to drink and can't keep his hands to himself. His long-suffering lawyer arranges for him to manage a local Little League team, and Buttermaker soon finds himself the head of a rag-tag group of misfit players. Through unconventional team-building exercises and his offbeat coaching style, Buttermaker helps his hapless Bears prepare to meet their rivals, the Yankees.
Rated: R
/10
Three old high school friends meet in a Michigan motel room to dissect painful memories from their past.
19. Apollo 10½: A Space Age Childhood
Rated: PG-13
/10
The story of the first moon landing in the summer of 1969 from two interwoven perspectives. It both captures the astronaut and mission control view of the triumphant moment, and the lesser-seen bottom up perspective of what it was like from an excited kid's perspective, living near NASA but mostly watching it on TV like hundreds of millions of others. It's ultimately both an exacting re-creation of this special moment in history and a kid's fantasy about being plucked from his average life in suburbia to secretly train for a covert mission to the moon.