Remember, kids: Through the palate and into the brain. And tell the police you learned it from former hitman (and acclaimed director of Slacker and Boyhood) Richard Linklater.

The first time I saw Richard Linklater's Boyhood, it won me over within 30 minutes of its almost three-hour duration—around the time that Ethan Hawke shows up and gently subverts the deadbeat-dad role we've been set up to expect from him. His kids—the film's protagonist, Mason (Ellar Coltrane), and his sister…

Bernie Tiede, a Texas mortician sentenced to life for his 1996 murder of a wealthy widow, was the inspiration for the 2012 film Bernie. On Tuesday, a judge freed Tiede on bond, and it now appears he's going to move in with director Richard Linklater, who turned his story into a dark comedy.

Owen Wilson, Woody Allen and Carla Bruni make a movie. Ben Affleck does a movie too—about wife-swapping. Steven Segal is back. Zac Efron is rich. Our last significant digit must be five or greater, because we're rounding up.

It's never been a good time not to be a guy in Hollywood, but if there were a bad time, it would be the moment when Sony pops the champagne cork on its grosses for 2012 and Terminator: Salvation.

Hilary Swank turns 35 today. Restaurateur Keith McNally is turning 58. Lisa Kudrow is 46. The former bodybuilder and actor who is now the Governor of California is 62. Director Peter Bogdanovich is turning 70. Bud Selig, the commissioner of Major League Baseball, is 75. Director Richard Linklater is turning 49.…

Lots of writers all over Hollywood get deals. There are remakes and reimaginings, adaptations and homages. And there is love.

The first full day at Sundance is eerily quiet in streets and screening rooms alike, but that's not keeping the snap judgments and quasi-news from cascading in from the Park City press corps:

This Calls For a Long Lunch: Richard Linklater's rambling 1990 masterpiece Slacker is now available for viewing on Hulu, with an accompanying introduction by Kevin Smith at the site's blog. It's worth watching for Madonna's pap smear alone, so get on it, and trust us: If your boss doesn't understand, s/he isn't worth…

School Reunion: We're learning more today about the tearduct-tweaking, franchise-ready School of Rock "reboot" that Mike White teased us with at the LA Film Festival; Variety has word about School of Rock 2: America Rocks, which Scott Rudin will produce and to which Paramount has attached Jack Black and director…