Nobody got anywhere by slacking. Except director Richard Linklater, obviously.

"Kind of in spite of itself it became this sort of, you know... I mean, people said, 'oh this means something,' or, 'this must be indicative of a generation,' or some bullshit like that but, you know, whatever."

Director Richard Linklater is talking about Slacker, his no-budget 1990 portrait of the dropout culture in Austin, Texas. It's the kind of reaction you might expect: "I was amazed the film even got a distributor. It didn't have a story, it didn't have any stars and it didn't have any action..."

Twelve years on, things are different. Nowadays he does have a story, and he even has stars, although the action is still a little thin on the ground. Particularly in his new movie Tape (out on July 12th) which features Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Robert Sean Leonard arguing in a motel room for 86 minutes.

Hawke has appeared in five of Linklater's eight films, including Before Sunrise and the recent Waking Life. It's getting to be a habit. Is he an alter ego? He laughs and avoids the question. "Well, Ethan actually sent me the play that Tape is based on. It hadn't really been performed before, he'd just read it at this theatre workshop. I thought, well this isn't really a 'film' film but maybe it'll work."

An 'animated' Ethan Hawk in Waking Life and Robert Sean Leonard in Tape.

And it does, thanks to the tense performances and the stalking camera that give Stephen Belber's 'play' play the extra edge it needs. Linklater shot Tape in six days, and "on a real budget" (read 'on digital video'). "We rehearsed the hell out of it before though. It was an old idea of mine to have something so well planned, then to shoot it very spontaneously."

Very different from, say, Waking Life where animation was painstakingly added on top of the film. "I've always been a real restless kind of person. I'm always in new territory." There's a pause. "But we should celebrate the differences and not the similarities. I'm a filmmaker. Maybe I don't have the right to go be a surgeon, but as a filmmaker I should have the right to make any film I'm interested in."

Tape - two of Hollywood's best actors and Robert Sean Leonard, bless him.

"Tape is very much 'real' time, 'real' place, you know. I mean, you're right there in a crumby room in Lancing, Michigan." Indeed you are, but don't let him put you off. Two of Hollywood's best actors are in there with you, and Robert Sean Leonard, bless him.

"It's about memory and how these people have reacted to this big thing that happened ten years ago." Speaking of big things that happened ten years ago, what does he think of Slacker now? "We had a cast reunion last summer," he says.

So did anyone turn up, given the film they featured in? "Most of them showed up. But if you haven't seen somebody for a while, you figure they're watching TV and vegging." He sighs. "I tend to kind of write people off and judge them kinda harshly in the abstract, but it was a very life-affirming experience..." JC 17 June 02

collective preview: tape