Review: Made to inspire young artists to break the rules, the fizzy 'Nouvelle Vague' shows how it's done

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Creative waves are powerful and short. They knock people sideways before receding into the ocean of imagination that’s existed since the first caveman looked up at the stars and said, “Funny story about those.” Richard Linklater surfed one himself when his breakout feature, 1991’s “Slacker,” swept him into the Sundance indie movement, a surge of scrappy talent inspired by ’60s and ’70s New Hollywood, which was itself triggered by earlier French New Wave filmmakers like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut . No wave lasted on its own, but each energized the next group to get their feet wet.

As a young cineaste, Linklater once said he loved “anything by Godard.” It’s hard to im