Published: April 05, 2023
With its numerous music venues, great restaurants and scenic outdoor attractions, there is no shortage of fun things to do in Austin. If you’re a film buff, however, there are even more things to see: Austin has appeared in a number of popular films, and you can still see some of the locations where scenes were shot.
flickr / CC BY ND/SEWinds
This Oscar-winning 2014 film directed by Richard Linklater and starring Ellar Coltrane, Patricia Arquette and Ethan Hawke is known as a groundbreaker. The story of a boy’s life from early childhood to college was filmed over 12 years with the same cast. Locations all around Austin appear in the film, including Bedichek Middle School (6800 Bill Hughes Rd.), Bookpeople (603 N. Lamar Blvd.), Café Josie (1200 W. 6th St.), The Continental Club (1315 S. Congress Ave.), Dart Bowl (5700 Grover Ave.) and Magnolia Café South (1920 S. Congress Ave.) as well as Pedernales Falls State Park (2585 Park Rd 6026 in nearby Johnson City).
AAA/Laurie Sterbens
Jon Favreau plays an acclaimed but frustrated chef who quits his job and sets out on a food truck journey across the country to reclaim his creative passion in the 2014 film “Chef,” directed by Favreau and also starring John Leguizamo, Sofia Vergara, Scarlett Johannsen, Dustin Hoffman and Robert Downey Jr. Guero’s Taco Bar (1412 S. Congress Ave.) appears as a tour stop in the film. The building still touts its former identity as Central Feed and Seed, but it’s now a Tex-Mex institution, popular with locals and tourists alike.
AAA/Laurie Sterbens
“Boyhood” director Linklater also was at the helm of “Dazed and Confused,” the 1993 film that gave us Matthew McConaughey’s “All right, all right, all right.” Starring Jason London, Wiley Wiggins and McConaughey, along with Ben Affleck, Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg and Parker Posey, the film follows a group of Texas junior high and high school students on the last day of school in May 1976. Belichek Middle School (6800 Bill Hughes Rd.) also makes an appearance in this film, along with Burger Stadium (3200 Jones Rd.), The Moontower Saloon (10212 Manchaca Rd.), Top Notch Hamburgers (7525 Burnet Rd.) and West Enfield Park (2008 Enfield Rd.). The Violet Crown Shopping Center, now home of Styles Switch BBQ & Brews (6610 N Lamar Blvd.), served as the exterior of the film’s pool hall, while interior scenes were filmed at the Poodle Dog Lounge, now the Aristocrat Lounge (6507 Burnet Rd.).
In “Idiocracy,” a 2006 film directed by Mike Judge, Luke Wilson plays Joe Collins, an army officer recruited to take part in a Pentagon experiment in which humans are put into hibernation until they are needed most. A scandal ends the project, but Joe is left in hibernation for 500 years, only to wake up to find a society so dumbed-down that he’s the most intelligent person alive. Maya Rudolph and Dax Shepard also star. Austin locations appearing in the film include the Seaholm Power Plant ( 800 W. Cesar Chavez St.), the Travis County Expo Center (7311 Decker Ln.) and a tattoo shop on East Cesar Chavez Boulevard.
Courtesy of Bass Concert Hall
Former Austinite Sandra Bullock stars as an FBI agent who goes undercover as a beauty pageant contestant in the 2000 film “Miss Congeniality,” directed by Donald Petrie and starring Bullock, Michael Caine and Benjamin Bratt. Bass Concert Hall (2350 Robert Dedman Dr.) and the Omni Hotel Southpark (4140 Governors Row) appear in the film.
AAA/Laurie Sterbens
Three friends hatch a plan to rebel against their greedy boss in the 1999 comedy “Office Space,” directed by Mike Judge and starring Ron Livingston, Jennifer Aniston and Gary Cole. Bill Lumburgh’s shiny blue Porsche is long gone from its space in front of the entrance to Initech, but you can still see the building used for the exterior scenes at 4120 Friedrich Ln. Baker Street Pub & Grill, (3003 S. Lamar Blvd.) was the setting for both Flingers and Chotchkie’s restaurants. The apartment complex where Peter Gibbons lived, “Morningwood Apartments” in the film, is now The Trails at Walnut Creek (11511 Metric Blvd.).
Ethan Coen and Joel Coen’s 2010 “True Grit” stars Jeff Bridges, Matt Damon, Josh Brolin and Hailee Steinfeld in a remake of the story of a headstrong teenage girl who enlists a tough old U.S. marshal to find her father’s killer. The movie was filmed on locations throughout New Mexico and Texas. The Austin Club (110 E. 9th St.) appears as an early 1900s Memphis street.
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