Watch: Unaired HBO Pilot '$5.15' Directed By Richard Linklater

It’s a pretty good time to be Richard Linklater. In spite of the odd post-Oscar backlash haters who greeted the admittedly hyperbolic praise of his intimate epic “Boyhood” with vitriolic jeers, the picture has done quite well and will, I suspect, endure over time. Then there’s “Everybody Wants Some”, his upcoming baseball film that’s supposed to be a “spiritual sequel” to his high school saga “Dazed and Confused”, and is sure to be something special. For those of you in need of a Linklater fix, however, we have something interesting for you today.

“$5.15”, a bare-bones comedy pilot from the director that was produced back in 2004 but was ultimately passed over by HBO, has recently found its way online. It’s a warm, well-observed, very funny bit of small-scale storytelling that boasts many of the independent titan’s favored motifs, themes and obsessions. The title “$5.15” refers to the minimum wage afforded to the strange employees of Grammaw’s Home Cookin’, a fictional family...