Richard Linklater, the Oscar-nominated director behind such hits as “Dazed and Confused” and “School of Rock,” as well as the Generation X touchstone “Slacker,” just stepped into the heated battle for the Texas Senate seat with a 30-second haymaker aimed squarely at Ted Cruz.

“ ‘If somebody called my wife a dog, and said my daddy was in on the Kennedy assassination, I wouldn’t be kissin’ their ass.’ ”

That’s the tough-talking Texan whom Linklater gave voice to in the ad, which roasts Cruz as a coward for taking abuse from Trump during the campaign back in 2016 with pointed tweets like this: