Movie Review: 'Everybody Wants Some!!'

Writer/director Richard Linklater describes his latest film as the spiritual sequel to his high school comedy 'Dazed and Confused.' This one is called 'Everybody Wants Some!!' and it is set at a Texas university in 1980. NY1’s Neil Rosen filed the following review.

Writer/director Richard Linklater, who recently gave us the movie "Boyhood," describes his latest film as the spiritual sequel to his high school comedy "Dazed and Confused." This one is called "Everybody Wants Some!!"It is 1980 and Jake, played by Blake Jenner, is a college freshman who arrives at a Texas university on a baseball scholarship. He was a star pitcher in high school, but here, everyone was a star on his high school team, and Jake has to adjust to the fact that he is no longer the big man on campus.

He is living in a house with his other teammates, and for three days before classes start, it is a wild time of partying with drugs, alcohol and most importantly to these guys, picking up girls.

Linklater, who based this movie partially on his own college experience, captures the period perfectly. It is early 1980's debauchery and the colorful characters that populate this film are funny and real.

There is not a lot of plot here, but that has never been Linklater's main concern. It is the atmosphere that is the main event here, and it is right on the money. The 80's soundtrack is also spot on and a joy to listen to. Even the stereo equipment with the requisite Marantz receiver is accurate.

The cast of largely unknowns is extremely talented and good looking. And you wonder, like "Dazed and Confused," which launched Matthew McConaughey, how many of these actors are going to be future stars.

If you look past the laughs, partying and hijinks, you will see that Linklater is going for something more; a philosophy of being in the present and not trying too hard to figure out your entire life when you are only 18.

It is a brief period in life that you might not fully appreciate while you are there, reminding me of the expression that "youth is wasted on the young." But these kids seem to be having the time of their lives.

Looking back at this time from an adult perspective, from the vintage video games, disco dances and punk clubs, to the realistic clothes and haircuts, it was familiar, nostalgic and fun.