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Alright, alright, alriiiight. It’s been 23 years since ‘Dazed and Confused’, and in that time Richard Linklater has given us over a dozen glimpses of genius, including ‘Boyhood’. Now he’s returned to his seminal 1993 feature to create its spiritual sequel, ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’.
It’s autumn 1980, and three days until college starts. Freshman Jake (Blake Jenner) arrives at his new home, which houses the college baseball team and his fellow teammates. Jake learns quickly that, despite leaving high school a top dog, he’s now a small fish with a lot to learn, and even among his teammates he’s not favoured. So it’s the last remaining hours before school starts, there’s new people to meet, parties to be attending, clubs to be rocked and lucky ladies to be courted.
I may be biased here, but there’s not a film Linklater has made that has not fed my heart and mind on epic levels. Once again, Richard has assembled a cast of (soon-to-be-known) actors, mirroring their on-screen characters - on the verge of something big. A Linklater staple is placing his characters in a very transitional period of their lives and seeing how they react. He also has this uncanny ability to really commit to his chosen time period in terms of the look, colouring and vernacular, not lazily relying on costumes and hair. There isn’t a frame of ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ that you don’t believe was written and filmed in 1980.
There’s not a film Linklater has made that has not fed my heart and mind on epic levels.
The cast are magnificent. Without a single household name leading the cast (except maybe Jenner thanks to loyal ‘Glee’ fans) there’s not an ego to be seen. Everyone on screen comes into the picture on equal footing, allowing the script to do the talking and their backstories to nut out the hierarchy. It’s truly a beautiful thing to behold. Being set in such a short period of time with nothing but time moving the film forward, it almost plays out like voyeuristic documentary. Such is Linklater’s talent - to immerse his characters and therefore his audience so thoroughly that his films are not just watched, they’re experienced.
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