Review of Everybody Wants Some!! (2016) by Mark H — 08 Apr 2017

Ah, to be young and good looking, and really young and really good looking. Who said that? Richard Linklater has a near monopoly on the nostalgia of being young. He captured it perfectly in his 1976-era, end of high-school day-in-the-life movie, Dazed and Confused.

D and C is not really a cult classic, it's more of a mainstream classic. People loved that movie, especially anyone who was a child or young person in the 1970's. I was 2 in 1976, but I feel like I can TRUST that it felt like Linklater tells us it felt like.

He is so comfortable with natural dialogue and finding funny and touching moments in seemingly unimportant scenes. Both of these movies consist of a mishmash of scenes that feel improvised, though I believe Linklater is more deliberate than that.

His perception and grasp of what it feels like to experience freedom and independence at the age of 16-22 is astounding. He brings that feeling to the screen and for 2 hours we FEEL like we are back in college for the first semester, with all the excitement and possibility and adventure that holds.

I remember that feeling, and I miss it. D and C was better in that it was a bit more meaty, and felt more substantive than Everybody Wants Some!! But this is a fine film too, and who knows, if this movie came first, perhaps this would be the favorite son, and not the other way around.

I doubt it, but either way, this is a very good attempt at recapturing that same feeling, by simply turning the calendar pages ahead 4 years to another memorable period in time. I hope he's not done.

..