Everybody Wants Some!!

Dir: Richard Linklater

2016

*****

I remember back in the mid-nineties, when cinema quality took a significant nose dive, people suggested Richard Linklater should make a sequel to his cult hit Dazed and Confused. I thought it was a good idea too, I wanted to see what the characters were up to now a few years had passed, but as I grew up and watched more films, I have to say I'm glad Linklater had the integrity to avoid making a follow up at all costs. Saying that, it probably would have been great, given that the unexpected Before Sunset (sequel to Before Sunrise) was such a beautiful film. I digress. For all intents and purposes, it could have been said that Linklater had made the ultimate alternative (true to life) college/high-school film in 1993 (it certainly hasn't been beaten since then in my opinion, although I did like Accepted), he could have left it there, but being a director who has always been full of surprises, he finally decided to make the 'spiritual sequel' to Dazed and Confused twenty-three years later. Where Dazed was set during the year before college, 2016's Everybody Wants Some!! is set in the first four days of college. It had to be good, and I'm happy to say it is. A lot happens at college, I didn't attend on a Baseball sponsorship though, far from it, I studied the arts in a bleak little town in Northern England. The first four days however, were an unforgettable haze of excess indulgence and pure hedonism. I was scared and excited but most importantly, I was free. Nothing really mattered, it was just a mix of meeting new people (who would become life-long friends), drinking and lots of other things I'm sure I can't remember. I'd give almost anything to get to do it all over again. Everybody Wants Some!! captured that small moment in time perfectly. Like I said, a totally different college/country/time but the essence was very much the same. I started at college a good sixteen years after the film is set but certain aspects of college life never change (I hope). The characters are spot on, I recognized most of them from my college years and I'm still friends with the dopey one, the unpredictable one and the talker. It's clearly a nostalgic indulgence Linklater had to revisit, rather than a cheap would-be sequel. Much like his best films, the script is short and sweet, not much is made of anything and college is a time of discovery and fun, rather than the usual fraternity rubbish seen in most modern equivalents. Linklater has reclaimed the genre once more, anyone else thinking about making a college film soon might want to reconsider. Everybody Wants Some!! is the ultimate feel-good film, consistently fun and quite possibly the best comedy of 2016.