Updated 3/15/16: Here’s the new, extended movie trailer for ‘Everybody Wants Some,’ which features Van Halen throughout. Looks good!
By now, anyone who’s paying attention has probably heard that Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!! is a “spiritual sequel” to the 1993 stoner classic Dazed And Confused. But just in case: This is a movie that’s thin on plot and heavy on characters just hanging out, ingesting chemicals, and being testosterone-soaked dudes. Whereas Dazed followed one director stand-in and his friends on the last day of high school and the tail end of the ’70s, this follows one (slightly older) director-stand-in and his friends just before the college year begins in the early ’80s. Though the two autobiographical films don’t share any characters, they kind of share all of the characters, in a manner of speaking. If you’ve seen the trailer that was released back in December, this red band trailer shouldn’t appreciably change your idea of what the film will be like, but you will get more cursing and nudity.
The 55-year-old Linklater has been on a roll lately. His last two films, Before Midnight (2013), and Boyhood (2014), are among the finest of his career, and 2011’s Bernie is no slouch either, having received solid critical reception and helping to re-establish Matthew McConaughey (who got his start as iconic man-baby Wooderson in Dazed) as an American treasure. If this one is anywhere near as good as the last three—and early buzz says that it is—then the 2010s will likely become yet another era for Linklater to pine for.
Everybody Wants Some!! will arrive in theaters on April 1.
From slashfilm.com:
Few filmmakers have showcased the consistency of Richard Linklater, whose worst movies tend to be significantly more interesting than that best movies from many of his peers. Right now, he’s coming off one of the hottest streaks of his career so far – how exactly does one go about following up the one-two gut-punch of Before Midnight and Boyhood? The answer is simple: return to your roots and make another genial slacker comedy.
The Everybody Wants Some trailer showcases Linklater operating on familiar territory, but this is the kind of turf that has led to gems like Slacker and Dazed and Confused. It’s no accident that this preview name-drops the latter not once, but twice. A period piece hangout movie about a bunch of lovable schmoes going about their daily lives? Directed by Richard Linklater? Yeah, sure. We’re in.
Set in the ’80s, Everybody Wants Some follows a group of college students united by common interests: beer, girls, parties, and baseball. It’s a hard movie to sell because there doesn’t seem to be too much in the way of plot here, just a whole bunch of charming, well-observed incident and period detail.
And while Linklater has the clout to work with whatever movie stars wants at this point, he’s stacked his young ensemble almost entirely with unknowns. Could the next Matthew McConaughey lurk among Will Brittain, Zoey Deutch, Ryan Anthony Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Blake Jenner, Glen Powell and Wyatt Russell? It’s certainly possible. Linklater has built a career around finding terrific young faces and directing them to tremendous performances.
For the record, here’s the trailer for Dazed and Confused. It’s easy to see why these two movies are being tied together at the hip – their spiritual connection seems to go deeper than both of them simply being named after rock songs:
Everybody Wants Some will premiere at SXSW 2016 in Austin, Texas, which isn’t surprising at the slightest. The man is one of the city’s favorite sons and you can’t navigate the local film scene without seeing his fingerprints. Show us a Richard Linklater movie Austin won’t screen and we’ll show you an alternate universe where Richard Linklater doesn’t make consistently terrific movies.
Here’s the official synopsis:
Set in the world of 1980s college life, Everybody Wants Some is a comedy, directed and written by Richard Linklater, that follows a group of college baseball players as they navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood. Get ready for the best weekend ever.
Although it doesn’t have an official release date yet, you’ll surely have plenty of opportunities to see Everybody Wants Some sometime in 2016. You can also check out the first poster for the film below.
