By Jay Connors.
Being only 11 years old at it’s release, I didn’t see 1993’s ‘Dazed and Confused’ until several years later, after it had reached cult status. Whether I first taped it off satellite TV or bought one of the many VHS tapes with ghastly artwork that has plagued this wonderful movie’s life I can’t remember, but I do recall that it instantly became one of my all time favourites. Critics were split, some simply didn’t understand the appeal of a film that didn’t appear to contain any real plot. Taking place over a single day, the last day of school, in the late 70s it bounces around between different groups of students at different ages, concentrating on the relationships between people at that single point in time. It didn’t matter what happened the next day, whether new found love lasted or whether it was a short fling, and whether ‘Pink’ Floyd eventually did or did not play football in the fall is irrelevant. At the time it reflected a lifestyle I understood, despite it taking place 20 years prior. Never had I had such a connection with a movie and it’s characters. They felt like real people, and everyone who watched it knew where they fit in to the cliques on display. It’s a timeless classic that should resonate for many years to come.
Over two decades later, not long after the release of ‘Boyhood’, director Richard Linklater made it clear that his next film was going to be a revisit to this universe. Not necessarily sharing characters or a timeline, but something that could be a companion piece. I have dread in my bones about Ridley Scott announcing a followup to ‘Blade Runner’, but Linklater bringing me something new in the same vein as ‘Dazed and Confused’? That’s a different story – it’s a reason to be truly excited.
Now it’s finally here, and I’m truly overjoyed that it’s everything I could hope it to be. A film that I feel is almost perfect and standalone essentially has a perfect sequel. Everything feels familiar but new, and we’re thrown into a world where plot isn’t the selling point but being sucked into a world of nostalgia and character relationship is.
The movie opens with Jake (Blake Jenner) arriving at his new house for the first year of college, and more importantly – college baseball. A hotshot pitcher at high school level, he quickly learns that this means nothing in his new world, and has to adapt to being on a team where everyone is a previous star player. The next three days are spent making new acquaintances, chasing girls, and attempting to not be one of the two designated ‘weird guys’ before school officially starts.
Linklater takes everything that worked from ‘Dazed’ and utilises it again for ‘Everybody’, without it feeling a retread in any real sense. The casts are relatively unknown once again, and we all know what happened with Matthew McConaughey, Ben Affleck, Milla Jovovich after being in ‘Dazed’, which instantly makes them feel like their characters as opposed to someone playing a part. Everyone has their own schtick, from the country bumpkin to the crazy pitcher, the weed smoking hippy to the resident asshole. But everyone fills out their role perfectly, the each member of the ensemble feels human and fleshed out rather than just acting a stereotype. The dialogue is, of course, wonderful and the jokes come regularly and hit with aplomb.
The film is set in Texas in the year 1980 – before the true end of the 70’s and with disco still alive, albeit barely. Despite being set nearly half a decade after ‘Dazed’, it shares enough in common that it’s only the subtle differences that distinguishes it being a different time period. It naturally feels authentic to the time in terms of set and character dress, but intertwines the crude gags you’d expect from ‘Porkys’ and similar with a more grown up undertone of the more progressive 2000s. The result is a film that captures the time period with slightly rose tinted glasses, but spares us the embarrassment that re-watching movies made in this time period provides with regards to some of the attitudes of the time. It’s slightly whitewashing, but nostalgia often is.
In any other hands this could have been a disastrous attempt to cash in on a classic work, but Linklater has proven once again that he can work magic in a variety of genres and techniques. I never knew I wanted a followup to ‘Dazed’, but in retrospect it should have been obvious. Now I’m yearning for a third and final instalment of the trilogy, and if I have to wait another 20 years I’ll be content.
**** 1/2
