10 Reasons Why 'Everybody Wants Some' Will Remind You of 'Dazed and Confused'
‘Everybody Wants Some’
Richard Linklater has called his new movie Everybody Wants Some a “spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused, Linklater’s 1993 snapshot of the last day of high school in 1976 Texas. While that term may seem confusing, it makes total sense after seeing Linklater’s latest, which does not feature the same characters or pick up on dangling story threads from Dazed and Confused, but is set in a similar time period (August 1980), and focuses on young adults (college kids on the school baseball team, all played by unknown or emerging actors) meandering their way toward figuring out who they are.
Watch Richard Linklater talk about his “spiritual sequel:”
The points-of-view are much more limited in Everybody Wants Some!!; the focus on the guys on the baseball team, who share the same living space, is so tight that female characters get crowded out in a way they didn’t in Dazed and Confused. But in many other respects, these two movies undeniably live in the same universe in terms of sensibility and aesthetic.
Here are 10 things in Everybody Wants Some!! that will definitely remind you of Dazed and Confused. (Warning: Very minor spoilers ahead.)
1. Both films unfold within specific time frames.
Everything in Dazed and Confused happens within a 24-hour period, while the events in Everybody Wants Some unfold during the three days leading up to the first day of classes.
2. Both movies take place in Texas.
Both were shot in Austin, in addition to other Texas locations.
3. Both feature opening scenes that involve a car pulling into a school environment while a well-known song from the era blasts on the soundtrack.
In Everybody Wants Some, Jake, the freshman pitcher protagonist played by Blake Jenner, drives what appears to be a blue 1972 Oldsmobile that would not look out of place in Dazed and Confused, even though it’s not exactly the same as Pickford’s orange 1970 Pontiac GTO from that film’s first scene. We don’t hear “Slow Ride” this time, though; instead we get “My Sharona.”
4. Just as Mitch Kramer was a pitcher in Dazed and Confused, Jake is a pitcher in Everybody Wants Some.
In fact, as Linklater notes in this Sports Illustrated piece, the two are more or less the same guy. “Four years later,” he says, “that’s Mitch.”
5. Like the football coach in Dazed and Confused, the baseball coach in Everybody Wants Some expects his players to adhere to certain rules, like no drugs in the baseball houses.
The coach also wears gym shorts that are just as hideous as the ones coaches wore back in ‘76. And, just as they did in Dazed and Confused, the players in Everybody Wants Some completely break all rules related to their personal conduct.
6. The freshmen on the baseball team get hazed just like the freshmen in Dazed and Confused did.
Paddles aren’t involved. But things still get painful.
7. Pot plays a role in both movies. I know: shocking!
In Everybody Wants Some!! no one says, “You cool, man?” à la Slater. But one character comes really close.
8. The Emporium in Dazed and Confused = The Sound Machine in Everybody Wants Some.
There’s even an extended shot of Jake and his baseball buddies walking into The Sound Machine like they own the joint. It looks a little, though not exactly, like this.
9. Both movies are packed with a flotilla of hit songs from the time period.
In Dazed and Confused, it was Foghat, Aerosmith, Kiss, War and The Runaways. In Everybody Wants Some, it’s The Knack, Van Halen (obviously, given the movie’s title), The Sugarhill Gang, The Cars and Pat Benatar. But don’t worry, Kiss makes a visual appearance in the latter movie, just as the band did in the former.
10. Most of all, both movies are about just hanging out and being young, a luxury you take for granted until you get older and can’t carve out the time to do that anymore.
These are movies about livin’, man. L-I-V-I-N.
