Review: Richard Linklater's Hugely Enjoyable 'Everybody Wants Some!!'

While his obsession with time remains intact, for his latest film, “Everybody Wants Some!!,” director Richard Linklater strips loss and melancholy from the framework and lets the consummate entertainer within take over. Fixed in a freewheeling state with this “spiritual sequel” to “Dazed and Confused,” the filmmaker only allows hints to peek through of a reality where people might fall in and out of love, or a mother might watch her son with pride and sadness as he grows up and heads to college. Instead, baseball, beer, and the next party fill the frame with an infectious quality of camaraderie, built on a cast ripe with chemistry and their ability to showcase Linklater’s unique ear for dialogue.

The story is set in the fall of 1980, in the lead-up to the first day of classes at a fictional Texas university. As one might expect, the plot follows a relentless hangout session with a sea of blond-haired (and one Afro’ed) baseball players, all...