The First "Everybody Wants Some" Trailer is a Throwback to Linklater's Beginnings

Scene from Everybody Wants Some

Last year was a pretty big moment for director Richard Linklater. After decades of making great films about average Joes, he finally made a dent at the Oscars with Boyhood: a film that received acclaim for spanning 12 years and capturing the first decade of the 21st century better than almost anyone else. For most, the question of what he would do next has been a curious one, especially since he's been on a roll, including a career best in 2013 with Before Midnight. With the first trailer for the Boyhood follow-up, Everybody Wants Some, it looks like he's going back to his earlier days when his films were less prestigious and more lackadaisical. It's a trip to the 80's that is very reminiscent of Dazed and Confused, but does it have any merit when compared to his Matthew McConaughey-finding classic?

Like most people, I generally enjoy Linklater's work. He's always been an interesting voice in independent cinema. While I don't think he's always great, he's more often good at capturing nuanced portrayals of normal people. The Before trilogy is rather exceptional character studies of love throughout the years. Even Dazed and Confused is a film that reflects his ability to make a great ensemble. However, I do think that there's a lot of odd pressure on his latest film, mostly because it's a departure from his past few. Simply looking at the visuals would suggest that this is a throwback to a bygone era, and I'm not sure if it will work as effectively as it did the first time around. But I still trust Linklater.

Check out the trailer below:

It looks all right. If I can be totally honest, I don't know if it's just that the trailer was edited in a jarring fashion, or if the tone is just bothering me a bit. It could help that I don't like Van Halen's titular song that much, but even the scenes where they're doing very dated things doesn't have the same feel to it. To some extent, this feels like an extension of Wet Hot American Summer, likely minus the absurdity. I understand that it wants to be about the 80's, but even that feels like it is used for a novelty in the trailer. The question is if it will be a retread of Dazed and Confused, or will it be something greater? I really hope this trailer is just poorly edited, because there's not a lot that grabs me beyond the retro charm.

Here's the plot according to IMDb:

A group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.

Even if baseball is mentioned in the trailer, I don't exactly know that it comes across. If anything, it just looks like slackers getting high. I wish that I could say that there was more here, but I don't really get any sense of excitement from this. Maybe I just dislike 80's culture a little too much, but I want to believe that this will be something more. It is a first trailer and the film is several months away. Things may pick up. However, I don't know that even as a Linklater fan that this trailer makes me want to see it. It just looks so generic.