The title is named after a Van Halen song. There isn’t a chance that Everybody Wants Some!! sounded good up top and wouldn’t be a good time. Richard Linklater’s follow-up to 2014’s Boyhood and the spiritual sequel to 1993’s Dazed and Confused captures a great taste of how college will turn out for some people.

This cast was brilliant and are well realized and the type of guys that would be on a college baseball team or trying to get the hot girls on campus in the 1980s. Mostly with Linklater’s film, the cast ensemble is great. And with most of his films, he writes his characters like actual people. Blake Jenner as Jake was really good along with Zoey Deutch. But Glen Powell is someone to look out for. He delivered some classic lines that are funny and pretty enthusiastic. The soundtrack is on point in this gem as you got your Cheap Trick, The Cars, Van Halen (of course), etc.

While it is good, the first half was on point of being great and the second took a while to get the ball going again. For me, it felt like the plot lost it for a bit. But it wasn’t a huge takeaway overall for how original and bold it was in the end while staying at a consistent tone throughout. It’s not better than Dazed and Confused, but it’s still up there for being good.

If Everybody Wants Some!!, then I want some too. This brought the nostalgia back to the look of the 80s, the soundtrack, and the writing of how it was back then. Not the next classic from Linklater, but just a rockin’ good time.

Grade: B