Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)

Genre

Comedy

Director

Richard Linklater

Country

USA

Cast

Blake Jenner, Zoey Deutch, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Glen Powell, Wyatt Russell, Will Brittain, Forrest Vickery, Temple Baker, Tanner Kalina, Austin Amelio, Juston Street, Quindon Johnson, Dora Madison Burge

Storyline

Texas, 1980. A group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.

Opinion

Fourteen years to make a film. Nearly twenty years to complete a trilogy. And twenty three years to make a spiritual sequel. Richard Linklater sure isn't afraid of commitment, but he also has the ability to amaze the audience with his projects each and every time, and "Everybody Wants Some!!" makes no difference.

Very fun to watch, and highly entertaining, the film doesn't really have a plot. It is all about following the characters around for the first couple days before college classes start. It simply is a collection of vignettes of young men doing male things, like playing sports, partying, and picking up girls.

Just like always, Richard Linklater managed to transport me in those scenarios and made them feel like part of me, even though I never lived in the 80's, or picked up girls, or smoked weed. And college life in Italy isn't anything like college life in the States.

The film features simple, realistic yet great and entertaining dialogue. No one can make the viewer interested in random, banal stuff like Linklater, and the kind of realism he brings in each of his films makes you forget you are watching a film.

Even though I would have liked a few more well-developed female characters, the characters are rich, memorable and relatable, and by the end of the film, we feel like we have become friends with many of the characters of the film.

To be thanked for that, other than Linklater, is the cast. There's such a genuine chemistry between the actors, and it doesn't even feel like watching a movie. It indeed feels like watching a group of friends having fun. Every one of them performs amazingly in every scene. They really have bright futures ahead of them.

And no, I didn't forget about the outstanding soundtrack I'm so obsessed with that is full of 70's/80's classic rock music that made me sing and dance along with the characters.

Before Midnight (2013)

Genre

Drama | Romance

Director

Richard Linklater

Country

United States | Greece

Cast

Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick, Jennifer Prior, Charlotte Prior, Xenia Kalogeropoulou, Walter Lassally, Ariane Labed, Yiannis Papadopoulos, Athina Rachel Tsangari, Panos Korinos

Plot

Nine years after they last met in Paris, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and Céline (Julie Delpy) have become a couple, they live in Paris and they are parents to twin girls, Ella (Jennifer Prior) and Nina (Charlotte Prior).

Spent a summer in Greece, and come the time to send Jesse's teenage son (Seamus Davey-Fitzpatrick) off to the States, Jesse begins to question his life decisions, and his relationship with Céline is at risk.

Opinion

Third chapter of the story between Jesse and Céline, along with Before Sunrise and Before Sunset, Before Midnight is the most honest attempt to show human beings and life as they are, without any filters, and without hiding the worst of all this. 

Still wrote by Linklater, Hawke and Delpy, despite the dramatic tension, the dialogues are more humoristic in this film.

It is impossible to not appreciate the fact that the actors are growing up and getting older along with their characters, changing physically and mentally.

It is nice that the film was shot in Greece, but the beauty of the country comes second to the portrayal of the couple.

The performances are fantastic, and the chemistry between Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy is still the same of 18 years ago. There is a supporting cast, although Hawke and Delpy make the film work by themselves.

Quotes

Natalia: Like sunlight, sunset, we appear, we disappear. We are so important to some, but we are just passing through.

Jesse: If you want love, then this is it. This is real life. It's not perfect but it's real.

Rating

9.0/10

Before Sunset (2004)

Genre

Drama | Romance

Director

Richard Linklater

Country

United States

Cast

Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Vernon Dobtcheff, Louise Lemoine, Rodolphe Pauly, Mariane Plasteig, Diablo, Denis Evrard, Albert Delpy, Marie Pillet

Plot

Nine years after Vienna, Jesse (Ethan Hawke) is in Paris promoting his best selling book, This Time, inspired by that night. As the media scrum at the bookstore nears its conclusion, Jesse spots Celine (Julie Delpy) in the crowd, she who only found out about the book when she earlier saw his photograph promoting this public appearance. Much like their previous encounter, Jesse and Celine, who is now an environmental activist, decide to spend time together until he is supposed to catch his flight back to New York, this time only being about an hour.

Opinion

Before Sunset is fantastic and delightful. I enjoyed every single second of it, and I liked this one even more than the original. Making a sequel to Before Sunrise was undeniably a hard thing to do, but Richard Linklater did brilliantly. This gem of him shows how to make a film about feelings, mostly love, without slipping on the soap opera drama. The dialogues, once again, are just brilliant.

Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy have grown with their characters, and their performances are wonderful once again.

Quotes

Celine: Even being alone it's better than sitting next to your lover and feeling lonely.

Jesse: I feel like if someone were to touch me, I'd dissolve into molecules.

Celine: There are so many things I want to do, but I end up doing not much.

Celine: Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my thoughts / Let me sing you a waltz / About this one night stand / You were, for me, that night / Everything I always dreamt of in life / But now you're gone / You are far gone / All the way to your island of rain / It was for you just a one night thing / But you were much more to me, just so you know / I don't care what they say / I know what you meant for me that day / I just want another try, I just want another night / Even if it doesn't seem quite right / You meant for me much more than anyone I've met before / One single night with you, little Jesse, is worth a thousand with anybody / I have no bitterness, my sweet / I'll never forget this one night thing / Even tomorrow in other arms, my heart will stay yours until I die / Let me sing you a waltz / Out of nowhere, out of my blues / Let me sing you a waltz / About this lovely one night stand

Rating

9.5/10

Before Sunrise (1995)

Genre

Drama | Romance

Director

Richard Linklater

Country

Austria | Switzerland | United States

Cast

Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Andrea Eckert, Hanno Pöschl, Karl Bruckschwaiger, Tex Rubinowitz, Erni Mangold, Dominik Castell, Haymon Maria Buttinger, Bilge Jeschim, Adam Goldberg

Plot

American tourist Jesse (Ethan Hawke) and French student Celine (Julie Delpy) meet by chance on the train from Budapest to Vienna.
Sensing that they are developing a connection, Jesse asks Celine to spend the day with him in Vienna, and she agrees. Unfortunately, both know that this will probably be their only night together.

Opinion

Before Sunrise is pure cinematic gold, yet one of the most underrated films ever made. Richard Linklater delights us with an honest look at relationship. The absolute beauty of this film is the dialogues, because, although they are ordinary conversations between two people who just met, they really fascinated me. This film teaches us love is never absurd, and after watching it, you will realize falling in love with someone in just one night doesn't sound that stupid after all.
Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy bring to life two unforgettable characters, and they are the pillars of the film, contributing to making of it one of the best romance films of all the times.

Quotes

Jesse: I always think that I'm still this thirteen-year-old boy, you know, who just doesn't really know how to be an adult, pretending live my life, taking notes for when, you know, I'll really have to do it.

Street Poet: Daydream delusion, limousine eyelash / Oh baby with your pretty face / Drop a tear in my wineglass / Look at those big eyes / See what you mean to me / Sweet-cakes and milkshakes / I'm a delusion angel / I'm a fantasy parade / I want you to know what I think / Don't want you to guess anymore / You have no idea where I came from / We have no idea where we're going / Lodged in life / Like branches in a river/ Flowing downstream / Caught in the current / I carry you / You'll carry me / That's how it could be / Don't you know me? / Don't you know me by now?

Jesse: I kind of see this all love as this, escape for two people who don't know how to be alone. People always talk about how love is this totally unselfish, giving thing, but if you think about it, there's nothing more selfish.

Celine: I used to think that if none of your family or friends knew you were dead, it was like not really being dead. People can invent the best and the worst for you.

Rating

9.0/10

Dazed and Confused (1993)

Genre

Comedy

Director

Richard Linklater

Country

United States

Cast

Jason London, Joey Lauren Adams, Milla Jovovich, Shawn Andrews, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, Anthony Rapp, Sasha Jenson, Marissa Ribisi, Deena Martin, Michelle Burke, Cole Hauser, Christine Harnos, Wiley Wiggins, Mark Vandermeulen, Esteban Powell, Jeremy Fox, Ben Affleck, Jason O. Smith, Christin Hinojosa, Parker Posey, Matthew McConaughey, Catherine Morris, Nicky Katt

Plot

It is May 28, 1976, the last day of school at Lee High School in the suburbs of Austin, Texas. The next year's group of seniors are preparing for the annual hazing of incoming freshmen, and everyone is trying to get stoned, drunk, or laid.

Opinion

Directed and written by the amazing Richard Linklater, Dazed and Confused shows the highs and lows of partying, friendship and drugs. Underrated and ignored at first, later achieved cult film status, in my opinion, this is one of the best teen films ever made.

The cast is great: it is no wonder that a majority of them - Jason London, Milla Jovovich, Rory Cochrane, Adam Goldberg, Sasha Jenson, Parker Posey and Matthew McConaughey - became major stars. 

Buy on Amazon.com | Buy/Rent on Amazon Instant Video

Quotes

Cynthia: God, don't you ever feel like everything we do and everything we've been taught is just to service the future?

Tony: Yeah I know, like it's all preparation.

Cynthia: Right. But what are we preparing ourselves for?

Mike: Death.

Tony: Life of the party.

Mike: It's true.

Cynthia: You know, but that's valid because if we are all gonna die anyway shouldn't we be enjoying ourselves now? You know, I'd like to quit thinking of the present, like right now, as some minor insignificant preamble to something else.

Rating

8.5/10