This is basically the sequel to Linklater’s Dazed and Confused, where that was High School in the 70s, and here we hit College in 1980. It’s a lot of the same beats, but with a new slightly older group of peoples, social cliques and environments, while listening to an updated timely soundtrack along the way. Fortunately, no KISS. There is a KISS pinball machine at one point, but I’m gracefully looking past that. for now.
Small Texas town boy Jake, on his way to his first day of college. With a baseball scholarship, he’s the king shit from where he’s from. On campus? Just another Freshman Player with a collection of other king shit Players from their own towns. Steps the game up a bit now, don’t it? From the Thursday afternoon he arrives until first class Monday morning, Jake meets a whole lot of new people and experiences a whole lot of new things. But the Schlitz is still the same. It’s comforting, really.
Like in Dazed, Jake is just trying to figure stuff out as he makes his way into this new social experience. Linklater does a decent snapshot of the 1980 college scene, maybe slightly compressed into a weekend. It really doesn’t matter and actually is probably better that there’s no real recognizable actors here (except apparently in post-script for the Finn guy, played by Glen Powell, who seems to be getting larger roles since this including the lead in the The Running Man remake), so this really does unfold as a completely different experience for the viewer too as Jake navigates through this strange new world he finds himself in. It’s not American Pie kind of antics, but maybe a splash of Animal House in the baseball team behaviors, who are the somewhat ‘elite’ of the school. But it’s mostly just dramatics and philosophies of college students and athletes and where their worlds intersect, usually while getting drunk, stoned or trying to get laid. And it’s true to Linklater’s previous films where it’s not like there’s a main villain and major conflict, just the drama of life playing out plus some dope-smokin philosophies and ping-pong playin thrown in for good measure. And some good tunes. It’s only now in 2026 that I realize after watching, this kind of reminiscing about the old times and all and sure there’s a few kinda asshole characters but if that’s the worst you have to deal with in major life experiences? Damn. I need to give the 80s more credit now, don’t I?
