Described by the creator Linklater as a 'spiritual successor' to Dazed and Confused that somewhat pretentious description hides a humane gem of a film. It focuses on an endearing Candide-like lead character starting as a baseball scholar at a Texas university and covers the three days between arriving on campus and classes starting...the latter being the start of serious life just as D & C was the moment of release from the strictures of high school.
In his house he meets his housemates who have enough endearing cartoon -like qualities to clearly mark them out as distinct individuals but r rounded enough to b real believable and endearing human beings.
The performances arecwondrfully real with that improvisatory quality that marks high level performance and the overlapping dialogue is written and filmed in such a way as to allow one to hear everything and yet give an almost documentary feel..said we r eavesdropping on private moments.
Visually and aurally the movie is a paen to the early 80's. That facial hair! Those clothes ( tight-arse jeans in particular!). The music! The mastery of Space Invaders as a sign of cool!
Great fun with a warmth and humanity that is often deceptively belied by the frat-house antics.