With Everybody Wants Some, director Richard Linklater delivers another slice of authentic nostalgic storytelling, where brotherhood is exceptionally and infectiously examined to a grooving soundtrack.

Not many filmmakers are able to replicate a sense of place, time and culture quite the way that Richard Linklater can. His 1993 breakthrough Dazed & Confused thoroughly, entertainingly and effortlessly did just that in its depiction of the last day of school for a Texas high school in 1976. And dabnamit if that SOB doesn’t do it again with this “spiritual sequel” Everybody Wants Some.

Set in 1980 at an undisclosed university, Everybody… follows the antics of a group of college baseball players as told through the experiences of freshman pitcher Jake (Blake Jenner). With three days of unsupervised bonding, partying and all other matter of shenanigans before classes begin, Jake and his new teammates try to develop a rapport while dealing with the stress of sports and college life.

Linklater presents it all with as naturalistic an air as possible, the creation of these distinct and often entertaining personalities providing an infectious chemistry that makes it that much easier to consume these young men being… well, young men.

For some this is too much too handle (the world’s smallest violin is playing just for them), but for the rest who approach Everybody Wants Some for what it is – three days in the life of a college baseball team – there is much to enjoy. Films about brotherhood come in many forms and range from Seven Samurai to Stand by Me, yet rare do they capture the connection of different personalities with the engrossing, free spirited tone that Linklater does here.

A criticism aimed at Linklater regarding both Everybody… and his previous Boyhood is that they are merely movies for males. Outside of that limited and ignorant viewpoint, exactly why a male filmmaker should be criticised for (Shock! Horror!) embedding his own experiences and personality in his work (yes, Linklater was a Texan college student who played on the baseball team) due to some crime against cultural sensitivity is pure nonsense.

Everybody Wants Some is simply a great film. Its cast of mainly unknowns embed their characters with personality, its script masterfully instils a depth to its themes under its frat house comedy front, and its craftsmanship from costumes, to sets, to hair and make-up, and to that all too excellent soundtrack of choice cuts (featuring the likes of Van Halen to The Knack to The Sugarhill Gang) convincingly transports us to its 1980 setting.

Linklater had quite the task in living up to the standards of two great films in Dazed and Confused and Boyhood. In successfully doing so, he has delivered another great film all on its own.