Everybody Wants Some!! premieres at SXSW, Richard Linklater's home turf

Ten minutes into Everybody Wants Some!!, Richard Linklater’s new coming-of-age film, the ensemble cast breaks out into a lip-sync rendition of the ’70s rap hit Rapper’s Delight, by The Sugar Hill Gang.

Anyone over 35 or so – or anyone with an affinity for ’80s pop culture – can identify and appreciate: admit it or not, we’ve all done that. Thus begins the nostalgic, often spiritual journey through the 1980s of Linklater’s world.

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Everybody Wants Some!! premiered at the Paramount Theatre in downtown Austin, Texas, as the opening film at the South by Southwest Film Festival (SXCSW), one leg of an interactive/film/music gathering that draws more than 80,000 participants each spring.

The Austin premiere was part celebration of the film and part homage to Linklater, a Texas native, who has lived and worked in the Austin area since his breakout film Slacker in 1991. Austin received him like royalty. Conference-goers lined up early and braved pelting rain to get in and see the movie or catch a glimpse of the director and cast on the red carpet outside.

Before the movie, SXSW co-founder Louis Black told the audience how Linklater’s decision to stay in Austin and support the local film scene helped the SXSW Film Festival flourish and was instrumental in the US independent film movement that includes filmmakers such as Robert Rodriguez, Quentin Tarantino and Guillermo Del Toro.

“The consequences of that decision reverberates every day in Austin,” Black says.

Everybody Wants Some!! is billed as a “spiritual sequel” to Linklater’s second film Dazed and Confused (1993), about 1970s high school life based on his years at Huntsville High School. That movie became a cult classic with oft-repeated lines from stars such as Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey and Ben Affleck.