More American Graffiti (1979)

Directed by Bill L. Norton. Starring Paul Le Mat, Charles Martin Smith, Candy Clark, Cindy Williams, Ron Howard, Anna Bjorn, Bo Hopkins, John Lansing, Will Seltzer, Carol-Ann Williams, James Houghton, Richard Bradford, Mary Kay Place, Scott Glenn, Ralph Wilcox, Morgan Upton, Jonathan Gries. [PG]

The American Graffiti tagline asked, “Where were you in ‘62?” If that same thinking carried over to this gratuitous sequel, it would ask where you were in ‘64 and ‘65 and ‘66 and ‘67, because rather than follow its characters around over a long and eventful evening-and-next-morning again, this one is set on four different days (always New Years Eve) of four different years in order to trace four different character stories…and jump around so often it’s hard to get even slightly involved in any of them. And these aren’t fun and hopeful vignettes either. No, they’re plagued by the deterioration of a marriage, the anxiety of Vietnam, student protests, hippie burnouts, the pall of certain death, and so on; just what we want: good-time nostalgia to be soured by a rude awakening. Several episodes/moments don’t even fit with the original film’s tone and characterizations (or apply those aspects in misbegotten ways, such as Smith causing all hell to break loose in ‘Nam as a slapstick gag), and the pointless use of split-screens and aspect ratio shifts only make the frequent transitions all the more frustrating. Too ambitious for its own good—especially considering how shallowly it tackles all of these topics—and the scripting is so contrived and arbitrary when relating to what came before that it plays like bad fan fiction chopped into disarray. Such a poor companion piece, in fact, that Richard Dreyfuss’ absence isn’t even felt. At least the rock soundtrack is good for another armload of quality tunes to ease the pain. Features unjustifiable cameos from Harrison Ford and Mackenzie Phillips, but you can pass the time by playing a game of Spot-the-Future-Star with appearances from Delroy Lindo, Rosanna Arquette, and more.

28/100