This buoyant comedy traces hijinks on graduation day (and night) at a local high school in the heady period of the mid-seventies. Freshmen get hazed by seniors; football jocks harassed by their coaches; party plans are made, then shifted; and lots of young people get high. The plot takes a back seat to the energy and talent of its young ensemble cast, including stars-to-be Affleck (as a boisterous bully), McConaughey, and Posey.

This infectious, often hilarious movie wins you over with its sheer exuberance and dead-on recreation of the wild and wooly '70s. Director Linklater satirizes the period with considerable affection, so we feel nostalgia for a period many of us thought (at the time) was a mediocre follow-up to the prior decade. A terrific line-up of '70s rock classics — and those distinctive cars — add pungent flavor and atmosphere. McConaughey steals every scene he's in as an aging alumnus/party boy who never really left school, and Posey is also memorable as a tough senior girl. (That said, the entirety of the lesser-known cast is solid). Here’s an ideal double feature with "American Graffiti" or "Fast Times At Ridgemont High."