More American Graffiti

Richard Dreyfuss' price proved too high, otherwise the whole gang returns for a sequel which builds its highly episodic narrative around a last reunion at a New Year's Eve drag race in 1964, used as an anchor from which to flash forward through the '60s; but the film's problems arise less from the confusing time structure than from the misguided determination to preserve the tone of the original at all costs. In the world of Vietnam, drugs and revolution, what was genuine innocence becomes glib farce, and Norton's refusal to register the darkening of the kids' world quickly makes that world itself less real.