Everybody Wants Some!!

Preface, Richard Linklater has a very unique style of directing. In his more spirited films, Slacker, Dazed and Confused, and now Everybody wants Some; Linklater finds a way to make you enjoy a film that doesn't necessarily have a plot. In each of those 3 amazing movies he's directed, the movies just follow the characters as they develop, without a generic or mainstream plot. It's extremely refreshing to get kind of a lackadaisical, orderless and adaptive type plot.

The movie follows a bunch of college baseball players who will fully commit and do anything to have a good time. Everything they do becomes a competition between themselves.

It won't be everyone's type of humor, but this movie is hilarious and it's an easy watch. I highly recommend this movie! It's extremely underrated.

Everybody Wants Some!! was a perfect film for this moment: it consists of little more than a bunch of overly-competitive jocks joking with each other, partying, and trying to get laid over the course of three days before school even starts. It's intelligently written, fun, well-acted, and well-shot. What more could you ask for? Linklater, of course, does it all in a slice of life fashion: the opening of the film doesn't even attempt to describe what's going to happen and the end of the film barely describes what happened beforehand. The movie is almost meditative, and yet continually looking for stimulus in the largest and tiniest things... really whatever kind of stimulus they can get their hands on. Story-wise, it unfolds over almost every part of the era, which is, as far as I could tell, undefined yet seemingly somewhere during the 80s. Each night takes us to a different flavor of the time: disco, punk, you name it... but the genius of the script is that you don't really realize you've been given a tasting menu until you've already eaten everything. It just seems natural when it happens. Everything in this film seems natural, and that's a credit to the director, but also the actors. I imagine casting was the most important part of putting this film together and it seems to have been a success: every actor kills their part. Were they even acting? I have a feeling they were just being themselves. If you want to watch some kids mess around and laugh with them or at them, Everybody Wants Some!! not only is your movie, but probably will be your movie for a long time coming.

This was put together in an entertaining fashion. Trouble for me is that I'd walk a mile to avoid the kind of people the film is about. Always did, when I was younger, avoid the bullying sexist jock and unless you are enamoured, you may not want some of a film that celebrates them off the Richter scale.

There is also the fact that in this Mudville there are only shiny happy people out of Hollywood wardrobe department and there's little resemblance to reality.

That shouldn't stop those who want college and youth myths big on All American ball-whacking, drinking, weed-smoking, look-how-crazy-we-all-are high spirits. There will be lots of people who want some of that.

Yes, the movie was realistic and there were a few, sparse moments of tenderness between Jake and his romantic interest, but I was disappointed by the imbalanced focus of this movie. As most college students, then and now, are not hardcore jocks, this is a skewed vision of college life in that era. We get scant input from other groups on campus.

Compared to Dazed and Confused, which featured a much broader spectrum of teenage life in the mid 70s, including jocks, budding intellectuals, burn-outs, etc., Everybody Wants Some is mainly focused on college jock life and the pervasive misogyny one might expect. At times insightful, and also humorous, the movie simply observes the lives of its characters. But it pales compared to its predecessor, and the overwhelming emphasis on the misogynistic and competitive sexual exploits of its characters tends to fracture and efface the movie's charms.

As a fan of Dazed and Confused, when I found out about this film I was ecstatic but it just doesn't deliver; I really wanted it to be great but it never really gets there. The characters are mostly forgettable and not even overly likable. At times it seems like a bad copy of Dazed and Confused, with lines like "that's what I'm talking' about" repeated and characters such as the coach (who seems like a carbon copy of the assistant coach from Dazed and Confused) and Finnegan (who seems very much like an attempt to replicate McConaughey's Wooderson). It's set in the 80s but there really isn't an 80s experience here like Dazed and Confused delivered. Dazed and Confused gave us a look at the cars and some of the iconic things about the 70s, as well as experiences that gave the viewer a look at what being a teen in the 70s may have been like, but Everybody Wants Some never really delivers any of that. The performances here aren't bad (with the exception of one character who, to me, seemed like a parody) and it's not a terrible movie, it just lacks the magic of Dazed and Confused and in the end it's really just a flat film that never really gets the viewer excited or delivers. Of course, this is just my opinion and you may really enjoy it, so check it out yourself and form your own opinion because it's at least worth seeing once.