Written by: Richard Linklater
Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
College baseball players enjoy the freedoms of college before the season and school year begins.
Verdict
This a typical Linklater movie. It's a free form day in the life of Jake. There is no goal or obstacle, it just happens. The direct comparison is Linklater's Dazed and Confused (1993), and that does the style better. It captures the coming of age moments better, and with better characters. I like Everybody Wants Some!! (2016), but it's missing the insight I expect from Linklater.
Watch it.
Review
This is set in the '80s and has the cars and the music to match. Jake (Blake Jenner) is a college freshman baseball star. Baseball players are at the top of the college athlete hierarchy on campus and they all live together. The rules of the house are no alcohol and no girls, but of course both of those rules are broken within minutes.
It falls into the typical college party trope. These guys are chasing girls, drinking, or a bit of both. They don't play much baseball. There is only one baseball scene, the first practice of the season that occurs in the last half of the movie.
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| Everybody Wants Some!! - Boys will be boys just isn't enough. |
It's trying to capture the newfound freedom Jake has. He's linked to a bunch of overly macho guys with something to prove. Each one of them was a high school super star and now they are struggling to make the team. This never quote accomplishes what Dazed and Confused did, lacking the depth. The pieces are there, but it doesn't manifest. It doesn't capture enough of the special moments and all too often succumbs to the mantra of boys will be boys. The characters feel underdeveloped. We don't get a Wooderson, and Jake is no Mitch.
Linklater's previous film, Boyhood (2014), was a collection of scenes but the scope and progression formed a story. Everybody Wants Some!! only covers one weekend, compacting the typical college hi jinks fantasies into a few days. I couldn't help but wish the characters had something to do or even a goal. It has it's moments, and it's enjoyable on the whole but the characters fall into the typical tropes and are difficult to even distinguish during the first half. It's a good movie that's overshadowed by Linklater's previous output.
The final scene is Jake on his first day of class, having stayed up almost all night. He sits next to his teammate, the cliche dumb catcher. The professor writes a quote onto the board and you think Jake is inspired. He then puts his head on his desk and closes his eyes, a smile crossing his face. It's a great ending. Unfortunately this doesn't capture the first weekend of college in the same way Dazed captured the glory days of high school. Be sure to stick around through the credits for a cast rap.
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