Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)

Everybody Wants Some!!: Directed by Richard Linklater. With Blake Jenner, Juston Street, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin. In 1980, a group of college baseball players navigate their way through the freedoms and responsibilities of unsupervised adulthood.

“Fresh off the critical success of Boyhood, a coming-of-age project 12 years in the making, writer/director Richard Linklater has returned to the genre he no doubt by now feels entirely comfortable in, the slacker comedy. Dubbed as a u0026#39;spiritual sequelu0026#39; to one of his most beloved movies, Dazed and Confused (1993), Everybody Wants Some!! – a title taken from a Van Halen song – follows a group of baseball jocks in college over the course of 3 days before class, and arguably real life, finally starts.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eItu0026#39;s Texas, 1980, and freshman and promising pitcher Jake (Blake Jenner) arrives at one of the two decrepit neighbouring houses set aside for the college baseball team, where he is greeted with a mixture of both excited curiosity and suspicious disdain. Finnegan (Glen Powell), Dale (J. Quinton Johnson) and Roper (Ryan Guzman), a few of the older students who welcome Jake and fellow freshman Plummer (Temple Baker) with a bit more warmth, take the new arrivals on a car journey around campus, where they prepare themselves for a few days of booze, drugs, parties, and trying to convince members of the opposite sex to sleep with them.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eLinklater has a distinct feel for a sense of place. Like Dazed and Confused, he somehow manages to conjure up feelings of nostalgia for viewers who werenu0026#39;t even alive at the time. Having been born in 1984, I sadly wasnu0026#39;t there for the 1976 of Dazed or the 1980 of Everybody Wants Some!!, but the two films feel as if youu0026#39;re watching something made at the time rather than a period piece. Questionable fashion choices and even more questionable facial-hair are all present here, as is the obligatory classic soundtrack. which features an amusing rendition of Rapperu0026#39;s Delight amongst a more rock-based sound. The biggest issue people may have the film is that nothing much happens at all, so Linklater takes a huge gamble in assuming audiences will warm to its hefty ensemble.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAfter all, the bulk of the characters are indistinguishable jocks doing bong hits and offering their unique blend of wisdom for the majority of the film. While this approach may run its course before the credits roll, there is some genuine wisdom to be found here, along with a tinge of sadness. Everybody Wants Some!! is a love letter to that time of your life when you are filled with optimism and the world is yours to explore, and Jake and his friendsu0026#39; journey of discovery and fulfilment is a rite-of-passage experienced by most young men and women. It could also be interpreted as a search for identity as the group wander from their usual disco haunt and try out line-dancing, a punk concert, and a themed costume party set up by performing arts majors, including the auburn-haired girl of Jakeu0026#39;s dreams (Zoey Deutch). Call it what you will, but the filmu0026#39;s power lies within Linklateru0026#39;s eye for nostalgia, delivering a final shot that captures more feeling than most films struggle to create in 90 minutes.”