Everybody Wants Some!!

Anyone that’s gone to college has had the kind of weekend that takes place in Everybody Wants Some!!,  the new film by Richard Linklater.  Loud and raucous nights, followed by lazy afternoons of recovery and bonding with the people you see everyday.  The film takes place on the first weekend before the new semester starts, so classwork isn’t a factor.  Sometimes that happens later on in the semester, when for some reason the college gods smile on your house and allow for a full 72 hours of being young and in the moment.  And in those 72 hours you create memories that you forget until you see those same people years later, or until a familiar feeling graces your mind that makes you stop and look up from your current life.  And when you stop and remember, you can’t help but smirk at your former self and those you shared it with.

Everybody Wants Some!! made me smile for the entirety of it’s run-time.

It takes place in the 80’s, but doesn’t use the time period as a factor in the story.  Because the story is timeless.  After all, when you look back on the fun times of your life, does the year it took place really matter to you?  I’d say that it doesn’t.  What matters is how you felt and who was there to share it with you.  As I watched the film, I saw bits and pieces of those weekends that I had forgotten, and I am grateful for the reminder Linklater has provided for me.

I’ve already described the plot, because there really isn’t one.  The opening minutes introduce us to Jake (Blake Denner), a freshman who has been recruited to play on one of the best college baseball teams in the state, as he moves into his new off-campus house with the rest of the team.  He meets his teammates, chases after girls, goes to the bar, and has his first players meeting.  Then it’s time to go to the local disco and find girls that the team can bring back to the house and have sex with.  While doing all of this, his roommates constantly insult each other and try to compete in anyway possible.  All to a fantastic 80’s soundtrack.

Now this may sound as shallow as every other party-heavy college film that you’ve seen, but it somehow finds so much more in it’s simplicity.  The characters are not jocks with a hearts of gold, but confident men that see no shame in knowing what they’re good at and what they want to do with their time.  They’re only mean to one another in the ways brothers can be.  And like brothers, they forgive each other as quickly. And Linklater presents them as real individuals.  I know he succeeded because there were too many moments during the film, where it gave me pause and made me think, “God…I knew that guy.”

And I don’t just mean the people I knew well in college.  I’m talking just as much about the ones that you meet over the course of four years in class, on campus, and in town.  The film got all of those individuals just as right.  While some of the characters are exaggerated, it only enhances the film’s overall impact.  Because when we think of those people, we tend to think of them in the most abstract way.

The main character also meets his first college crush; Linklater presents her in the exact way a college crush feels in those first few days. She seems like she’s from a different world, yet completely accessible.  A world full of possibilities for a young guy that has an unlimited promise to fulfill.

The cast is a group of unknowns that will no longer stay that way.  Blake Jenner as Jeff, the main character, gives the kind of performance that makes his character relatable, even if you have nothing in common.  The rest of the cast, despite being unknowns, all shine as part of a group that feels like a family by the film’s end.  I especially liked Zoey Deutch as Beverly, Jeff’s crush.

I don’t know how much of an impact this film will have on those that can’t relate to it as well as I did.  I will say that those people will find it funny, charming, and sweet.  But they may not be able to appreciate Linklater’s achievement of being able to find so much in a story that should be as unmemorable as a drunken weekend.  He reminded me of memories that I thought I’d always remember, but have waned in the years since.  Now all I have to do to remember is watch Everybody Wants Some!!.

You know those movies that college kids get posters of, and watch before and after parties?

Add one to the list.

Grade: A

Side Note: Yes, this is considered a spiritual sequel to Dazed and Confused.  I won’t compare the two, only to say that both films capture the snapshots in time they set out to.