MAY 12, 2016
There are several Richard Linklaters.
The one that we’re probably most familiar with is the Linklater who was a staple of the red carpet circuit two years ago picking up awards for his magnum opus “Boyhood,” which brought an Oscar for its star Patricia Arquette. This is the artiste side of the Austin, Texas-based filmmaker, whose other highly-praised works include “Slacker” (with its innovative camerawork), “Waking Life” (a rotoscoped animated docufiction/dramatic film) and his beloved “Before…” trilogy (“Before Sunrise” from 1995, “Before Sunset” in 2004 and 2013’s “Before Midnight”), which brought him several more Oscar nominations for writing.
But there’s another side of Linklater’s career — the goofy side — which has been most evident in such films as “School of Rock” with Jack Black, the 2005 remake of “Bad News Bears” and most notably the stoner comedy “Dazed and Confused,” which introduced us to Matthew McConaughey and inflicted us with McConaughey’s iconic “Allright, allright, allRIGHT!”
Linklater’s first film since his awards tour with “Boyhood” definitely falls into the “goofy” category. “Everybody Wants Some!!” (note the double exclamation points!!) takes place in 1980 and is very much in the “Dazed and Confused” lane. It’s set at Southeast Texas University and focuses on the two off-campus houses populated by the school’s baseball team. Our entry point is Jake (Blake Jenner), an initially-naive pitcher whose arrival at the baseball house is met with slight revulsion — pitchers are none too popular amongst the team.
Jake is hazed, as any freshman would be, but he gradually warms to his teammates who include Glen (Tyler Hoechlin), the macho pornstached team captain; Willoughby (Wyatt Russell) the team’s Carl Sagan-loving pothead; and Finnegan (Glen Powell, in probably the film’s best performance) as the pipe-smoking self-proclaimed ladies’ man.
Jocks are usually depicted as the villainous douchebags in college-set movies, and, though these guys are kind of douchey at times, Linklater somehow makes us like them. We sometimes forget that many jocks were the absolute kings and queens of their high school, and when they get to college expecting the same adulation, they are rudely awakened to realize that they’re sometimes merely average or even less-than-average. That’s the territory that Linklater is mining here, and it gives “Everybody Wants Some!!” a melancholy layer of gravitas.
The plot of “Everybody Wants Some!!!”………don’t be silly, there’s nothing even resembling a plot here. There’s a party and then some horseplay, then another party, more horseplay, then a party. Oh, did I mention that there was another party? And Jake finds a very smart girlfriend, Beverly (Zoe Deutsch).
And that’s it. “Boyhood” it ain’t. But fun? It is. Linklater had me as soon as the opening chords of The Knack’s “My Sharona” played over the film’s opening credits. Next to Martin Scorsese, Linklater is arguably the master of utilizing the power of pop songs in a film, and he assembled a killer ’80s soundtrack here from “Shake Your Groove Thing” to Blondie’s “Heart of Glass.” Add that to polyester shirts and feathered hair, “Everybody Wants Some!!” is 1980s heaven.
GRADE: B
