Get 'Some'

Richard Linklater’s spiritual sequel to ‘Dazed and Confused’ is a homerun

There are so many ways Richard Linklater’s latest love letter to youth, “Everybody Wants Some!!” could have gone wrong. 

A spiritual sequel to his most popular film, the ‘70s-set stoner comedy “Dazed and Confused,” the movie is largely concerned with privileged athletes trying to get laid in 1980s Texas and could be accused of being a masturbatory return-to-the-well for the 55 year-old director, who recently rode a wave of Oscar acclaim for “Boyhood.” The concept begs the question: do we need another movie like this?  

Thankfully, this isn’t Cameron Crowe grasping for relevance or the cinematic equivalent of “That ‘80s Show.” Despite its title, “Everybody Wants Some!!” is a shamelessly great movie, and Richard Linklater is a goddamn wizard.

Jake (Blake Jenner), a talented high school baseball pitcher, rolls into town three days before his freshman semester at a Texas college. He finds his new home in a ramshackle quasi-frat house occupied by the upperclassmen of the school’s championship-winning baseball team.

Glen (Tyler Hoechlin) is the ultra-competitive hitter who never takes a loss well, and who won’t even initially befriend Jake because they might wind up on opposing teams one day—if they ever reach the big leagues. Roper (Ryan Guzman) and Finnegan (Glen Powell) are the unrepentant ladykillers (though, really, that describes all of them). Plummer (Temple Baker) is the laidback pragmatist of few words. Willoughby (Wyatt Russell) is the Pink Floyd-infused stoner. Beuter (Will Brittain) is the resident hick. Dale (J. Quinton Johnson) is their sole black friend.     

Despite some initial shade-throwing, they almost immediately band together to meet girls and drink all the beers in a last blow-out weekend before the impending doom of responsibility drops the hammer on them all.

And that’s kind of it. But within the threadbare structure and meandering story, we feel these sweetly evocative memories made tangible through Linklater’s affectionate film craft.

Each day is an act in a three-part structure, wrapped in a different kind of music (depending on where they’re trying to “pick up chicks”). On their first night out they hit up a dance club, and we observe Finn’s game in action—regaling potential mates with tales of his average penis. It works for him because most guys go on about how well-hung they are instead of underselling their endowments, which takes the ladies off guard. 

When their insane pitcher Jay (the amazing Juston Street) gets them kicked out for fighting, the boys are forced to go to the country club the next night, trading disco moves for line-dancing. Another night, it’s a punk party. And when Jake finally gets his opening with the lovely Beverly (Zoey Deutch), whom he has been crushing on since his first day on campus, it’s at a theater-nerd party set to the New Wave sounds of Brian Eno. 

From Sugarhill Gang to The Knack to Eddie Rabbitt, the music mirrors the exploratory choices they make. These guys are exiting the off-ramp of childhood and joyriding a little bit before getting on the long road to adulthood. But they aren’t men yet. They’re just getting a feel for it, like trying on different clothes to see what fits.

“Everybody Wants Some!!” is a richly warm and funny film, as vibrant as anything Linklater has ever done. It’s a party movie on the surface, but with a thematic depth that belies the horn dog title. Rendered without an ounce of pretension, it’s sweet but never syrupy; funny, but never particularly crude or lascivious, the male and female gaze being afforded equal time. I’m not sure if I felt even one disingenuous moment, either from the actors, who are uniformly wonderful—and again, Juston Street is riot—or from Linklater, whose shit-eating grin you can practically feel beaming from behind the camera.

There’s a certain literary quality to it all—a Mark Twain innocence as applied to a party movie that leaves one yearning for those moments when everything lay enticingly ahead, when times were simpler, when the world was less connected but the people seemed more so.

“Everybody Wants Some!!” is now playing at AMC Southroads.

For more from Joe, read his review of "The Invitation."