Everybody Wants Some!!

This film tells the story of a man who enters college, and stays with his baseball teammates in a communal house. He explores his adult life, with the company and help from his baseball teammates.

Perhaps due to the fact that I am not interested in baseball, I find the story rather non engaging. All I see is a bunch of testosterone fuelled guys doing silly things, having parties, drinking and shouting. It doesn't have a real plot, as there is no central message or moral story to be delivered. We see the lives of these people in three days, condensed in two hours. I don't know what the point of the film is, but i certainly do not find their lives interesting.

In general, I'n not a fan for the films of Richard Linklater, but I will confess to having enjoyed 'Dazed and Confused', a sympathetic account of the last day in high school of a group of Texas teenagers in the 1970s. Aside from its brilliant title, that film was a non-judemental and unforced look at their lives; and in some ways, Linklater is back onto similar territory with 'Everybody Wants Some!!', which follows a group of first year students as they start college. But this movie did not do it for me. The characters are a group of male baseball scholars, and their stereotypical obsessions about sex, love of partying and general jockishness put me off; it's not just that I didn't like them, but also, their story arcs felt exagerrated given the entire film takes place over their first weekend. Also, for a film which is many ways has a realistic feel, eveveryone is far too good looking on average, and the male actors in particular are far too old.

Yes, the movie was realistic and there were a few, sparse moments of tenderness between Jake and his romantic interest, but I was disappointed by the imbalanced focus of this movie. As most college students, then and now, are not hardcore jocks, this is a skewed vision of college life in that era. We get scant input from other groups on campus.

Compared to Dazed and Confused, which featured a much broader spectrum of teenage life in the mid 70s, including jocks, budding intellectuals, burn-outs, etc., Everybody Wants Some is mainly focused on college jock life and the pervasive misogyny one might expect. At times insightful, and also humorous, the movie simply observes the lives of its characters. But it pales compared to its predecessor, and the overwhelming emphasis on the misogynistic and competitive sexual exploits of its characters tends to fracture and efface the movie's charms.

I enjoyed this movie and love all of Linklater's works. Certain directors just mesh well with your world view and style. His humor works for certain people, and it doesn't translate well for international audiences. For instance, I can't stand Kevin Smith's style of comedy, but many people adore it.

This movie took me back to my college years. I attended the University of Texas and belonged to a fraternity. Although we weren't athletic jocks, there were similar dynamics, characters, and situations as with this movie's baseball team. Looking back it was immature and misogynistic fun, however it happened and I had great memories from then. This movie captured that very well.

That said, there was no tension or arc that this group faced. Everything came to them pretty easy, like on a silver platter. There are people like that in life, yet it doesn't make for compelling cinema. I also thought the lead had little chemistry or charisma with his girl. The character played by Glen Powell was the highlight, as was the soundtrack.

I had great hopes for this, ,knowing Linklater's work. I had great expectations also because I anticipated seeing "my" college era and experience through his lens and view. It did not resonate but I was never a part of a Fraternity or clique. What did sink in and where the movie turned for me was the realization that this was a film about discovery and how this group of misfits are finding their own identity. Once I got over the "Jock Talk" and realized that fact, I started to really like this movie. It was an interesting choice to select a group of Baseball players to serve as the vehicle to discovery and identity. It turned out this film did, in fact, resonate with me as I was a loner in college who had many friends who "belonged" to various groups, never once considering myself a part of any particular group. That diversity was one of the best value propositions I got out of my college experience. The quest for diversity was very well presented in this movie picture show.