Everybody Wants Some

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.

Everybody Wants Some!! was a perfect film for this moment: it consists of little more than a bunch of overly-competitive jocks joking with each other, partying, and trying to get laid over the course of three days before school even starts. It's intelligently written, fun, well-acted, and well-shot. What more could you ask for? Linklater, of course, does it all in a slice of life fashion: the opening of the film doesn't even attempt to describe what's going to happen and the end of the film barely describes what happened beforehand. The movie is almost meditative, and yet continually looking for stimulus in the largest and tiniest things... really whatever kind of stimulus they can get their hands on. Story-wise, it unfolds over almost every part of the era, which is, as far as I could tell, undefined yet seemingly somewhere during the 80s. Each night takes us to a different flavor of the time: disco, punk, you name it... but the genius of the script is that you don't really realize you've been given a tasting menu until you've already eaten everything. It just seems natural when it happens. Everything in this film seems natural, and that's a credit to the director, but also the actors. I imagine casting was the most important part of putting this film together and it seems to have been a success: every actor kills their part. Were they even acting? I have a feeling they were just being themselves. If you want to watch some kids mess around and laugh with them or at them, Everybody Wants Some!! not only is your movie, but probably will be your movie for a long time coming.

This was put together in an entertaining fashion. Trouble for me is that I'd walk a mile to avoid the kind of people the film is about. Always did, when I was younger, avoid the bullying sexist jock and unless you are enamoured, you may not want some of a film that celebrates them off the Richter scale.

There is also the fact that in this Mudville there are only shiny happy people out of Hollywood wardrobe department and there's little resemblance to reality.

That shouldn't stop those who want college and youth myths big on All American ball-whacking, drinking, weed-smoking, look-how-crazy-we-all-are high spirits. There will be lots of people who want some of that.

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.