Richard Linklater instantly became a filmmaker whose name alone would get us in the theater with his 1993 cult classic, Dazed and Confused. For years, the writer-directed has said that he wanted to follow-up that iconic flick with something firmly related, yet not a true sequel. He’s done it and alright, alright, alright was it worth the wait. Everybody Wants Some!! is the type of film that will put a smile on your face that won’t leave long after leaving the theater.
The “spiritual sequel” to Dazed and Confused takes place on the campus of a Texas university in 1980 and follows Jake, a young freshman baseball pitcher — played by newcomer Blake Jenner. He arrives on campus and moves into the baseball team house and immediately, the world of Everybody Wants Some!! envelops you in the texture, tone and yes, soundtrack of life on a college campus in 1980.
Linklater has an incredible knack as a screenwriter to create ensembles that are richly filled with diverse souls who feel about as real as the people in our own lives. And not only does he provide a framework for an engaging story that sweeps all of these characters together, but at some point each and every one of them will have the opportunity to wax poetic about something significant and profound. Many, more than once. It is an astounding achievement by a storyteller who time has shown is one of our most talented.
Whereas Dazed and Confused took place on the last day of school in 1976, Everybody Wants Some!! takes place over the opening weekend of Jake’s first year of college. It’s a fascinating time where late teens are on their way to becoming independent adults. The first exalting moments of freedom are also accompanied by copious amounts of self-doubt and yes, even a bit of fear. Will I fit in? Will I make any friends?
As most of us discovered during that first weekend of college before classes start, with a little bit of alcohol and a collective mentality that finds others who are in the same boat — people bond and instant friendships are formed.
The Texas born auteur captures that on a level that is astounding. Jake walks into a house and no one is there to greet him. It’s just him, a small bag and a milk crate full of records (who cannot relate to that experience who started school in the 80s?). Upon going deeper into the house, he meets several of the upperclassmen and some fellow freshmen (including his roommate — again, who cannot relate to that awkward, but potentially personally thrilling moment). A baseball team meeting is hours away, so what should the guys do now that almost everyone is here? Sure, let’s go to a nearby bar and drink some beer!
And, we’re off on our 72 hours of decadence, personal discovery, laughs, hook-ups and above all else, the hope and promise of a year of experience that will be unlike anything Jake has ever been through prior.
Like Dazed and Confused, not only is the ensemble given rich prose to paint our story’s picture, but the actors and actresses themselves are also up to crafting characters that pop off the screen.
Jenner is up for the challenge of carrying this movie. Whereas in the first film in Linklater’s youthful journey series spread its focus over several people (although that soon-to-be-freshmen, one could argue, was the focus), Everybody Wants Some!! is truly a weekend-in-the-life of one person, our protagonist. And also like Dazed and Confused, we would bet that several members of this cast will break out and do bigger things. There may be no Matthew McConaughey-type breakout, but look for much from Wyatt Russell’s (Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell’s son) Southern California transplant pitcher Willoughby, Tyler Hoechlin’s commanding McReynolds and especially the mustached scene stealer who will be the source of most of the lines you quote long after leaving this film, Glen Powell’s Finnegan.
In fact, there is no weak link in this ensemble at all. We could see every single member having enormous opportunities heaped onto them after the world catches them in Everybody Wants Some!!
Linklater, can do no wrong in our book. What is so fascinating is that this is the film he chose to make after the Oscar winning Boyhood, a film that he made over a 17-year period that chronicles the journey from childhood to adulthood in the most brilliant of ways. As his title character headed off to college in the final moments of that film, there was merely the promise of what that once-in-a-lifetime experience would be captured by Linklater’s lens and literary charm.
With Everybody Wants Some!! we get to go on that journey even further in a way that is truly “spiritual” in not only how it connects to Dazed and Confused, but truthfully to the universality of any of us who have lived those same moments.
Grade: A