Richard Linklater’s newest film “Everybody Wants Some!!,” which follows a college baseball team, is a total home run. The film takes place in Austin during the ’80s for four days before classes begin. Without practice or class the guys get up to some serious shenanigans.
“Everybody Wants Some!!” has been called the spiritual sequel to Linklater’s 1993 “Dazed and Confused” and even though it’s never mentioned in the movie, the overall message and tone makes it clear. The ensemble cast deals with the issues facing typical college students today, including questions like, what bar are we going to tonight, who is that girl and what would it be like to have a tail.
The cast included Blake Jenner, Juston Street, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Wyatt Russell, Glen Powell, Temple Baker and J. Quinton Johnson as members of the college champion baseball team. Part of what made the film so fun to watch was the team’s chemistry.
“Even the first day we were paling around and getting along,” Russell said during an interview with Campus Weekly arts & life editor Riley Coven. “I think that speaks to Rick’s casting ability to be able to find guys that are going to gel well with one another.”
If you took away the bell-bottoms and switched up the music, the whole film could take place today. At its heart, “Everybody Wants Some!!” is just a story about a group of guys in college trying to make the most of their last days of summer. The struggles they face are universal and the friendships they form are founded on the same things that build relationships in college today.
The party montages are punctuated by moments that are reflective without being overdone and the final scene brings home the film in such a satisfying way that holds together the authenticity of the film.
All together “Everybody Wants Some!!” is bound to be one of the best films of the summer. It’s the film you’ll think about for weeks after and will be dying to watch again.