REVIEW: Everybody Wants Some!!

Courtesy of Paramount

There are plenty of directors I love (Spielberg, Tarantino) and plenty of directors I respect (Kubrick, Malick), but it’s like I’ve got a psychic connection with Richard Linklater. Every time I sit down to watch one of his films, regardless of genre or subject matter, I usually only get a few minutes in before I’m shaking my head in disbelief, wondering how he managed to tell a story that seems designed specifically for me.

He works that magic yet again with Everybody Wants Some!!, a shaggy, endearing comedy that’s being sold as a “spiritual sequel” to Linklater’s 1993 masterpiece Dazed and Confused (i.e. similar in tone and structure, but otherwise unconnected). A big, dumb grin materialized on my face as soon as the movie started – accompanied by those classic opening notes of The Knack’s “My Sharona” – and it stayed there until the end credits. My cheeks were killing me as I walked back to the car.

However, there are some fundamental differences between Linklater’s two flashback films. Dazed and Confused was about high school kids in the 1970s and featured a protagonist who uttered the relatable words, “If I ever start referring to these as the best years of my life, remind me to kill myself.” His latest is about college baseball players in the 1980s who are completely aware they’re living the best years of their lives. They’re in their prime and taking full advantage of it.

Viewers are introduced to this world through Jake (Blake Jenner), a freshman pitcher who moves into the team’s dilapidated, off-campus house three days before classes start. He meets his teammates (including Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin, Wyatt Russell, Glen Powell and J. Quinton Johnson), goes to a lot of parties and tries his luck with a few young women before meeting a theater major (Zoey Deutch) he experiences a genuine connection with.

That’s it. That’s the entire movie. But don’t let the almost nonexistent plot fool you into thinking this is some nostalgic attempt to deify jock behavior. Everybody Wants Some!! is two hours of pure, unadulterated joy. Yeah, these guys are booze-swilling, sex-obsessed bros, but they’re also decent guys who are equal-opportunity partiers. They fit right in whether they’re at a disco, a cowboy bar, a punk rock mosh pit or hanging with a bunch of drama geeks.

Much like Dazed and Confused, Linklater doesn’t pretend this story is realistic. Instead, it plays out the way most of us like to remember our past. We dwell on the good stuff, forget the bad times and make ourselves out to be just a little bit (or a lot, depending your ego) better than we actually were.

But make no mistake – these guys are amazing athletes. Just when you think the movie is setting these guys up to be all talk, Linklater dedicates a scene to their first practice and you understand why the team is nationally ranked. Earlier in the film, there’s a scene where one of the characters contextualizes the intense, often hilariously so, competition the young men have between one another.

It’s all fun and games when they’re mocking someone for taking ping-pong too seriously, but then he points out that drive is what makes them so incredible on the field. That’s when I realized these guys might be party animals, but they don’t take their talent for granted.

They understand the chances of getting to the majors are microscopic, but they’re going to fight like crazy until that option is off the table. I don’t have an athletic bone in my body, but you’ve got to respect that kind of drive. And it makes you understand their need to blow off some steam.

Obviously, this element – and everything else about the movie – works because Linklater is one of the greatest filmmakers alive. But it’s also because he knows how to cast the heck out of his movies (in addition to putting together the perfect soundtrack).

Even though his character isn’t the most colorful, Jenner (who was one of the bright spots in a terrible season of Glee) is a great audience surrogate in this world where college baseball players are treated like kings. When we’re bewildered about something, so is he. Honestly, it’s a staggeringly selfless performance; he hangs back while everyone else gets the funny, memorable lines.

Practically all the performances are fantastic, especially Russell (son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn), Deutch (daughter of Lea Thompson, who looks just like her mom circa Back to the Future) and Johnson. Temple Baker, as one of the more dimwitted team members, deserves special mention for one scene in particular. I wouldn’t dream of spoiling it, but he’s got a line during the theater kids’ party that is so off-the-wall hilarious it made me bury my face in my hands to muffle my high-pitched screams of laughter. The people sitting next to me must’ve thought I was insane.

But the film’s MVP is Powell, who plays Finnegan, the guy who takes it upon himself to be Jake’s spirited, philosophizing mentor. Did you ever get to know a character in a movie and wish he was your best friend? (Is it just me? Am I the weird one?) That’s how I felt about Powell’s character; the guy just perfectly straddles the line between genius and fool.

Very rarely do I wish that a movie was longer, but that’s exactly what I hoped for with “Everybody Wants Some!!” Two hours isn’t enough time to spend with this fascinating bunch of folks. I would gladly watch a couple of sequels in which we see how the team’s season goes and maybe catch up with them at a reunion 20 years down the road. Maybe it’s not out of the question. After all, Linklater is the guy who made the brilliant Before trilogy.

The film opens this Friday at Midtown Art in Atlanta and it’s absolutely worth the drive. You’ve got a chance to get in on the ground floor of a future classic. I’d take advantage of the opportunity. I know we’re only in April, but it’s easily my favorite movie of the year so far.

Everybody Wants Some!! is rated R for language throughout, sexual content, drug use and some nudity.

Grade: A