EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! (director/writer: Richard Linklater; cinematographer: Shane F. Kelly; editor: Sandra Adair; cast: Will Brittain (Beuter), Zoey Deutch (Beverly), Austin Amelio (Nesbit), Tyler Hoechlin (McReynolds), Blake Jenner (Jake), Ryan Guzman (Roper), J. Quinton Johnson (Dale), Glen Powell (Finnegan), Wyatt Russell (Willoughby), Juston Street (Niles), Temple Baker (Plummer), Tanner Kalina (Brumley), Forrest Vickery (Coma), Jonathan Breck (Coach Gordan); Runtime: 156; MPAA Rating: R; producer: Richard Linklater; Paramount; 2016)
“It scores a few runs with its engaging characters and spicy dialogue but does not swing for the long ball, as it’s content to just score enough to win.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
An easy-going but forgettable back-to-school 1980s comedy about male bonding on a college baseball team. It’s billed as a “spiritual sequel” to 1993’s “Dazed and Confused,” the now 55-year-old Richard Linklater’(“Boyhood”/”Before The Sunrise”/”Slacker”) perceptive comedy on 1970s high school students. This one is an ongoing exercise on the vibes of a baseball team coming together in the fall when they register for the new year classes and begin practice for the spring season. It follows them for a long week-end, where they check into their rooms at their off-campus team houses and the freshmen are introduced to the rest of the team of privileged scholarship students. The freshman get pranked by the vets and the team further bonds by talking shop, smoking pot, drinking beer, clubbing, partying and trying to score chicks. Casual sex and open conversations are cherished as the in-thing. The film has no recognizable stars, which helps us believe they are authentic.
In the fall of 1980, at a fictitious unnamed southeast Texas college, freshman pitcher Jake (Blake Jenner) rides around campus trying to meet coeds in a ’72 Oldsmobile coupe driven by the team playboy leader Roper (Ryan Guzman). Also aboard are the cocky slugger McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin), the sole black player Dale (J. Quinton Johnson), the smooth talking Kerouac reader stoner Finn (Glen Powell) and Willoughby (Wyatt Russell), the California philosophizing mysterious stoner who urges everyone to just be weird. Other notable players include Jake’s hayseed roommate Beuter (Will Brittain), and the crazed narcissist transfer pitcher Niles (Juston Street).
The film centers around the hunky Jake and the cool way he romances theater-arts student Beverly (Zoey Deutch) and at the same time manages to play along as a good team-mate with the always questioning frisky players.
It’s a modest observant comedy about testing one’s memories, bringing back nostalgia (first intro to Led Zeppelin & Pink Floyd), and in finding your own bearings while learning on-the-fly how to grow-up. It scores a few runs with its engaging characters and spicy dialogue but does not swing for the long ball, as it’s content to just score enough to win.
REVIEWED ON 5/8/2016 GRADE: B
Dennis Schwartz: “Ozus’ World Movie Reviews”
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