Richard Linklater's Everybody Wants Some!! takes us back to August 1980 and plays out over a three-day period. Beginning with the arrival of Jake (Blake Jenner) to the first day of classes. We follow Jake as he arrives on a baseball scholarship to meet his teammates, prep for the start of term, and get ready for the inevitable step-up from high school.
Like most Linklater films the plot is incidental because it's all about the journey, we are merely hanging out with these characters for a weekend in their lives.Time is mostly spent following them about as they head to clubs, throw a wild party, engage in endless competitions, bicker, and attempt to hit on any woman that comes within range, all before term has even commenced. On the surface this is a formulaic collegiate sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll rites of passage tale, but Linklater infuses depth and nuance into the exploits of young people in this brief moment of time.
The cast for Everybody Wants Some!! is spectacular right down to the bit roles. Finn (Glenn Powell) is the senior who takes the role of learned guide with a nice twist in self-deprecation, Willoughby (Wyatt Russell) is a blond haired pot head philosopher who dispenses pearls of wisdom to his impressionable protégées whilst passing round the pipe, Billy 'Beuter' Awtry (Will Brittain) is the homesick cowboy missing his love, Jay (Juston Street) may be on the verge of being signed up by a major league team or may simply be a neurotic narcissist with anger management issues and Beverly (Zoey Deutch) is the theatre girl who has a future on stage and, most likely, with Jake.
Everybody Wants Some!! may be billed as a spiritual sequel to Dazed and Confused, but it feels more like a genuine followup to a classic film. It's that next step, that moment in time when you thought you knew who you were but really had no idea. Who you though you were at 17 is not the person you will be at 22 and Linklater captures that essence in a bottle, films it and puts it on the screen for all to see.
Rating: 8.5/10 Stars
Rich Stile @TheDevilsEyes1