Sydney ’16: Everybody Wants Some!! review: How does Richard Linklater follow up his ambitious classic?
Another vision of precision that is infectious and impossible to ignore. Everybody Wants Some!! review by Luke Ryan Baldock, May 2016.
Everybody Wants Some review
Richard Linklater has a hard act to follow. His previous film, Boyhood, was a celebrated and ambitious epic shot over 12 years. One would think that nobody could follow up a film with such vision and precision, but Linklater is a versatile and adaptable director and also a very clever man. Everybody Wants Some!! doesn’t try and top its predecessor, being a very simple film without a clear plot. So why and how is it so damn good?
Linklater takes us back to the 1980s during the first weekend at college. Classes haven’t started yet, freshman are moving in and meeting their housemates, and the college baseball team are bonding. Blake Jenner is Jake, one of the new pitchers for the team. He moves into a house comprised completely of the college baseball team. The house is off campus and allows the team to have free reign and a huge party mentality. Through a series of episodic events we’re taken through a whirlwind weekend, while the boys try to get drunk, laid, and train for their upcoming season.
Everybody Wants Some review
It may sound a little like a teen movie that would be filled with gross-out humour but Linklater’s script fills the screen with lovable characters while also avoiding obvious plot twists and generic character work. Everybody Wants Some!! is great for everything it doesn’t do, as well as everything it does do. A number of scenes seem to lead up to obvious plot points or punchlines, but then avoids them completely. Some may see this as a build-up with no payoff, but it was refreshing to see a film that avoids being predictable and just allows you to enjoy every single minute. This also extends to characters, many of whom start out seeming to loudly announce their intentions, only to twist it into something brotherly and admirable.
The cast are an exceptional bunch, with everyone of them deserving many great roles in the future. It’s so extensive it would be impossible to list them all, but some of the biggest stand-outs include Glenn Powell as the well-spoken Finnegan who uses more precise techniques to pick up women. Juston Street is the unhinged and too eager to impress Jay, and Tyler Hoechlin is the team captain who seems to be too strict on his team, but give him time and he’ll win you over.
Everybody Wants Some review
With a stunning soundtrack, excellent humour, and friendship among the cast that is infectious and impossible to ignore, Everybody Wants Some!!, shows the characters true hearts and delights in showing these horny young men as genuinely nice people at heart. The lack of antagonists and conflict may rub some up the some way, but this is a party film that wants to raise you up and cheer your spirits, something it does exceptionally well. Everybody Wants Some is one of the best cinematic treats of 2016. Charming characters, excellent humour, and a constant sense of goodwill and camaraderie makes this an unmissable treat you don’t want to end.
Everybody Wants Some!! is currently screening at the Sydney Film Festival and is now playing in UK cinemas.
