‘A big smile on my face’: why Everybody Wants Some!! is my feelgood movie

2 hours ago 5

If any film can make me feel like a teenager again, it’s Everybody Wants Some!!

I first saw it when it came out in 2016 (making basically no money at the box office, which is a shame), and I’ve watched it at least once a year since.

Serving as a spiritual sequel to Richard Linklater’s earlier film Dazed and Confused, it’s set in 1980 and follows Jake (Blake Jenner), a quiet and naive baseball player, in the few days before he starts college. He moves into campus housing with his new teammates, each of whom were the star prospects in their schools.

Jake’s teammates, played by actors like Wyatt Russell and Tyler Hoechlin, are all excellent in their roles and their chemistry shines through on screen. That’s probably because before filming started, the actors hung out with each other for three weeks on Linklater’s ranch. I respect the movie industry’s ongoing commitment to making Glen Powell happen, and that started here with a solid supporting role as one of Jake’s teammates, Finnegan. In interviews, Powell has named this film as his first big break.

The film shows Jake finding his people immediately; he’s singing along to Rapper’s Delight with the guys within an hour of meeting them and is joining in with their jokes and repartee not long afterwards. Sure, he goes through a couple of hazing rituals (like being tricked into doing a sit-up into someone’s sweaty undercarriage) but it’s all in good fun and there’s no permanent damage. Powell’s character sums it up nicely: “You accept your chumpification, wear it well and pass it on.” Sure enough, Jake helps to pull the same prank on someone else seconds later.

Because it’s a film full of jocks always playing pranks and competing with each other, it’s easy to write off Everybody Wants Some!! as just another testosterone-filled buddy comedy, a film that Mark Kermode described as “Porky’s shot by an A-list director”. But the Porky’s comparison couldn’t be more wrong, as the many beautiful women the guys meet are never humiliated or made to feel “less than”. They’re very comfortable with the guys and have a great time with them. Their interactions are set to some banging tunes, with artists such as Blondie, Pete Townshend, Eddie Rabbitt and Devo building the feelgood atmosphere.

Against all film-making advice, there are no real stakes here. Nobody’s stressed about anything other than having fun and playing baseball with their new friends. It’s escapism in the purest sense.

The closest thing the film gets to any conflict is a couple of heated exchanges with a particularly intense pitcher. It’s refreshing to see a film that doesn’t tack on a third-act fallout because a screenwriting book said there should be one.

Linklater has a real flair for dialogue, with lines like “they’re intelligent girls, you have to rise and meet them on their level”. It’s full of great character moments too: one of the first things his new housemates do when Jake introduces himself is wipe their hands in disgust because they shook hands with a pitcher.

Even though the jocks take lots of potshots at each other throughout the film, they build each other up as well (as seen when two of them are serving as wingmen for each other). “You work through jock bravado and realise they’re not bad guys,” Linklater said in an interview with the Skinny in 2016. “They’re not dark hearted. They surprise you.” In their pursuit of women and new experiences, the guys go out of their comfort zones and flit between a country bar, a disco party and a shindig thrown by theatre students, and they end up enjoying themselves at all of them. Because everybody’s having a good time, you are too.

Jake is invited to that theatre party by his third act love interest, Beverly (Zoey Deutch). Their dorky phone flirting is fun to watch, and it’s joyous to see him smitten when she’s talking about her passions. He could’ve met the one already, or it could fizzle out after a few dates, but we don’t need to know how their relationship progresses. The hope of a bright future for the two of them is enough for now, and his new friends are happy for him.

As he sits down in his first class after spending a romantic night in the river with Beverly, Jake ends the film with a big smile on his face.

Dammit, so do I.