There’s been a lot of hype around Everybody Wants Some since it was deemed the “spiritual successor” to Richard Linklater’s cult classic Dazed and Confused. Where one explores high school in the seventies, the other explores college in the eighties. While Everybody Wants Some gets to showcase some young talent and hits the same nostalgic tones as Dazed, its lack of variety and depth keep it from truly shining.
Jake (Blake Jenner) is a college freshman that moves into the house where all the baseball players live. We get to follow along with him as he explores everything that college has to offer in the few days before classes start. Mainly, that involves hanging with his teammates at parties and bars trying to pick up girls. I mean, that’s pretty much all they do for the entire film.
Thankfully, all that partying and goofing off is impeccably set. As usual, Linklater nails the tone of this film through wardrobe and music. Set in the early eighties, it actually doesn’t look all that different than the seventies. As the boys bar hop, we get to see and hear a variety of clothes and music. From disco to country to punk we get a soundtrack that leads us through each scene. Coupled with detailed costumes and impeccable facial hair, the nostalgia practically oozes off the screen.
It’s fun to see these guys letting loose and having fun, even if it is ALL they do. Eventually, the baseball guys start to bleed together. They’re all just bros looking for ladies and punching one another. The lone standouts were Glen Powell as Finnegan, a fast-talking upper classman, and Wyatt Russell as Willoughby, a stoner that mostly lives out of his van. Jenner also does a good job holding down the fort as the protagonist. His long hair and big smile, coupled with the character’s convenient above average smarts, make him more sympathetic than many of his teammates.
In the end, this too-similar group of baseball players is what brings down the film. In many ways their perspective is the only one you get and it gets one-note heavy very quickly. While we got to see many different high school students (geeks, cool kids, jocks, etc) in Dazed, we get a much more limited view this time around. For instance, there’s only one significant woman character in the film. ONE. And she’s the smart one. The bros even mention that she’s nothing like the “airheads” they usually sleep around with. Even though that might fit with the views of their time, it’s still disappointing. Additionally, because the film focuses so much on partying with the teammates, the whole thing begins to feel incredibly superficial. References are made in passing to the whole issue of “who am I supposed to be?” that many of us go through in college, but everyone mostly shrugs it off.
Don’t get me wrong, Everybody Wants Some is an incredibly fun film to watch. The jokes mostly land and the feel of the film is impeccable. The nostalgia is strong and the bars and parties last all night. However, by focusing his attention solely on the baseball team and never delving too deep past that, it ends up feeling like fluff.
