Everybody Wants Some is one of those triumphantly great movies invoking the feeling of something like A New Hope. It’s a film whose sole goal is to throw everything onto the screen and take 80’s college kids back to the time when they were young, along with new and younger minded people. Everybody Wants Some for sure succeeds at taking people who didn’t experience that era back to that era. Everybody Wants Some is about a college baseball team, but more specifically what happens to one of its members Jake (Blake Jenner) on the 3.5 days leading up to the start of class. It has all the college movie tropes you’d expect, and it’s just as funny as one might guess. Though, the true power in Everybody Wants Some comes from the intense nostalgia the 1980’s can offer. The Cold War was tapering out, and for the normal Texas baseball player, the world didn’t have any worries to offer other than the straightforward goal of getting laid a lot. However, one full culture shock decade and a few wars later, maybe what we really need is a reminder of how good those times were. Everybody Wants Some succeeds on the merit that it presents a world where ultimately there isn’t a whole lot to worry about, and lets an audience experiencing the stresses of the world indulge delightfully in that existing world. You want a brass tax reason why this is a great movie? Because it gives people the greatest catharsis in the world. It lets them know that the world they live in, with all its chaos, can have meaning and direction. Linklater has always been the director best at analyzing why the good times were so good, but it’s simple. There was a meaning, and there was a relief from stress. That’s why Boyhood works so well as a movie. Linklater tailers tough situations around moments when everything can finally be ok, making them all the more satisfying. Everybody Wants Some is a movie simply running on the “everything’s okay, nothing matters, just experience life and culture as fast as you can” mentality. So, while it doesn’t have the staying power, it is still an excellent and entertaining ride. It helps that the competitive “screw everyone else” nature of most of its characters fits so well with the hedonistic mentality of the whole movie. The competition to have better and better times leads to the ultimate beating heart of the movie. Now, living in the modern day, it seems as if Linklater has baked his own desperate need to get back to a time like the 1980’s in his movies, and that desperation is both relatable and cathartic. Every character is competing to make this the best time of their lives because, eventually, it’s not going to be as good. And oh boy do they. If Everybody Wants Some was just a party movie, then it would be one of the more inventive ones; it excels at showing a bit more than just the frat party. There’s a party near the ending of the film that has to do with arts and crafts people that is something most people probably haven’t seen before. The actors, much like in Boyhood, aren’t really actors in this movie. These are people bound together so well that immediately the film feels intoxicating. It’s based almost entirely on watching these guys mess around and try to find meaning in a real world where eventually they are going to have to take off their rose colored glasses off and face. Blake Jenner, Tyler Hoechlin, Glen Powell and J. Quinton Johnson aren’t themselves in this movie. They are these players, and Jenner and Powell get a huge chance to shine. The movie, as it goes on, almost becomes a character film about how all these guys use the simple “it’s ok” mentality to grow and understand the world. How using supposed freedom can ultimately improve how you interpret everything. Bottom line: Everybody Wants Some is an intimate achievement, miles better than any other party movie because of the emotions it brings to the table and the way it transports its audience into a more easygoing state of mind. In achieving this, it becomes a film that will live with us, always there to teach us that everybody wants and needs happiness and meaning. I give Everybody Wants Some a 10 out of 10.
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December 2017
CategoriesAuthorHello welcome to FilmAnalyst. My name is Stephen Tronicek, and I really like movies. This is a way to get my opinions out to people. Thank you for visiting. |