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Thursday, March 28, 2024

At the Movies: ‘Everybody Wants Some??’

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Richard Linklater’s “Everybody Wants Some!!” centers around the baseball team of Southeast Texas University, a fictional representation of Linklater’s college experience in which he played baseball and lived in a testosterone fueled pseudo frat house with his teammates similar to the one portrayed in the movie.

Blake Jenner plays Jake, the newest freshman baseball player on the Southeast Texas University campus, who is experiencing all the freedom, friendship and debauchery of college life over the course of the weekend before classes begin in the 1980 fall semester.

Richard Linklater has a knack for inciting a wonder and admiration for the beauty in the simplicity of life.
His charming, infinitely watchable films, practically devoid of any tangible plot, thrive off the analyzation of the inner workings of characters’ minds in such a subtle fashion that you feel you have been in a similar situation.

This technique, utilizing such simplistic beauty, is prevalent in many of Linklater’s previous masterworks – most notably “Boyhood,” “Before Sunrise,” and “Dazed and Confused” (a film Linklater believes to be a spiritual predecessor to this one) – and is particularly powerful in his newest cinematic undertaking.

The most effective tool used in “Everybody Wants Some” is music. The title itself borrowed from a popular Van Halen song, which highlights the critical role music plays throughout the picture.

Linklater takes us on an emotional journey underlined by the disco of the 70’s to the punk and glamour rock that would inevitably take over the 80’s.

This movie captures the cultural phenomena so unique to the era when music was just as alive as the people listening to it, sparking thoughts and imaginations unlike anything the music of today can produce. Above all else “Everybody Wants Some!!” serves as a showcase of a forgone cultural golden age.

An era when, faced with boredom, people were forced to talk deeply and really pick each other’s brains, to see what made them tick. It was a time when music mattered, dancing was real, conversation was true, and the clothes were awesome. Nostalgia, humor, and historical fascination all contribute to making “Everybody Wants Some!!” the great movie it is whether you were there in 1980 or not.

I give “Everybody Wants Some!!” 3.5/4 stars

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Ben Sanchez
Ben Sanchez
Ben Sanchez is a recent Metea Valley Graduate. He is both an avid moviegoer and writer.

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