'Everybody Wants Some' features beer, brahs and profundity

Blake Jenner and Glen Powell in "Everybody Wants Some!" Image courtesy Paramount Pictures.

It's difficult to find any of the main characters likable for a large portion of Richard Linklater's new film, “Everybody Wants Some!” They are more often than not dumb and brutish, obsessed with alcohol and sex and goofy antics that sometimes devolve to cruelty. Even the film acknowledges these guys are typical dumb jocks treated with fealty by a system that genuflects to their athletic prowess. And then, all of a sudden, these little inklings of melancholy and philosophical musings begin to creep up within what started off as stereotypes and it becomes difficult to avoid falling for these idiots a bit; as many of them realize, life won't be much sweeter than it is for them right now. And, as they figure it, it’s best to not let that opportunity go to waste.

Right now, for the characters in “Everybody Wants Some!”, is 1980 at Southeast Texas University, three days before the start of the first semester for freshman Jake (a charming Blake Jenner). He's a new pitcher for the schools high-caliber baseball program and moves in to a decrepit off campus house with a few teammates. Among this crop of excitable boys is superstar and team captain McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin), space cadet stoner/pitcher Willoughby (Wyatt Russell), second baseman Dale (J. Quinton Johnson), the chatty Finn (Glen Powell), and amateur braggadocio Jay Niles (Juston Street). The players spend those three days bar hopping, brawling, hosting an epic party, attending an epic party, making dumb bets, mocking one another, and, for Jenner's Jake, courting attractive coed Beverly (Zoey Deutch).

And, well, that's about it for the plot to “Everybody Wants Some!” It's a pretty typical flick for writer/director Linklater, who spends almost two hours observing the characters waste away the first few days before the school year begins. It's a very long time to spend with people who are, at least on the surface, obnoxious jackanapes obsessed with causing destruction and mayhem wherever they go. This is a privileged class of people on the college campus, a team that, as the players outline, is the only successful program the college has to offer at all. They're effectively the default kings of campus, never required to go to class or have an actual major; their default line when asked about what they study is to state their presence on the team.

It does take a while to get to the full point of sympathy for these guys, so it helps that Linklater shows off his underrated sense of humor to keep the audience invested. Linklater is smart enough to make the puerile jocks the butt of the jokes, whether it's pranks amongst themselves or a female character shooting down sad, pathetic advances toward her. The audience is meant to laugh at them, but not in a particularly mean-spirited fashion either; for all their flaws and grandiose acts of stupidity, Linklater clearly cares for the group of guys he's created.  (Linklater played baseball for Sam Houston State for a couple of years in the early ’80s, adding some autobiographical context to this movie.)

“Everybody Wants Some!” never loses its sense of humor, but it begins to add little clues to offer sympathy for the adult-like devils. Much of it comes from Powell's Finn, who talks endlessly about a litany of topics while dabbling in some legitimate profundity when he isn't trying to talk a girl or two into something or other. He is very cognizant that their life as baseball players will probably end after college, that pro ball isn't in their stars unless they happen to be as gifted as Hoechlin's McReynolds (Linklater demonstrates the gap in talent with a brilliant scene). The saddest moment of the film comes when one player realizes his opportunity has come and gone, and he walks off with one final little wave of philosophy and a peace offering left behind for his former teammates.

Much of what happens in “Everybody Wants Some!” occurs amid a conversation, snuck in so Jenner’s Jake can listen in on the commentary. He’s portrayed as more of an explorer than a traditional baseball player, a person who will eagerly hit up a punk show and compare Sisyphus to baseball while absorbing knowledge and philosophy to prepare for whatever happens tomorrow. It's funny then that his final moment should find him falling asleep in his first class, shortly after the instructor writes “frontiers are where you find them” on the chalkboard and as the somewhat sardonic “Good Times Roll” plays for the audience's benefit. He's embracing his preferred status on campus, cognizant that what he needs to learn will come outside his classroom’s walls.

Review: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see a trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 116 minute

Genre: Comedy

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Target audience: People nostalgic for other days and Richard Linklater zealots.

Take the whole family?: The film does feature a bit of nudity and a sizable amount of sexual content and swearing. So, probably not.

Theater or Netflix?: I still recommend taking a theater trip for this one, but you can get away with waiting a few months for streaming versions.

Will the soundtrack get stuck in your head?: Let's just say you might load up a few songs on YouTube while working the following morning. “Everybody Wants Some!” just owns the music, from the opening of “My Sharona” to that last song by The Cars before the end credits commence. There is even a cute music video featuring the cast rapping in the style of The Sugarhill Gang during the back end of the roll.

Watch this as well?: “Dazed and Confused,” “Slacker,” and the three entries into the “Before” trilogy offer the best representation of Linklater's sensibilities as a director, along with his proclivity to capture profundity within just a few hours or days.