I’m not a Richard Linklater fanboy by any stretch of the imagination, and Everybody Wants Some is slight even by his standards, but damned if this wasn’t one of the most purely enjoyable films I’ve seen in years. Set in the early 1980s milieu of a college baseball team on the weekend before classes start, this is the very definition of a hangout film – just following the new players and old hands as they party, practice, pick up girls, and kill time.
Frankly, normally these cocky frat boys are the last people I’d want to spend time with, but Linklater does such an excellent job of capturing each character’s foibles and quirks that it’s hard not to like them. Like an 80s sex comedy done right or a much more realistic version of Animal House, Everybody Wants Some captures a certain kind of collegiate experience and certain kind of guy, while wrapping the film up in the period piece veneer of a cultural moment just on the cusp between the 70s and 80s.
My only real complaint is that this is definitely a dude’s movie, by dudes about dudes for dudes. Women in this film are by and large present only to look pretty – everyone is gorgeous and even the token smart female love interest is basically only present to show that the hero isn’t a total sleaze. So be warned – while I wouldn’t say this film is misogynistic or offensive, it is not passing the Bechdel test.
3 ½ out of 4 stars (Great).