Release all the drama and philosophical musings because this time Richard Linklater invites us to have fun in Everybody Wants Some !!. Taken from the title song Van Halen, this film is a celebration of freedom and youth. But because it is still the film Linklater, of course there is still a kind of light contemplations are inserted between orgies.
Despite the characters in Everybody Wants Some !! entirely new, Linklater calls this film the "spiritual sequel" of his classic Dazed and Confused, and is a kind of continuation for one of his masterpieces, Boyhood. The film takes the moment right when a young boy (Mason of Boyhood) goes to college. From there, we follow the daily lives of the characters within a limited time frame through a narrative structure similar to Dazed and Confused.
True, this film is also a time capsule for the era before the film era was produced. Linklater managed to prepare the right nuances for the 80s era. Starting from a selection of clothes, hairstyles and whiskers, cars, property ("Space Invaders", bro) and soundtrack options like "Rapper's Delight" and "My Sharona" with the right placement.
Everybody Wants Some !! set in 1980, a few days before the lecture began, so the campus baseball team members were determined to go crazy until the last second. This time his madness was crazier again, because they had passed the age limit of 18 years and lived in the dorm. No parent or authority forbids drinking or having sex.
Almost without a plot, instead we witnessed the wild activities typical of young people. Partying, drinking beer, competing, fighting, teasing girls, etc. One can be called the main character is Jake (Blake Jenner), a new student who is innocent but quite slang to be able to mingle with his senior who have a unique character. Among them are the outspoken McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin); Finn (Glenn Powell) is the most chatty, most cunning girl with a surprising detention; Roper (Ryan Guzman) who appears to be the group leader; The arrogant Jay (Juston Street), and Willoughby (Wyatt Russell), a bearded student who is wise enough for the size of the addict.
The character may be a cliche. The athletes of this campus are short-minded, selfish, hooligans and sex-hungry. But Linklater accommodates them with personality and chemistry. We follow their journey, sometimes cross each other, sometimes separately, enough to open the personality layer. Jake gets a part to start a relationship with a student of art class (Zoey Deutch), but, well, this is just a reason for Linklater to present a moment of contemplation about "enjoying the moment" and "responsibility for maturity".
All macho activities caused by the youthfulness of the blood may make us uncomfortable but Linklater does not lead us to judge, whether when they mengganja or obsessed berban intimate. He is more interested in looking at the dynamics of his character, how they interact with each other or the environment, although the coverage is not as wide as Dazed and Confused. Filled with intelligent dialogues as well as natural jokes, the film flows smoothly. It's not hard to feel involved when they have fun from disco parties, country parties, punk parties, to art class parties, trying to adapt.
And of course, we finally see them playing baseball, but not until the middle of the movie. The scene is just practice, but Linklater has many things to be told through this simple moment.
When listening to the cool guitar solo of the Pink Floyd song, one of his characters had said, "Everyone can do something like that, but find a tangent working in a frame, that's where the art is." Sentence that sounds like a prestigious statement from Linklater to the movie. But this is not nonsense when he manages to prove it.
