Film Review: ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ Gets Lost in Misty Nostalgia

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CHICAGO – When the first strains of “My Sharona” by The Knack come out of the car speakers of a dude going to college in 1980, as “Everybody Wants Some!!” began, my do-you-remember-when sense tingled. The film’s story, unfortunately, could not match that feeling of nostalgia.

HollywoodChicago.com Oscarman rating: 3.0/5.0
Rating: 3.0/5.0

Written and directed by the great Richard Linklater (“Boyhood”) as a “spiritual sequel” to his cult masterwork, “Dazed and Confused” (1993), the new film has the same joy of youth that its predecessor had, but its episodic vignettes about a college baseball team bonding in their off-campus housing, on the first three days of college in Fall of 1980, doesn’t have the same cohesiveness and feeling of time/place. This could be due to the young cast having the impossible task of living a youth like their parents did, or Linklater’s inability to get some distance from his own nostalgia, but the movie in general has the era’s tone, but lacks the juice in the adventures of the boys.

A hot pitching prospect, Jake (Blake Jenner), is the guy coming to his new South Texas University baseball scholarship house, where all of his teammates will be living and bonding together. The team’s star is McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin), the upper classmate leader, and is joined by his cohorts Roeper (Ryan Guzman), Willoughby (Wyatt Russell) and Dale (J. Quinton Johnson).

There are weirdos like Jay (Juston Street) and outcasts like Beuter (Will Brittain), but for the most part the baseballers are a tight knit coterie, who fall into a series of parties over the weekend. Jake the freshman uses his good looks to score with Beverly (Zoey Deutsch), and gets into a whirlwind energy even before the semester begins. This joy could go into extra innings.


“Everybody Wants Some!!” opens in Chicago April 1st, and nationwide on April 15th. Featuring Blake Jenner, Ryan Guzman, Wyatt Russell, Will Brittain, Tyler Hoechlin, J. Quinton Johnson, Juston Street and Zoey Deutch. Written and directed by Richard Linklater. Rated “R”

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Everybody Wants Some!!”

Everybody Wants Some
The Cast Just Wanna Have Fun in ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’
Photo credit: Paramount Pictures

StarContinue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Everybody Wants Some!!”

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