Review: Everybody Wants Some!! (2016)

In this, a so-called “spiritual successor” to Dazed & Confused, Richard Linklater skips forward to the 80s, cutting a languid and loose mediation on college life through the eyes of Jake (Blake Jenner), a freshman keen to celebrate his newfound freedom. In the three-day run up to classes starting, the frats – all part of the baseball team – party, lust after the opposite sex and test one another’s masculinity through silly contests and intellect. Linklater mostly eschews typical stereotypes, yet has limited focus, opting to take a backseat role as director. This is fine at first, enabling the actors – Tyler Hoechlin and Glen Powell are stand-outs – to lose themselves in their roles and the audience to relive their carefree days as Jake and co drift around in search of the next bit of fun, but wears thin by the end as the characters and repetitive larks start to provoke discomfort and fatigue. Everybody Wants Some scores plenty of laughs (and has a homoerotic subtext bubbling throughout), though there’s an overriding feeling that more of a refined eye – not to mention script – would have helped.