Friday, April 8, 2016

Everybody Wants Some

At some level every one of us is able to find a connection with Richard Linklater’s classic film Dazed and Confused simply for the fact that we all remember being a scared and awkward little freshmen from the very first moment we stepped foot on a high school campus . I mean who doesn’t remember spending the majority of their time trying to find their niche while at the same time avoiding the jerkoff upper classmen who were only there to haze us. I personally loved that movie because it describe to a tee just how awful weekend nights in a small country town can be. Sure in Linklater’s film he made it look cool, but driving around all night and hitting up the local Sonic in hopes of finding a party that will eventually get broken up anyway is not as fun as it seems. The only thing it was missing was a bunch of country hicks in ten gallon hats pounding Old Milwaukee’s Best in the parking lot of a country dance hall and you would’ve had an exact replica of my teenage years on film.

Well in his latest movie Everybody Wants Some he decides to put his focus on the All State freshmen Jake, a talented young baseball player who is arriving on campus at a small college in Texas for the first time during the early 80’s. There’s still a few days left before school starts but this bright eyed jock finds out rather quickly that he has quite a bit to learn as he gets adjusted to the needs and wants of college girls, the partying and lifestyle that goes along with living in the baseball house, and the diversity that exists on a college campus.

As is typically the case with a Linklater film, there really isn’t much of a plot as he instead puts his focus on the everyday experiences that help shape and mold us into the people that we eventually become later on in life. And I have to say that this formula has seemingly always worked for him in the past but in his latest attempt to capture the magic of growing up, it appeared early on that he was going to fail miserably this time around. The first few characters Jake meets are these cocky upperclassmen who are way too full of themselves and who are not welcoming at all. And as the story goes on, you find that he’s meeting more and more of these weirdo jerks as he makes his way through the house.

But you eventually get used to these oddballs and their peculiar ways, much like you do when you’re entering any new environment for the first time. You realize that they’re just a bunch of kids who are also trying to find their niche through the use of posturing and attitude, and that it’s all done with the hopes of keeping their spot on the team while also getting the attention of cute young girls. Looking back I wish the only weird thing I did to get girls was posture and play sports; I instead chose to dress up like Bobby Brown and dance like I was an extra in an MC Hammer video. Thankfully this was before the days of YouTube and Snapchat.

Once you get settled in, it truly does feel like you’re watching the sequel to Dazed as you find yourself laughing at all of the silly things you used to do while growing up. This film takes you back to the days of having to learn quite a few of life’s lessons such as: your limits when it came to taking a big bong rip, learning how to properly mosh in a pit, and of course having to deal with seeing the promiscuous girl you just hooked up with, hooking up with someone else the next night. That of course was followed up with an STD test the next day but thankfully Linklater spared us that footage.

So if you’re in the mood for some fun nostalgia and you want some inspiration to get back out there and pound some beers, I suggest you check this film out. I give it a rating of pretty FRESH!

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