As ever, Richard Linklater continues to function as our badly-needed
antidote to not one but two modes in English-language films; the bloated,
assembly-line Hollywood film, most obviously, but also the terminally hip indie-art
film that panders to critics and film geeks.
Almost alone, it seems, Linklater stands against the combined onslaught
of shameless commercialism on one end and pretentious stylization on the other,
both of which are hollow beneath their slick veneers. Linklater remains to repeatedly demonstrate
that the films that resonate with people and stay with us throughout our lives
are the ones that earn our trust and emotional investment, not the ones that
skim over us with sensational affectations that only satisfy in a transient,
superficial way. It’s evident that
Linklater knows and loves his characters, with all their imperfections; they
were not transplanted, thinly disguised, from other movies of which he may be a
fan. Events happen in his films because
they feel right and are organic to the situation he’s depicting, not because
it’s time to refer to the industry-recommended checklist of plot stages. Everybody
Wants Some!!, while not a sequel to Dazed
and Confused (1993), is very much a companion piece and could easily exist
in the same world; taking place in the same town, Austin, Texas, four years
later among a different, slightly older group.
The story unfolds over a long weekend before school starts and
chronicles the curious, banal and endearing male bonding rituals amongst a
college baseball team; some veterans and some incoming freshmen. They’re jocks who feel they own the school,
and probably do; (although in Texas I’d imagine they are slightly down the
ladder in prestige from the football players).
Their primary concerns are drinking and getting laid, but overshadowing
everything is the need to coalesce into a functioning team, which justifies the
endless partying interrupted by occasional batting practice and philosophical
conversations. As in Dazed and Confused, the ensemble cast of
unknowns is incredibly refreshing and make it impossible not to regard them as
human beings rather than vain actors playing make-believe. The film is nostalgic without being maudlin;
there are no jokes or pointed commentary about how things have either improved
or worsened since 1980. Linklater
clearly remembers this period as a time when interpersonal relationships - conflicts included - were
essential not only to getting by in the world but in establishing one’s personality.
As a sports film, Everybody Wants Some!! is quite unique because it neither focuses
on a climactic big game nor presents the players as terribly heroic or
troubled. They’re just average guys,
some more likable than others, and some more dedicated than others. As always when he’s at his best, Linklater
effortlessly manages to tell these intimate stories – while rarely resorting to
exposition – that are still impacted by the world at large; though so focused
on their personal problems, his characters are also always aware of what’s going
in the culture and seem to have some perspective on the relative triviality of
most of their days’ activities compared to what the world and the future have
in store for them. This talent of Linklater’s
never feels like such an extraordinary thing while you’re in the middle of one
of his films, until you look around and realize how few of his peers are
remotely as successful in the same context.
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