Review #1,054: 'Everybody Wants Some!!' (2016)

Fresh off the critical success of Boyhood, a coming-of-age project 12 years in the making, writer/director Richard Linklater has returned to the genre he no doubt by now feels entirely comfortable in, the slacker comedy. Dubbed as a 'spiritual sequel' to one of his most beloved movies, Dazed and Confused (1993), Everybody Wants Some!! - a title taken from a Van Halen song - follows a group of baseball jocks in college over the course of 3 days before class, and arguably real life, finally starts.

It's Texas, 1980, and freshman and promising pitcher Jake (Blake Jenner) arrives at one of the two decrepit neighbouring houses set aside for the college baseball team, where he is greeted with a mixture of both excited curiosity and suspicious disdain. Finnegan (Glen Powell), Dale (J. Quinton Johnson) and Roper (Ryan Guzman), a few of the older students who welcome Jake and fellow freshman Plummer (Temple Baker) with a bit more warmth, take the new arrivals on a car journey around campus, where they prepare themselves for a few days of booze, drugs, parties, and trying to convince members of the opposite sex to sleep with them.

Linklater has a distinct feel for a sense of place. Like Dazed and Confused, he somehow manages to conjure up feelings of nostalgia for viewers who weren't even alive at the time. Having been born in 1984, I sadly wasn't there for the 1976 of Dazed or the 1980 of Everybody Wants Some!!, but the two films feel as if you're watching something made at the time rather than a period piece. Questionable fashion choices and even more questionable facial-hair are all present here, as is the obligatory classic soundtrack. which features an amusing rendition of Rapper's Delight amongst a more rock-based sound. The biggest issue people may have the film is that nothing much happens at all, so Linklater takes a huge gamble in assuming audiences will warm to its hefty ensemble.

After all, the bulk of the characters are indistinguishable jocks doing bong hits and offering their unique blend of wisdom for the majority of the film. While this approach may run its course before the credits roll, there is some genuine wisdom to be found here, along with a tinge of sadness. Everybody Wants Some!! is a love letter to that time of your life when you are filled with optimism and the world is yours to explore, and Jake and his friends' journey of discovery and fulfilment is a rite-of-passage experienced by most young men and women. It could also be interpreted as a search for identity as the group wander from their usual disco haunt and try out line-dancing, a punk concert, and a themed costume party set up by performing arts majors, including the auburn-haired girl of Jake's dreams (Zoey Deutch). Call it what you will, but the film's power lies within Linklater's eye for nostalgia, delivering a final shot that captures more feeling than most films struggle to create in 90 minutes.


Directed by: Richard Linklater
Starring: Blake Jenner, Glen Powell, Zoey Deutch, Temple Baker, J. Quinton Johnson, Juston Street, Wyatt Russell, Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #806: 'Cold in July' (2014)

Cold in July is a film all about mood. Continuing the recent trend of all things 80's, the film harks back to the splurge of American neo-noir popular in the late 80's and early 1990's, where, usually, a simple man is caught up in crime, corruption or a dangerous woman (or all three) and ends up way out of his depth. Usually set in America's Southern states, these films explored what it is to be a man. Based on author John R. Lansdale's novel, Cold in July delves into similar themes, but often gets so caught up in drenching the film in atmosphere that it loses track of it's own story.

It starts out relatively simply as Michael C. Hall's protective father Richard wakes up in the middle of the night as an intruder breaks into his home. Shaky and nervous, Richard shoots the young man dead and is congratulated by detective Ray (co-writer Nick Damici), who reassures him that sometimes the good guy wins. At the intruder's funeral, Richard is approached by the father Russel (Sam Shepard), fresh out of prison, who makes a passive threat to Richard's wife and child. Russel begins a tirade of threats and intimidation, eventually being arrested and left for dead by the police on a train track. Puzzled at the cops' eagerness to be rid of Russel, Richard saves him and delves deeper into the case, and the two find out they have more in common than initially thought.

Darkly photographed and set to a synthesised score, Cold in July certainly looks and feels like the movies and era it's paying homage to. We glimpse chunky early mobile phones, Michael C. Hall sports an unflattering mullet-and-moustache combo, and 80's favourite Don Johnson - enjoying a career revival of late - shows up as private investigator Jim Bob to grant the film some much needed energy and humour. While director Jim Mickle, who made the excellent and surprisingly brutal Stake Land (2010), is clearly enjoying tipping his hat to the era, plot strands fizzle out to the point where they are forgotten entirely and the camera is consistently restless. He has the actors and the story to tell, so simply point the camera and let things naturally fall into place.

But when it's good, it's absolutely riveting. Shepard is a terrorising yet stoic presence, and Hall shows that there is more to him than David Fisher and Dexter, proving a solid leading man despite an uncomplimentary appearance. The film is drenched in sleaze, and it's Texas setting is a bleak and beautiful place for a simple man to find his inner animal. But the film ultimately feels like it's going nowhere fast. The genre hardly calls for it so character development is virtually non-existent, but the plot leads to vastly different places so fast you'll wonder how you got there. I was constantly caught up in what I was watching, but by the end credits I was left hanging for a satisfaction that would never come.


Directed by: Jim Mickle
Starring: Michael C. Hall, Sam Shepard, Don Johnson, Wyatt Russell, Nick Damici
Country: USA/France

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie