Joseph Cardenas/Staff Writer
The disco era came alive in Richard Linklater’s eighteenth directorial project, “Everybody Wants Some!!” His first film after 2014’s critically acclaimed “Boyhood” follows a 1980 college baseball team on a journey the weekend before classes begin. As the freshmen embrace adulthood and freedom, they move into a dorm house with their competitive teammates.
“What we wanted to capture was what it’s like for someone to go off to school,” star Tyler Hoechlin said at a roundtable interview with three other actors in the film: Blake Jenner, Ryan Guzman and Will Brittain. The roundtable took place at the Mandarin Oriental hotel in downtown Miami, sitting with other reporters, Brittain even engaging in games of tic-tac-toe with everyone at the table.
Hoechlin elaborated, looking back on his own days in college about “that moment [of] my parents driving away and realizing ‘oh wow I’m actually on my own, and these are the first moments where I’m free to be who I want to be’.”
The film focuses closely on one of the freshmen, Jake (Jenner), a pitcher whose noticeably tamer than the rest of his rowdy team. As he and the other freshmeat navigate disco clubs and house parties, being mentored by upperclassmen Finnegan (Glen Powell), Roeper (Guzman), and McReynolds (Hoechlin), he grows close to one of the girls, Beverly (Zoey Deutch). Over the weekend, Jake and his friends explore their freedom and sexuality, growing and establishing their own identity along the way.
It seems almost appropriate for a college newspaper. Going into this setting, we’re just starting to explore ourselves and experience the world our own way. In that, you can easily connect with the heart of this movie.
Out of this, it’s still a movie you can go in and enjoy. It’s a comedy that plays best on its parody of the hypermasculinity that drives the team’s competitive atmosphere, but shows its endearment in the relationships they form with each other. Exceptional performances by Hoechlin, Powell and Jenner carry this movie well.
The cast also had fun filming in the setting of 1980 with disco era backdrop. The actors had to learn to dance disco and also had to embrace the fashions of the time to capture the year, and it almost look like a perfect snapshot of the 70s.
“Disco dancing is nice because I’m not a great dancer,” Brittain said, eliciting a collective chuckle. “[It] allows you to be yourself. No one can really look at that and say ‘that’s not how you do it.’ ”
“I got to see what all the fuss was about. My parents were always jamming out to music from that era, so it was cool to embrace all of that,” stated Jenner.
“Everybody Wants Some!!” is a wild, rambunctious ride with a surprising amount of endearment but never once disguises its intention to be about college freedom. Though slow paced, you won’t walk out of the movie unsatisfied. It comes out nationally April 8 and is rated R.
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