COMEDY; 1hr 57min
STARRING: Blake Jenner, Juston Street, Ryan Guzman, Tyler Hoechlin
Some boys: Jenner (left) and Temple Baker
The players have changed, but as writer-director Richard Linklater has pointed out, Everybody Wants Some!! picks up where the mighty intimacy of 2014's Boyhood left off, with the glory days of Texan college life. The year is 1980, the game is baseball, and the yay team (Street, Guzman, Hoechlin and Co), as freshman pitcher Jake (Jenner) finds them, are living it up. Chock full of beans, cheekily on the prowl for pussy, they're a mobile booster shot. Linklater is more than happy to mosey with the gang in their boozy cruise to the start of classes, from team house to bars and back, then onto the field for practice, where the ego-flexing finds its focus.
There's not a lot more to this shared rite of passage, aside from Jake connecting with a girl (Zoey Deutch), the odd, combative blow up, a case of dodgy identity and a rock-starred soundtrack. How it all strikes you could come down to your wistful love of shit-shooting and horseplay. But regardless of whether they grow on you or wear out their welcome, the guys, at least, are having a blast with the limitless possibilities of being themselves.
