SATURDAY, APRIL 16, 2016
"Everybody Wants Some", but Blake Jenner's
character as a freshman baseball pitching prospect keeps his head on straight
“Everybody Wants Some” (2016) is Richard Linklater’s latest
coming-of-age comedy, said to be more like “Dazed and Confused” than “Boyhood”
(July 19, 2014).
Blake Jenner plays Jake, a baseball pitching recruit
entering college in Texas, negotiating his first week on campus before class
starts, getting along with his riotous teammates in a frat house. “Old School”
(2003, Todd Phillips) comes to mind.
Jake seems to have the trimmest bod of all,
and seems to keep his head on his shoulders while getting along with and
outsmarting his buddies socially. Of
course, we all know what that “some” is (intercourse).
His main nemesis seems to be McReynolds (Tyler Hoecklin), whom he outsmarts, beating him at ping pong by
merely keeping the ball on the table and letting the opponent beat himself with
missed slams (I’ve done that).
The baseball practice doesn’t start until late in the
movie. McReynolds actually gets a double
off him, but Jake’s clearly the most likely player to make the big leagues (and
become as good as Max Scherzer or Jacob deGrom). Jake becomes as likable and dominant a
character as did Mason in "Boyhood".
Linklater wants young men to turn out well.
Hoecklin was the likeable baseball
prospect in the WB series “Seventh Heaven” over a decade ago. I remember all the breakdowns over his
character’s father’s service in Iraq.
The official site is here (Paramount and Annapurna).
The film did remind me of my own issues in the dorm at
William and Mary in the fall of 1961, when a "homosexual" would be
such an obvious distraction to other horny freshmen who "want
some". Maybe Linklater can make a
movie about that scenario. This film today is set at the end of August 1980,
climaxing (pun) on the first day of class, the dwindling era of Jimmy Carter.
Blake Jenner is of no relation to Bruce/Caitlin Jenner.
I saw the film before a fairly robust audience Saturday afternoon at Angelika Mosaic in Merrifield VA.