Everybody Wants Some!! — Review and Richard Linklater Q&A
Richard Linklater’s new film is a return to an ensemble piece, in a similar vein to Dazed and Confused, set in the days of freedom for baseball players in the late-70s before their college year begins. Rating: 4/4
‘I take my cues from life.’
At a Q&A at the Barbican, Richard Linklater explains his approach to comedy. He’s not a comedy writer, he assures the audience; he writes character-based films. ‘Some people are just funny — I really wanna write that.’
The title of Everybody Wants Some!! includes those exclamation marks thanks to the Van Halen song, but it could just as appropriately match the joy of this film. Billed as the ‘spiritual sequel’ to Dazed and Confused, it certainly possesses the same care-free, loosely structured style, but it is different, and impressively so.
Linklater acknowledges this difference: Dazed is more melancholic — ‘there’s some dark edges there … It’s just that age, being in high school, being imprisoned to some degree.’ College, on the other hand…
‘Oh yeah, that was a fun time… It was pre-Reagan-Bush, pre-AIDS, pre- a lot of things.’
Linklater manages to translate the fun he must have experienced at college, as part of a baseball team, to the screen. ‘Casting is like putting a team together,’ he says. ‘The chemistry among the players’ is crucial in both cases. Especially after ‘the utter intimacy of Before Midnight and Boyhood, I wanted to make a big ensemble.’
The cast of Everybody Wants Some!! has chemistry in abundance, with the actors living together in a 70s environment, without mobile phones, for weeks before shooting. Linklater underlines the need for actors to be themselves and get along with other cast members. ‘On School of Rock, I fired a little 12 year-old. I told him, ‘You’re making fun of Jack [Black], he’s the lead actor.’’
Linklater’s ability to make the fictional natural surely comes for this meticulous technique. Along with a friendly cast, his direction of dialogue is refreshingly relaxed, allowing certain errors because, well, that’s how people speak. ‘Dialogue isn’t A-Z perfect,’ Linklater states, especially when Jake and Beverly begin to talk over the phone, and the rhythm is adorably awkward.
Rhythm is clearly important to Linklater, whether it’s the beats of dialogue or the pace at which a day unfolds. He says ‘each character has their own rhythms,’ too, which allows him to imbue every role with its own individuality, stemming from the actors themselves.
And with rhythm comes music. The three-day weekend of Everybody Wants Some!! means three nights — dedicated, in sequence, to disco, country, and punk. Jake jokes, ‘I’m having an identity crisis’, but it’s more of an epiphany than a crisis, embodying the joy of discovering and trying new things at this stage of life.
‘One moment you’re listening to pop radio, the next you’re in a room listening to something obscure,’ Linklater remembers. ‘I’m the guy in the movie saying “I can’t believe this is hip now.” Disco hadn’t died yet.’ The film’s soundtrack ranges wonderfully — even if the director struggled to clear a song or two. He notes how he wanted a song from Off The Wall, but ‘if you can’t get Michael Jackson… I got Jermaine Jackson.’
Ultimately, Everybody Wants Some!! is about making the most of what you have, whether that means cherishing the final days before responsibilities arrive, or enjoying Jermaine rather than Michael. Que sera, sera.
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