"We all take turns being chumps around here. You accept your chumpification and move on."
Everybody Wants Some!! is a 2016 Slice of Life film written and directed by Richard Linklater, and a Spiritual Successor to his classic Dazed and Confused. Whereas that film was set at the end of the high school year in 1976, this one takes place right before college begins in 1980. Blake Jenner, Glen Powell, Zoey Deutch, and Jonathan Breck star.
Jake Bradford (Jenner) is a college freshman on a baseball scholarship. He moves into the house he'll be sharing with his teammates on the Thursday before classes start.
The boys include:
- Finnegan "Finn" (Powell) - the Big Man on Campus and Alpha dog of the team, desperate to get laid as often as possible.
- McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin) - the baseball team's outgoing captain.
- Billy "Beuter" Autrey (Will Brittain) - a country boy picked on for his thick White Southern accent.
- Jay Niles (Juston Street) - a hot-headed transfer with a Hair-Trigger Temper.
- Charlie Willoughby (Wyatt Russell) - an Erudite Stoner full of wisdom.
- Kenny Roper (Ryan Guzman) - Finn's Lancer and the narcissist of the group.
- Coma (Forrest Vickery) - the superstitious one of the bunch.
- Tyrone Plummer (Temple Blake) - an unlucky guy prone to Comically Missing the Point.
- Alex Brumley (Tanner Kalina) - another freshman and the clear Butt-Monkey of the group.
- Nesbit (Austin Amelio) - a gambler who frequently places unwise bets.
- Dale Douglas (J. Quinton Johnston) - the lone black guy in the house.
And yes, the title is a reference to the Van Halen song.
Tropes:
- Actor Allusion:
- Finnegan is introduced holding a golf club and he later hits balls off the roof. Glen Powell had played a member of a golf fraternity in Scream Queens (2015).
- Wyatt Russell is a thirty-year-old posing as a college student, something he had experienced in 22 Jump Street.
- Alice Allusion: Beverly dresses up as Alice at the party, and puts on an improv performance with other guests dressed as the Mad Hatter and Queen of Hearts. Jake also comes on as the White Rabbit. Presumably this is to illustrate that starting college is essentially like going down the rabbit hole - especially as this is the last party the protagonists go to before classes start.
- All Men Are Perverts: Most of the guys are horny young adults who want to get laid but Averted with Billy, who has a steady girlfriend back home.
- Auto Erotica: Jake and Val on the night of the house party.
- Bait-and-Switch: A sub-plot has Billy learning that his girlfriend might be pregnant, setting up the possibility that he might quit and return home. He does temporarily leave, but comes back after discovering it was a false pregnancy. Willoughby, a thirty-something passing himself off as a college student, is the one who ends up leaving.
- Blonde, Brunette, Redhead:
- The guys have three blondes - Finn, Nesbit and Willoughby - six brunets - Jake, Jay, Roper, Plummer, Dale and Coma - and two redheads - Beuter and Brumley.
- Throughout the film Jake hooks up with a brunette, is rejected by a blonde and makes a love connection with a redhead.
- Buffy Speak: Jake is told to accept his 'chumpification'.
- Bunny-Ears Lawyer: Nesbit is by far one of the more eccentric members of the team – something that is lampshaded multiple times by his team mates.
- Can't Act Perverted Toward a Love Interest: Jake never hits on Beverly or gets pervy with her. Nor does he talk about her to the guys.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Subverted. The coach gives the boys two rules: no alcohol in the house and no girls upstairs. The boys break the first rule almost immediately, and try to break the second. Lampshaded when Nesbit worries that he'll somehow know they've been drinking.
- The Casanova: Finn is this trope through and through in attitude at least. How successful he is in practice seems to vary.
- Cat Fight: Finn convinces two girls to mud wrestle at the party.
- Country Mouse: Billy is mocked for this, as he sounds more obviously country than the other guys.
- Dumb Muscle: Subverted and lampshaded when Beverly is surprised that Jake both quoted a poem in his letter and wrote an essay on a Greek myth.
- '80s Hair: Goodness gracious yes. But as it's set in 1980 and the early parts of a decade have fashion holdovers, there's some '70s Hair too.
- Embarrassing Nickname: Beuter for Billy, because of his accent.
- Endearingly Dorky: Beverly is a drama Geek and is prone to stuttering and bumbling over her words when describing her passions. It's adorable too, and part of the reason Jake likes her.
- Everyone Loves Blondes: Finn is a male example – a charismatic, popular blond male who gets the most girls throughout the film.
- Extremely Short Timespan: The film starts on Thursday afternoon and ends on Monday morning.
- Erudite Stoner: Willoughby.
- Fanservice: The above-mentioned mud wrestling happens with the girls in their underwear. For the reverse, there's one sequence where all the guys go swimming in the river.
- First Girl Wins: Beverly is the first girl Jake flirts with, and she becomes his main love interest – and his implied girlfriend at the end. Finn also ends up finally getting laid with Beverly's friend he unsuccessfully tried to hit on at the start of the film.
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Jay is the mean one of the group who's rude to everyone. When he gets them thrown out of the club, Jake even lampshades "why are we defending this guy?"
- The Generic Guy: Coma is Out of Focus for most of the film, his only defining characteristic being that he's superstitious and has a lucky helmet.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: For her date with Jake, Beverly dresses up in a cute fuchsia outfit.
- Irony:
- Lampshaded by Finn, who says that when the guys are alone, all they talk about is getting laid. But when they're surrounded by available girls, they end up talking about baseball.
- Finn frequently tries to get laid using various chameleon tactics on girls. Towards the end, Beverly's friend who had rejected his flirting earlier, gets turned on by him remaining silent.
- Irrational Hatred: McReynolds loathes pitchers and at once gives Jake the cold shoulder after learning he's one, stating that they'll be teammates but not friends.
- Jerk Jock: Played with. All the guys are meatheads who love drinking and sex, but they're not defined by their status as jocks. Jay definitely is a straight example, however.
- Jerkass: Jay is a hothead who's also racist and prone to getting into fights.
- Jerkass to One: McReynolds, because of his contempt for pitchers, goes out of his way to be particularly mean to Jake when he usually is friendly and, at worst, dismissive to anybody else.
- Large Ham: Finn's a very hammy and over-the-top person.
- Last-Name Basis: Roper, Plummer, Willoughby and Brumley are called by their last names.
- Loophole Abuse: The coach said no girls upstairs, so Finn sets up a room downstairs for potential girls to hook up in at the party.
- Lovable Jock:
- Jake is the straightest example. Despite being an all-star high school basketball player, he's not pervy and treats his friends with respect.
- Finn as well, who seems to want to help his friends and look out for their wellbeing.
- Male Gaze: Early in the film there's a close-up on the boobs of one of Finn's girls.
- Meaningful Echo: After Jake defeats McReynolds in a ping-pong game, the rest of the guys quietly clap and start chanting his name. Finn and Dale do this at the end when they see Jake with Beverly.
- My Girl Is a Slut: According to Finn, the best thing about college girls is that they can be even sluttier than the guys without being judged.
- Naïve Newcomer: Brumley is the most obvious example, and he's frequently picked on for it. Jake has some elements of it too.
- Nothing but Hits: Downplayed. The soundtrack includes "My Sharona", "Heart of Glass" and a few other recognisable 80s songs.
- Older Than They Look: Willoughby is revealed to be thirty years old, frequently going to different colleges to continue enjoying the student lifestyle.
- Rewatch Bonus: Willoughby's Be Yourself speech makes more sense once it's revealed he's actually thirty. He's speaking from experience.
- Red Baron: Jay titles himself 'Raw Dog' due to his hotheaded behaviour.
- Red Herring: Billy goes home for the weekend when he thinks his girlfriend might be pregnant. When he comes back, it turns out it was a false alarm.
- Redheads Are Ravishing: Jake's main love interest is the redhead Beverly. Before he learns her name, he even addresses a letter to "the auburn-haired girl in Room 307".
- Romantic False Lead: Val, the girl Jake hooks up with at the first party. She's seen dancing with another guy the next night and that's the end of it, as Jake pursues Beverly.
- Seinfeldian Conversation: This is Richard Linklater at the helm, so the guys do engage in this. One segment while they're getting high has them discussing the possibilities of telepathy.
- Shipper on Deck: Finn and Dale appear to be this for Jake and Beverly at the end, and they actually Squee when Jake says he likes her.
- Split Screen: Used during Jake and Beverly's phone conversation.
- Sliding Scale of Idealism vs. Cynicism: Has some cynicism but it is mainly on the idealistic end, portraying a more fun, pleasing yet still honest take on someones first week of college.
- Stalking is Love: Lampshaded by the guys when Jake tries to see which room Beverly is in."That just went from cute to restraining order."
- Take a Third Option: Jake wants to take Val upstairs, but Billy won't leave the room. Jake can either wait for the 'hook-up' room to free up or give up hope. He and Val do it in the car instead.
- That Nostalgia Show: It was planned for the mid-2000s where it would have been right in the middle of 80s nostalgia, but otherwise it still fits. There's nothing plot-essential to the 80s setting except the nostalgia.
- Token Minority: Dale is the only boy of colour in the house. Roper is played by a Latino but is presented as white.
- Wild Teen Party: Naturally, there's one at the house – violating all the rules the coach had outlined. However, they don't get in trouble for it.
