...but not everybody gets some. I can forgive Richard Linklater his solipsism, but I can't forget it, least of all when I'm actually being confronted with it. Everybody Wants Some!! is a portrait of life for those who are used to getting some of whatever they seek, insight into a culture that is characterised by its own lack of insight. It's easy, thus, to understand Linklater's insensitivity, if not excuse it, despite the intelligence that permeates almost every other aspect of his filmmaking. The film probes male identity in how it is developed and how it manifests itself, celebrating its virtues and explaining its defects. Linklater hits every last target, producing a film that is tonally and intellectually secure, but only on its own terms; hitting every target is simple stuff when they're this close to hand. In a broader cultural context, this is pathetic, pandering material. This thoughtful filmmaker is better than his uglier urges, proving his rightly famed empathy and astuteness in scenes that expand the purview of Everybody Wants Some!! to largely flattering effect. The craft of this film is infinitely stronger than the concept: for every clunker of a line, there's a dozen classics; for every dozen stinkers of storylines, there's a mere one or two fully successful ones. Even the film's greatest attribute - its outstanding surfeit of homoerotic eye candy - seems only an accident, as its ogling eye upon the female figure sinks Everybody Wants Some!! to even deeper depths. If this is what is meant by 'getting some', then I'm getting out.
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