02 June 2016
Everybody wants some!
A film by Richard Linklater
reviewed by Adam McCormack
It is sometimes said that “nostalgia ain’t what it used to be”, but this film really gives us something better. Writer-director Richard Linklater’s “Boyhood” received great reviews a couple of years ago and he has come up with another winner here by, instead of taking us through 12 years in the life of a young boy, giving us just a few days following the arrival of the new baseball team members at a US college.
Set in 1980 it will appeal to all who loved National Lampoon’s Animal House, Porky’s and others, but tells its story with much more pathos and intelligence, while losing nothing of the comedy of those films. The film centres around the new pitcher Jake (Blake Jenner) as he settles into a house with other baseball stars and, as some of them have been there for some time, there are the usual initiation rites to be performed. A great deal of time is spent looking for girls and this allows us to be taken though all of the musical genres and social events of the time. Disco features heavily, but, when the boys are thrown out of the main club, we are taken to a line dancing bar, and a punk club, before an alluring arts student, Beverley (played by Zoey Deutch) introduces a performance arts related costume party.
This may not look like more than a boy-meets-girl, boy-gets-girl film, but the range and strength of the characters and some laugh-out-loud moments raises it above the standard American teen comedy. There are some solid performances, particularly from Jenner and Deutch, but the best lines are reserved for Finn, played by Glenn Powell, who has a line in chat-up that you should be discouraged from trying at home. Yes, there is some baseball, but it is a long time coming and does nothing to take away from a charming movie.
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