The new Hulu comedy series Chad Powers is a continuation of Glen Powell‘s quest to become Hollywood’s next great leading man as well as an icon of the sports world. Before this new comedy series, created by Powell and Michael Waldron, about a former college football quarterback redeeming himself under a new alias, and his recurring appearances on ESPN supporting his beloved Texas Longhorns football squad, he starred in one of the signature sports movies of late.
Everybody Wants Some!!is often cited as Richard Linklater‘s spiritual successor to Dazed and Confused, but the 2016 comedy deserves its proper acclaim as a delightfully soulful hang-out film. In the ensemble cast, Powell received the greatest pop as a party-loving college baseball star. His breakthrough appearance laid the groundwork for his undeniable screen persona in everything from Top Gun: Maverick to Twisters.
Glen Powell Broke Out in the Overlooked ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’
It was obvious something was wrong with the current state of moviegoing when Everybody Wants Some!! quickly evaporated from theaters in 2016, grossing $4 million at the box office in a mere 454 theaters in its early April release. This extravagant but earnest college comedy, like Linklater and Powell’s future collaboration buried in Netflix’s library, Hit Man, plays exceptionally well with a crowd, but the industry has more or less abandoned these kinds of films theatrically. Like clockwork, this became one of those movies where everyone who watched it at home proclaimed, “Why did we all ignore this when it was in theaters?”
In the traditional Linklater mode, Everybody Wants Some!! takes place within a confined timeframe in Texas and is more or less a hangout with a limited plot. Following the perspective of a promising first-year student pitcher, Jake (Blake Jenner), the film captures the debauchery of his new teammates inside an off-campus frat house on the final weekend of the summer before the dawn of the fall semester. The squad lives every moment like it’s a 100-mile-an-hour fastball, consuming endless amounts of alcohol and drugs and relishing the promiscuity of the college atmosphere.
Linklater’s ensemble cast also includes Tyler Hoechlin, Ryan Guzman, Zoey Deutch, and Wyatt Russell, but everyone watching the film recognized the true star was Glen Powell as Finnegan, the confident and hot-shot de facto leader of the crew due to his athletic seniority and experience as a party animal. This was Powell’s second collaboration with Linklater, following his brief appearance in Fast Food Nation, but this perfect pairing cemented itself in Everybody Wants Some!! with an electric performance evocative of Matthew McConaughey‘s star-making turn in Dazed and Confused.
Glen Powell’s Performance in ‘Everybody Wants Some!!’ Defined His Cinematic Persona
Across all his screen performances, it’s easy to see why studios and filmmakers have tried to elevate Glen Powell as America’s next great leading man, as his charm and magnetic presence oozes off the screen. In Everybody Wants Some!!, Finnegan’s bravado should feel grating, but Powell is just so captivating that you pull for him to have the most exciting night possible despite resembling the stereotypical jock bully. His captain dynamic registers in every walk of life, in the disco bar or the baseball field, and you can tell that his teammates would run through a brick wall for him. Even though Finnegan is all fun and games at the frat house, disregarding his coach’s “no booze and girls” rule, he’s all business on the diamond, showing that he is no slacker, to reference another Linklater film.
Linklater did the impossible by humanizing the college frat party boy, an archetype designed for broad characterization. The ultimate naturalistic filmmaker of time-centric stories like the Before trilogy and Boyhood, he unlocked unforeseen layers of nuance through the passage of time and the minute character beats. As the weekend progresses, we realize that the young men are overcompensating for their own inherent malaise as twentysomethings. At a party near the end of the film, Finnegan, chatting with a girl, is mocked by the team for pretending to be into astrology, where he presents himself at his most sentimental. In the end, Finnegan’s antics feel less mindlessly hedonistic, but instead, a reflection of the jubilation and rip-roaring independence of college.
It took longer than expected, but Glen Powell has ascended to the level of stardom that his performance in Everybody Wants Some!! should have vaulted him to. Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick is an extension of Finnegan’s braggadocious charm that feels totally earned, as both characters have the swagger to back it up. Powell demonstrated his romantic side in Anyone but You without compromising his suave magic from Richard Linklater’s sports comedy. By leading Linklater genre hybrid in Hit Man and headlining a summer blockbuster in Twisters, Powell’s screen persona came full circle in 2024. He’ll be in our lives for the foreseeable future in film and television, and we couldn’t be happier.
- Release Date
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March 30, 2016
- Runtime
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117 Minutes
- Director
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Richard Linklater
- Writers
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Richard Linklater
