1980: What a time it was, in Richard Linklater’s superb new comedy, “Everybody Wants Some!!” playing at the Martha’s Vineyard Film Center. “Papa Hemingway in Cuba” will also screen there this weekend.
“Everybody Wants Some!!” picks up where the Oscar-nominated director’s 1993 classic, “Dazed and Confused,” left off. In this film, Jake — played by Blake Jenner of “Glee” fame — arrives at a small Texas university for his freshman year as a baseball pitcher. He joins his teammates to party on in the waning days before classes start. Slipping away from stereotypical flatness, each teammate plays a distinctive role. Jake comes closest to being the putative hero, but the movie unwinds with a John Sayles–like cast of characters.
Nor does “Everybody Wants Some!!” follow a traditional narrative, using instead an episodic approach. Each set piece — from mechanical bull riding at a Western bar to splashing in a swimming hole — offers another exhilarating moment in the lives of these young males. The title alludes to the Van Halen song popular at the time, and other hits from the likes of Blondie and the Eagles float through the film. Women are babes to bed, except for Beverly (Zoey Deutch), the theater arts major who catches Jake’s eye. Booze and hijinks are the other chief pursuits before real-world training kicks in.
These high-spirited, buff athletes defy dumb jock status. They are essentially good-natured innocents, neither sexist nor racist in any politically correct sense. They talk intelligently, speechify, even philosophize. The potty-mouth crudities and gross-out behaviors common in today’s comedies are absent. It’s hard to imagine any viewer will walk away from “Everybody Wants Some!!” without good feelings.
Hemingway and Cuba
The year is 1959 in “Papa Hemingway in Cuba,” when Eddie Myers (Giovanni Ribisi) travels to Havana for the first of many meetings with his idol, Ernest Hemingway (Adrian Sparks). The story is based on the real-life relationship between Hemingway and Denne Bart Petitclerc, who wrote the screenplay for the movie.
The celebrated novelist, who has entered his declining years, adopts Eddie as his protégé. Eddie, a journalist and aspiring writer abandoned by his parents at a young age, romances colleague Debbie Hunt (Minka Kelly), but struggles with commitment. In a cameo appearance, the novelist’s granddaughter Mariel Hemingway plays a dinner guest. Iranian-born actor Shaun Toub plays the ailing poet Evan Shipman, a Hemingway compatriot from his Spanish Civil War days who lives at the Hemingway’s Havana homestead.
Revolution is brewing in Cuba, and Hemingway pursues a mysterious involvement with Fidel Castro’s rebels. Liquor flows freely, especially for the depressed Hemingway, when a cadre of his Cuban friends gather for his 59th birthday party. In addition to provoking fights with his wife, the writer has a violent falling-out with Eddie over his meeting with Mafioso Santo Trafficante.
“Papa Hemingway in Cuba” suffers from a lackluster narrative and, with the exception of Giovanni Ribisi, weak acting. Nevertheless, it recounts a fascinating page in the history of the Nobel prizewinning author, and his struggles with depression, alcoholism, and writer’s block. For these reasons, Hemingway admirers will enjoy it.
For screening times and tickets for these and other current films, visit mvfilmsociety.com, entertainmentcinemas.com/locations/Edgartown, or go to MV Times event listings.