In 1995, Director Richard Linklater came out with a movie called “Before
Sunrise.” In this movie, a guy (played by Ethan Hawke) traveling through Europe
asks a woman (Julie Delpy) who is traveling to Paris to get off the train with
him in Vienna. His plane leaves the next morning and he does not have money for
a room. Would she be interested in just roaming the city with him walking and
talking for a night? She thinks about it and then gets off the train and they
spend the night walking and talking.
Bullshit, right? Like on three levels. First level, what woman would get
off a train with a complete stranger in a city where she knows nobody? That’s
potentially dangerous and most women wouldn’t do it. Second level, what guy
would propose this sincerely? Wouldn’t a normal guy assume that a normal woman
would be creeped out by the proposal and consider it impolite to ask. Or would
he not assume that the prospect of walking and talking (not even going to a bar
or dinner because he has no money) would not be appetizing to a normal woman.
Third reason, assuming they got off the train and spent the night together, who
is actually interesting enough to carry on a decent conversation for at least
ten hours straight. Who are these people?
Well, at least one of them was Richard Linklater. The movie is based off
an experience he had during a trip from New York to Austin. He spent one
entirely platonic night in Philadelphia with a woman just walking and talking
before he left at sunrise. There are a lot of better directors working today
than Richard Linklater but I seriously doubt any of them are as cool a person
as he seems to be and if I could choose to strike up a conversation with any
one of my favorite directors at a party I figure the best one ought to be
Linklater. I can’t imagine him running out of interesting things to say.
“Everybody Wants Some!!” is another one of his movies like “Boyhood” and
“Before Sunrise” that would be preposterous in its main characters “coolness”
if it weren’t admittedly autobiographical. That is, if the main character here
“Jake,” was supposed to be some normal guy, I wouldn’t believe it, but if
Linklater says it is based on him, well, he did make “Waking Life,” so I guess
it’s possible for a college baseball player to be this cool.
Jake (played by Blake Jenner) has just showed up to his college house.
He’s not in the dorms as a Freshman because he has a scholarship to pitch for
the very popular baseball team and with that scholarship comes the free housing
off-campus (very cool). He is good looking (also cool) like every other guy in
the all star baseball house (hot friends, add that to the cool) and at the
baseball house party that night (parties are cool), he gets laid almost
immediately (I told you he was cool).
But this movie isn’t entirely about that. If it were, than Jake would be
in danger of being a douchebag. But he’s not. He’s Richard Linklater. So in
this baseball house are a lot of distinct personalities that are fun to hang
out with and get to know. Jake, it turns out, is a sincere listener who
essentially gets along with everyone and everyone gets along with him. The
other pitcher is a wise fellow (curiously beyond his years really) who is great
at casually philosophizing and smoking pot. The other guys are competitive but
it would be weird if they weren’t, after all, this is an all-star sports team.
And like most jocks I’ve known, they care quite a bit about winning but are as
forgiving of slights made in competition. Case in point: there is another
pitcher who is crazy unlikable and everyone teases him but it is unmistakable
that they do not ostracize him from the team. (Actually in my experience
getting along with jocks is easier than getting along with any other social
group. Just show up, give 100%, and don’t complain. That’s really all there is
to it.)
Another guy Jake spends a lot of time listening to is Finnegan (played
by Glen Powell). His philosophy to life is illuminating. At the baseball house
party the other players implore Jake to listen in on how Finnegan explains his
playing style to a couple ladies. Now how a baseball player explains his
playing style is code to explaining how he has sex. (It is assumed that the
girls know this. I mean are they really at the baseball players house party to
talk sports?) Anyway Finnegan explains that he doesn’t have the best bat, not
that much of a heavy hitter, but he is a true team player, is smart on the
field, and ready to help his mates out in a pinch. Classic curveball. Nice
touch.
Finnegan and Jake go to several parties over the weekend. The first is
at a disco. The second is at a Country-Western bar. Then they help throw the
baseball house party. Then they go to a punk rave. And finally Jake gets
invited to a theater student’s party by leaving flowers and a poem on her door.
He brings Finnegan and the other baseball players as well. Finnegan dresses up
as a person who would fit in at all of these and instructs Jake to do as well.
Jake asks at the punk rave, “aren’t we posers?” “No,” Finnegan explains, “it
doesn’t count if you are doing it to hit on girls.” An eloquent philosophy and
the way he practices it discounts the creepiness that other guys would not get
away with. That is to say there might be a difference between changing your
appearance and personality to trick a woman and take advantage of her and
changing your appearance and personality because you are hoping to please a
woman who would like you that way. Or at least the movie would like to think there
is a difference. Or maybe this loophole only applies to Linklater who is much
cooler than the rest of us.
The difference seems to be sincerity and given the types of movies
Linklater has made for the last quarter century it should be fair to say that he
treats people sincerely (sometimes to a fault, see “Slacker”). Perhaps we
should at least take heart that at least once that attitude helped a guy get
laid routinely. That is to say this nice guy never finished last. He wasn’t
racing of course, that’s the whole point. But if he was racing, he wouldn’t
have finished last. Not that he cared or we should either, but you know what
I’m trying to say.
No comments:
Post a Comment