If You Liked Netflix's Hit Man, You Need to Watch This Glen Powell Comedy

2016 comedy Everybody Wants Some!! is an essential Glen Powell movie.

By Charlie Ridgely

Glen Powell is smack in the middle of a career-making run and movie fans around the world are starting to notice just how talented the rising star really is. Hit Man is the talk of the town after it's ultra-successful Netflix debut this weekend, and it seems to be cementing Powell as a true leading man, capable of blending critical acclaim and commercial success. If you were one of the many new fans of Powell's thanks to Hit Man, there's another comedy you have to check out.

Hit Man director Richard Linklater has actually worked with Powell on multiple occasions in the past, but their biggest collaboration came in 2016 with the hangout comedy Everybody Wants Some!! The film is set in Texas in the summer of 1980, following members of a college baseball team the weekend before the fall semester begins. Linklater billed the film as a "spiritual sequel" to Dazed and Confused, arguably the most iconic movie of his career, and it boasts a loaded cast. Unfortunately, not many people have seen it. The success of Hit Man needs to change that.

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(Photo:

Glen Powell and Forrest Vickery in Everybody Wants Some!!

- Paramount Pictures)

Everybody Wants Some!! hit theaters back in 2016 and flew completely under the radar. It made just over $5 million in a limited release, but those who saw it were immediately smitten with its breakout star: Glen Powell. We've been shouting from the rooftops for nearly a decade about how good this guy is and the world is finally seeing what all the fuss has been about.

Powell is one of several notable stars in Everybody Wants Some!!, but he's easily the one who leaves the biggest impression on the film's viewers. He plays Finnegan, one of the baseball team's older leaders, who isn't afraid to take the incoming freshman under his wing. He's also one to break stereotypes. Yes, he can come off as an arrogant jock, but he can also hold his own in conversations about the cosmos and blend into his surroundings at a party for theater majors. 

Finn has as much range as Powell himself, making Everybody Wants Some!! such a great showcase for Powell's talents. He charms you with a smile in one scene before having a complete existential crisis in the next. He blends the world of baseball players with fast-talking high society. Just watch this scene of Powell and his cohorts navigating a party in the third act of Everybody Wants Some!! (NSFW language ahead).

Hit Man's Everybody Wants Some!! Connections

We've talked a ton about Powell here, but he's far from the only connective tissue between Everybody Wants Some!! and Hit Man. Richard Linklater directed both and it was in the former that he and Powell became close friends. After teaming up on this movie, connecting over an obsessive love of movies and their Texas upbringings, the two continued a working relationship that lead to the co-writing of Hit Man.

Another one of Hit Man's main stars is also an Everybody Wants Some!! alum. Austin Amelio, who plays Jasper in Hit Man, is probably best known for his years of work playing Dwight in the Walking Dead franchise. Fans of Everybody Wants Some!!, however, know him as Nesbit, a left-handed pitcher and obsessive gambler who served as the team's resident weirdo.

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(Photo:

Austin Amelio as Jasper in Netflix's Hit Man

- Netflix)

Powell and Amelio have a fantastic chemistry in Hit Man, and that's largely due to their time together making Everybody Wants Some!! In fact, that entire cast had wonderful chemistry with one another, probably because Linklater had them all living together on a ranch in Texas for weeks before filming even started.

It's worth noting that Everybody Wants Some!! also stars Zoey Deutch. She isn't in Hit Man, but she did star alongside Powell in another Netflix movie, popular 2018 rom com Set It Up.

Related:

Watch Everybody Wants Some!!

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(Photo:

Blake Jenner and Glen Powell in Everybody Wants Some!!

- Paramount Pictures)

If you're loving Powell after Hit Man and want to see more of him while waiting for Twisters this summer, Everybody Wants Some!! is the movie that proved his power to anyone who saw it. Aside from Hit Man, it might be the essential Glen Powell movie. It's a comedy through and through, focusing way more on the characters and their relationships instead of any forward-moving plot. Good hangout movies are rare, and Everybody Wants Some!! is one of the very best.

Everybody Wants Some!! is also a very accessible movie right now. The film is currently available to stream on both Paramount+ and Prime Video, giving new Powell fans multiple was to check it out. 

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