Samantha ChoongMovie Review: We Are Your Friends
The premise of the movie sounds simple: a wannabe DJ tries to make a name (and a living) for himself. But surprisingly, We Are Your Friends brings an unexpected feel-good vibe at the end for a movie celebrating vices.
Cole Carter (Zac Efron) is an aspiring DJ who believes that all a person needs to be a producer is a laptop, some talent and one track. With that, the movie launches into a drug-infused haze of parties, sex and Electronic Dance Music (EDM).
Thankfully, the whole movie isn’t just a complete rave. Aside from the crowds of gyrating bodies and gratuitous shots of female bodies, there was plenty of emphasis on the deadbeat lives of Cole, and his friends: the failed actor and drug dealer, Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez) along with Squirrel (Alex Shaffer) and Mason (Jonny Weston).
Cole then meets James Reed (Wes Bentley), a big-name international DJ. Unlike most films, the protagonist is taken under the mentor’s wing almost immediately without several convenient chance meetings. All it took for Cole to party with James is a spliff.
We Are Your Friends disappoints with stereotypical characters and a very draggy start with too fast an ending. The same content is repeated throughout: a mix of parties, shots of Cole and James in a recording studio, more parties, and even more of Cole and James in the studio. Also tossed in are scenes of the the four friends working for Paige (Jon Bernthal), at a less than legal ‘real estate’ company.
The job sees Cole facing a moral dilemma as he earns all the money he’s never had but ends up leaving an innocent woman homeless. But of course the protagonist can’t be a bad guy so there’s the inevitable heartwarming solution.
And no movie is complete without a good love story so we have Cole’s romantic relationship with Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski), who happens to be James’ personal assistant and girlfriend. Drama ensues, to no one’s surprise.
With the same kind of scenes are repeated again and again, just presented in different ways, we lost interest very quickly.
Despite the movie’s bad pacing, there are effects in the beginning that’ll impress many. At a drug-fuelled party disguised as an art gallery, Cole trips and starts to see colors drip off and spread, turning everything in the scene into a mess of pop art.
Efron’s acting in this movie should get some recognition though. Gone are the boyish good looks and adorable charm from High School Musical. Instead, Efron manages to portray Cole as the cool, party boy DJ with all the charisma of a player, while still bringing out the pain in Cole’s life when tragedy strikes. In the final scene where Cole is playing at a major music festival, Efron really shows Cole’s emotions with his expressions and actions.
A shocking twist of events creates a completely different vibe from the beginning, imparting some unexpected uplifting vibes. Cole realizes that life isn’t to be wasted.and we certainly did not expect that nugget of philosophy from a film otherwise filled with debauchery.
We’ll also like to admit that we loved the music in the movie. As with most EDM tracks, the thumping bass had us grooving in our seats and wishing we could really be dancing along. Plus to watching James and Cole work together and showing some of the process of creating EDM tracks was a welcome distraction from the poor pacing.
We Are Your Friends is a movie to catch if you’re looking for something fun, which just a touch of feel-good vibes. All the good-looking people and a shirtless Zac Efron are just a perk.
[xrr rating=3/5 display_as=textstars label=”Our Rating:”]
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Information
Cast: Zac Efron, Wes Bentley, Emily Ratajkowski, Jonny Weston, Shiloh Fernandez, Alex Shaffer, Jon Bernthal
Rating: M18 (Course language, nudity)
Director: Max Joseph
Genre: Drama, Music, Romance
Runtime: 96 Minutes
Release Date: 24 September 2015