There are two types of people who will find something of value in the EDM apologia We Are Your Friends: GoPro oversharers who post hours of vapid, slow-motion footage to Vimeo, and sad bros who lament that “Entourage” never had a Coachella episode. Certainly, there is a worthy story somewhere within the world of electronic music that has both a firm grasp of its subculture along with the mainstream appeal of Saturday Night Fever, but We Are Your Friends is so slow yet scatterbrained, unfocused yet obsessed with minutia, it’s difficult to believe that actual fans of this music and lifestyle would enjoy watching it when they could be raging instead.
Directed by “Catfish” co-creator Max Joseph from a screenplay co-written by Meaghan Oppenheimer, We Are Your Friends tells the story of Cole Carter (Zac Efron), an ambitious yet rootless DJ and producer living in the San Fernando Valley. Cole’s crew—budding actor Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez), shy Squirrel (Alex Shaffer), and walking liability Mason (Jonny Weston)—have dreams of making it big in the world of event promotion, when jaded veteran DJ James (Wes Bentley) takes Cole under his wing and inspires him to flourish personally and creatively. Eventually, Cole’s interest in James’ girlfriend and personal assistant Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski) reaches its breaking point, and the crew gets tired of spinning its wheels while waiting for success, forcing Cole to choose between his mentor, his ambition, his desire and his loyalty.
At least, that’s what director Joseph was evidently going for. What we end up with is closer to a world where Cole is so nice, talented and good-looking that every obstacle he faces seems to willingly dive out of his way the moment it comes into view. When Cole’s friends crash a party at James’ house and start a fight, James brushes it off with: “Your friends are gorillas, but we’re cool.” An argument with his part-time employer—a sleazy opportunist who buys the homes of people facing foreclosure for a fraction of their value, played by Jon Bernthal—somehow ends up with him making even more money. When James is slipped PCP without his knowledge, his confusion turns to joy as the party turns delightfully rotoscoped. Basically, Cole is less a protagonist than a guy everybody in the movie wants to be nice to, which is great for him but insufferably boring for a film.
In fairness, Joseph does appear to have a keen understanding of EDM as a genre and its artistic value, setting aside time for hands-on demonstrations of how music is assembled, as well as fourth wall-breaking tutorials on the science of crowd management and track assembly. The final 15 minutes of the film could have (indeed, should have) comprised a standalone short about finding inspiration. But inspiration is exactly what the film as a whole is lacking, save for Bentley, who delivers what may be his best performance yet in a character so well-developed that he should have been the focus of the movie. No stakes, no real conflict, easy resolution, lazy direction and uneven commitment to its subject, We Are Your Friends drops the ball along with the bass.
Playing this week
American Ultra
Ant-Man
Fantastic Four
The Gift
Hitman: Agent 7
Jurassic World
The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
Minions
Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation
No Escape
Ricki and the Flash
Shaun the Sheep Movie
Sinister 2
Straight Outta Compton
The Diary of a Teenage Girl
Trainwreck
War Room
Regal Stonefield 14 and IMAX
244-3213
