We Are Your Friends
Starring: Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski, Wes Bentley
Directed By: Max Joseph
Reviewed by Brendan Dousi
[rating: 2/5]
A new genre is emerging. Whether you like it or not, Gen Y has become old enough to start producing films and television series and this has given birth to what some are calling the ‘Millennial’ genre. Always grounded in some form of reality, Millennial films often concern themselves with a 20-something creative type and either their unwillingness to do anything with their life, or their loft creative dreams which seem desperately unattainable but with the right amount of luck, talent and gumption could become a reality. We Are Your Friends definitely concerns itself with the latter, and as tedious as these types of films may sound to you, represents a new chapter in a potentially long series of movies and television shows giving birth to this potential genre.
Cole (Zac Efron) is from the Valley, a low-socioeconomic wasteland on the other side of the Hollwood sign in L.A. He has spent his entire life hanging out with his friends, dreaming of making it big one day and finally getting out of the Valley. Cole’s lofty dreams of becoming a professional DJ start to become a reality when a chance meeting with famous DJ James (Wes Bentley) has him caught up into a world full of expensive houses, psychotropic drugs and a lots and lots of pool parties. With his big break on the horizon, Cole might just make it big if it weren’t for James’ beautiful assistant/girlfriend Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski) making things a little more complicated.
Judging by the very premise and title of the film, one might assume that this is a movie about friendship. Old friendships that could potentially hold you back, the new friendships that could broaden your horizons, those older friends being genuine and those newer friends that may turn out to be superficial users. While this is true in part, We Are Your Friends decides to drop this easily accessible source of conflict for an even lower hanging fruit; the unrequited love. I swear almost any film where a young person gets a break with an older mentor they end up screwing that older mentor’s young lover. It feels inevitable that this is bound to happen, and in We Are Your Friends it looms uninspiringly in the background as the rest of the film desperately tries to do something somewhat unique.
Because it drops it’s potential statements about friendships and sacrifices developing any of Cole’s friends into anything more than caricatures to cater to a completely droll romance subplot, We Are Your Friends seems to have very little purpose. There feels to be next to no point for this film to exist. It doesn’t have anything unique to say, and any statements about potential success and going beyond yourself to be inspired by the world around you seem to come out of nowhere with very little effort going into developing these ideas. The only unique qualities this film has on offer were some truly fantastic scenes earlier on when the main character takes a hallucinogen and later on when he pseudo-breaks the fourth wall to explain the creation of electronic music and it’s synchronization with people’s heartbeats. These were great scenes with a unique visual flair that should have set precedent for the rest of the film’s visual language, but instead were completely tossed aside when that awful romance started to happen.
Despite its flaws, there was still a sense of vapid entertainment to be had here. The music was enjoyable and when the film bothers to actually get creative it really does shine. The performances here were also very solid, with Zac Efron proving again he has the ability to anchor a film as both a comedic and dramatic actor. I will admit, I also counted how many times he got shirtless in this film. It was nine times, and I’m a little disappointed it didn’t reach double digits. Despite my (very obvious) hate for the romantic plot in this film, I do think that Emily Ratajkowski has an enigmatic presence and hope to see her in a film where she is given more to do than be a temptation to the main character.
We Are Your Friends is a wasted opportunity to make something truly creative with something to say, falling into cliché and banality with uninspired subplots and an inability to commit to an interesting visual style. If you’re after something a little shallow with some ‘sick’ beats, by all means this may just be for you, but ultimately this one misses the mark.
We have five in-season double passes to giveaway to see We Are Your Friends. To be in the runnings end an email to with “We Are Your Friends” in the subject line. Include your best postal address. One entry per person/address please. Comp closes September 10 2015.
