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Posted: 8/27/2015
Many of us have that core group of friends that we have grown up with, gone through life-changing experiences with, laughed, cried, and who you know have your back no matter what. Majority of the time these people help us grow and because the person we were always meant to be. Other times these people are the ones that may be holding us back. For Cole (Zac Efron), a struggling EDM DJ, he is still at a point in his life where he is unsure of his future and what he is doing with his life. He pack of friends seem perfectly settled with mediocre jobs and the same lame clubs every week, but he is looking for more. When he meets James Reed (Wes Bently) a well-established DJ who takes him under his wing, he begins dreaming of a life he never thought possible.
This is the first big feature film from director Max Joseph. Many of you many know him from the MTV TV show Catfish. He is the no bullshit, grey-haired co-host/camera man. He is also my favorite person on that whole show (sorry Nev). So when I heard he was branching out and making a big budget feature film I was pretty excited. I do think for his first efforts he really shows us that he has the possibility to be a really great director. This film is far from perfect and many times it feels like it struggles with what type of movie it really wants to be. Is it a drama? A party movie? A love story? it is kind of all over the place. That being said I didn't hate this movie. Overall, I enjoyed watching it even if it seemed to jump all over the place.
I am not sure I by Zac Efron as a DJ in the movie. For whatever reason, for me anyways, it felt forced and out of place. His pack of friends also had me shaking my head a bit. Most of the time I had a hard time seeing how these actually were friends at all. I wanted to spend a good portion of the movie saying "Hey Cole, your friends suck." You don't really blame his character when he seems to watch to ditch them at every turn. Emily Ratajkowski who plays Sophie, James's girlfriend/Cole's love interest, is also a head scratcher. There are times when she is likeable but the confusing relationship she has with James I don't really understand. She is his personal assistant and girlfriend - as needed. So when she starts showing interest in Cole we aren't really surprised. I think what a lot of this film comes down to is that it has a hard time making you care about what happens with these characters. If Cole pisses off his friends, so what, they kinda suck. If Sophie cheats on James, so what he is cheating on her and is kind of a dick. if Cole and Sophie don't work out, so what? did they even really like each other? It is hard to get past those types of feelings with this movie.
I give this movie a B-. It has a good concept and there are parts of the movie that are really great to watch, but overall it could use a little more work on the characters. I would say maybe wait for Redbox or Netflix for this one guys.
We Are Your Friends hit theaters August 28th.
Rating: B-
We Are Your Friends