We Are Your Friends

I was expecting to detest this movie, and I'm happy to say that I found some enjoyment in We Are Your Friends. I'm not too big on EDM; I love some of it, dislike most of it, but this movie actually painted the genre/scene in an interesting light. They add a human element to the otherwise processed and compressed music, and it's pretty captivating. At least those scenes are. Where the movie fails can be attributed to its title. We Are Your Friends shouldn't have been about friendship or having each others backs or whatever they were trying to go for because that is by far the weakest element of the movie. Zac Efron is great in the lead role, but his friends are complete throwaway characters. I didn't care about any of them. There is one scene near the end where the friend arc almost pays off, but even then it's not worth all the wasted minutes building up these characters when there's a far more interesting story that's going to waste.

The story I'm referring to involves Wes Bentley's character James who is a washed up DJ that kind of fell from grace and is now living off royalty checks and he ends up being the person who teaches Cole (Efron) how to make electronic music effective. I really enjoyed Bentley in this role. In fact, the whole trifecta of Efron, Bentley, and Emily Ratajkowski is what made the movie watchable. Bentley being the mentor character who is fighting a lot of inner demons, Efron being the ambitious musician who is hungry for his big break, and Ratajkowski showing off her acting talent as the assistant/girlfriend to Bentley's character who ends up falling for Efron. Even though it sounds like a cliché love triangle, for some reason it works. There's tension between these characters - you care about the friendship between James and Cole, but you also recognize their faults and why Emily's character is torn in her position. They make for some pretty powerful scenes.

But again, this potential is muddled underneath a bunch of Hollywood crap. There's a throwaway plot about the gang working for a real estate agency, there's an attempt at a moral to being true to yourself in order to make it big, there is just a bunch of predictable nonsense that clutters this film which is a shame. Believe me, I was not expecting to have any nice things to say about We Are Your Friends, but there is definitely something here. The fact is that the goodness in the movie is a diamond in the rough, and sadly, this diamond isn't worth all the rough.

A fairly underrated film that is very good in terms of entertainment and also in terms of plot, even if not very original, it is developed in a really beautiful way. The film has really great potential in my opinion and is also exploited quite well. The main theme is obviously friendship and wanting to achieve at all costs in what you want to do in life. In fact, the basis of this film is friendship and its importance. The film also plunges into a very sad part which in my opinion is rendered a bit badly because it is slightly too hasty and therefore does not convey all the sadness it should convey even if it suddenly arrives exactly as it should be.

I just saw the film this afternoon. Being A fan of the Genre and lifestyle its based around, I knew what to expect; a generic 'party' film with an interesting story line and enjoyable scenes.Unfortunately, it didn't deliver. I feel like the entire movie was going at 100mph, ensuring plot depth was minimal. I left the theater feeling empty, and as if the story didn't really impact upon me at all or make me think. Like I read in an earlier review, it was very superficial. At the end of the day, It's really just something you go see with a gal to kill some time. I had low standards for the film but yet it still managed to disappoint me.

I went to see the movie because I like another Zac Efon vehicle, That Awkward Moment. The Movie is similar as it's about Efron leading a group of men in their early twenties that really need to grow up, but That Awkward Moment was a hilarious comedy, while We Are Your Friends is more of a satire.

It's not like that other DJ movie, Eden. Both tell the story about the life of a DJ, but we are Your Friends plays out more like 8- Mile, that tells the beginning of Eminem's climb to the top. Efon's character gives a philosophy on being a DJ that I've seen in other movies about music but never about DJing, which was cool.

The movie takes the subject matter seriously, but I feel the movie takes itself too seriously. For the most part its very light hearted but then they attempt to be sophisticated. Maybe this was to explore the full aspect of the scene they live in, but all it did for me was change the vibe too much.

But overall, the trailer made We Are Your Friends look like Efron was playing an A-hole while hanging with his A-hole friends doing A- hole things, but the movie itself was much better than that, but not much better.

I think what a lot of people don't understand is that this movie really touches on a certain time in your life where you are truly coming into your own. It reminds me of my own early 20's and when you don't fully realize how free, young, complicated and beautiful you are. Although it is far from perfect it is still incredibly well done to be able to capture a time in your youth where, yes, you are free and feel limitless but also trapped by your surroundings, while also facing the harsh realities of true adulthood.

All of the characters are branches of each other, some positive and some negative, but all intertwined.

Give this movie a chance and go into it with an open mind and heart, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised.