Movie Title: We Are Your Friends
Writer: Max Joseph, Meaghan Oppenheimer
Starring: Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski, Shiloh Fernandez, Alex Shaffer, Jonny Weston, Wes Bentley, Jon Bernthal
Review: Young Cole Carter (Zac Efron) dreams of hitting the big time as a Hollywood disc jockey, spending his days and nights hanging with buddies and working on the one track that will set the world on fire. Opportunity comes knocking when he meets James Reed (Wes Bentley), a charismatic DJ who takes the 23-year-old under his wing. Soon, his seemingly clear path to success gets complicated when he starts falling for his mentor's girlfriend Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski), jeopardizing his new friendship and the future he seems destined to fulfill.
As a fan of EDM music, I was intrigued by the premise of We Are Your Friends where an aspiring DJ attempts to make it big by producing that one great track to vault himself into the Hollywood nightlife scene. As a showcase of the EDM music included in the film's soundtrack, this movie delivered. But that's where it ended for me. Zac Efron does a fine job playing the well-intended, ambitious Cole Carter, and Wes Bentley really stood out to me as a legendary DJ named James Reed. James is a source of both mentorship and conflict for Cole. The beautiful Emily Ratajkowski does a good job selling her character as intended; the kind-hearted girlfriend of Reed who sees Cole for the person he is rather than the person that everyone wants him to be. I found most of the secondary characters in this film to be generally unlikable. Despite that, the biggest problem here, is that everything in this film seems so inconsequential. There aren't any stakes, and there isn't enough substance for me to really care about what's going on. This film basically stays in one lane and sort of goes through the motions as electronic music is delivered to the audience. This more or less comes across as a visual soundtrack, which isn't all bad. But if we're sitting here judging this movie on it's merits as a movie, then it simply just isn't that good. I enjoyed the music, and I enjoyed the dynamics of some of the main characters, but overall I would only recommend this film to EDM fans who are coming for the music and staying for montages of attractive partygoers.
Fun Fact: In preparation for his role as a DJ, Zac Efron received lessons on DJing and mixing from Alesso. Another famous DJ, Dillon Francis, makes a cameo as a rookie DJ warming up for Cole at a club.