By Daniella Coe-Macnamara
Staff Writer
Zac Efron, electronic music, and a group of small-town best friends with big dreams; “We Are Your Friends” initially sounds like the perfect summer movie. However, it completely misses its target, ending up as a corny, try hard film without a strong plot or depth to its characters.
Focusing around a group of four twenty-somethings from the San Fernando Valley, “We Are Your Friends” tells the story of Cole Carter’s (Zac Efron) entrance into the Hollywood lifestyle as an electronic DJ. His three sidekick friends are obnoxious losers who drag him down from his rise to fame with their childish antics and love for clubbing, until a tragic event tears them apart. The potential summer hit film was a flop because of its lack of plot, substance, or sincerity behind its desperate attempts to romanticize the EDM world.
As Cole Carter and his mentor, DJ James Reed (Wes Bentley), begin to work on the “one song” that Carter thinks will make him famous, Carter finds a romantic interest in none other than Reed’s gorgeous girlfriend Sophie, played by Victoria’s Secret model Emily Ratajkowski.
Every movie tries to incorporate at least a little inspiration into their plot, in an attempt to leave the audience walking out starry eyed. But “We Are Your Friends” tries too hard to inspire, forcing the protagonist’s dreams to come true with little to no effort and struggle. Cole Carter is somehow always in the right place at the right time, meeting the right people to rise to the top exactly how he wanted to, all the while reciting cliche monologues about the importance of work and music.
The storyline of the film is two-dimensional, as easily predictable events ruin the film’s credibility, creating a completely unrealistic story. Cole Carter ends up with the girl he obviously wanted, after he gets the job he wanted, but any sane human being would know that this would never happen in real life, proving that the film is awkwardly unfeasible.
The film also tries much too hard to emphasize the importance of electronic music, as it’s constantly emphasizing the effort put into electronic music, despite Cole Carter being a “sellout” himself. The constant contrasting focus between the emphasis on sellouts versus the emphasis on creating music unique to the artist is confusing and awkward for audiences.
In fact, it’s almost ironic how much the film patronizes “sellouts,” even having Carter say that Reed was “giving the people exactly what they wanted,” when the film itself seems to be a sellout by doing the exact same thing. Zac Efron, a Victoria’s Secret model, and EDM, one of the trendiest music genres at the moment, are “exactly what the people wanted”. This sellout attitude is represented all the way down to the Tumblr-esque shots of the couple at Electric Daisy Carnival.
One of the only worthwhile aspects of “We Are Your Friends” are the visuals; dramatically stylized shots with touches of realism that attempt to romanticize the electronic music world. Mockumentary footage throughout the film gives it a personal connotation, drawing the audience closer to the goldfish bowl of the San Fernando Valley.
Another visual area the director succeeded in implementing was the incorporation of hallucination-like imagery into the party scenes of the film. With colorful animation making its way into select scenes, the film becomes reminiscent of “Across The Universe,” a somewhat successful attempt at recreating the psychedelic atmosphere that is so common within the electronic music scene.
Despite its budget and predicted box-office success, “We Are Your Friends” fell short of all expectations, leaving audiences confused and uncomfortable by the end of the very awkward and corny film.
“We Are Your Friends” is rated R and playing in theaters nationwide.
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