Review

We Are Your Friends

San Fernando Valley slackers Squirrel (Alex Shaffer), Cole (Zac Efron), Mason (Jonny Weston) and Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez) are chasing that electronic dance music dream in "We Are Your Friends."
San Fernando Valley slackers Squirrel (Alex Shaffer), Cole (Zac Efron), Mason (Jonny Weston) and Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez) are chasing that electronic dance music dream in "We Are Your Friends."

With the notable exception of Pitch Perfect and its sequel, there haven't been a lot of movies where the main character is a laptop DJ.

photo

Warner Bros. Pictures

Valley boy Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez) is trying to make it as a soap opera actor in the electronic dance musical "We Are Your Friends."

This may have something to do with the fact that while it does take some skill and discipline to get a room jumping, the process itself isn't that cinematic or even visual. In We Are Your Friends, watching Zac Efron twist his arms and work up a sweat trying to make others work up a sweat is, depending on your mood, comical or tedious.

We Are Your Friends

73 Cast: Zac Efron, Wes Bentley, Emily Ratajkowski, Jonny Weston, Shiloh Fernandez, Alex Shaffer, Jon Bernthal, Alicia Coppola

Director: Max Joseph

Rating: R, for language throughout, drug use, sexual content and some nudity

Running time: 96 minutes

There's a reason Deadmau5 and the guys from Daft Punk wear goofy head gear when they perform. Watching somebody standing behind a keyboard is sometimes almost as exciting as watching people standing in a buffet line. Unless you are so attracted to Efron that you await every twist of his bicep, it's a pity nobody bothered to find a distinctive mask for him.

Another reason he could use some kind of facial covering is because director Max Joseph and Meaghan Oppenheimer haven't given him much of a role. If he at least wore some goofy glasses, he might be something more than a handsome, callow drone.

Efron plays Cole Carter, a fellow who occasionally sits behind a keyboard and collects sound samples when he's not loafing, doing drugs, making some kind of home repair or working for a real estate swindler (Jon Bernthal). Cole has a posse that consists of the crop-topped Mason (Jonny Weston), Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez) and Squirrel (Alex Shaffer). They could probably use some masks, too, because none of them stand out, either. (Actually, Mason sticks out a little. He's loud and violent and self-impressed. Every moment spent away from his company is to be treasured.)

When the boys aren't selling dope or mailing real estate come-ons with Cole, they're hyping Cole's appearances in low-rent clubs.

Cole's fortunes may be moving up because a DJ named James (Arkansas' Wes Bentley, in the film's only worthwhile performance) has taken notice of him (though he hasn't heard a single bass thump of his music). The audience doesn't get to hear much of Cole's keyboard magic either. Maybe that's just as well -- a dull bass thump is still dull no matter how Joseph tries to dress up the surroundings.

Having all of the participants in a rave look like a cheap knock-off of Waking Life and A Scanner Darkly only amplifies how wanting the storyline is.

Efron and the rest of the cast talk directly to the camera, describing the virtues and abundant vice in the San Fernando Valley without revealing anything a person over the age of 12 wouldn't already know about the place. It's as if Joseph and Oppenheimer were trying to meet a time quota instead of tell a story.

Before she had a small but significant role in Gone Girl, Emily Ratajkowski, who plays James' assistant and lover here, helped Robin Thicke sell millions of copies of "Blurred Lines" by swaying seductively in the song's video to the beat a jury says Thicke stole from Marvin Gaye. She does her best to the half-hearted tunes offered here but even her dancing can't breathe life into the tired rhythm.

Ratajkowski and Efron have a forbidden romance, and it's impossible to care. When two achingly attractive people like these can't generate a single spark, perhaps it's time to change who's behind the booth.

It's fair to criticize Straight Outta Compton for sanitizing the behavior of N.W.A, but Dr. Dre's infectious beats could really have been helpful here.

MovieStyle on 08/28/2015

Upcoming Events