We Are Your Friends centres on a 23-year-old DJ named Cole Carter (Zac Efron) who is struggling to make a name for himself in the world of electronic music. He lives in Los Angeles with three of his childhood friends, and they spend their days promoting a club night and trying to make enough money to move out of "the Valley".
Cole's life changes when he meets James (Wes Bentley), a charming older DJ who takes him under his wing. Things get complicated when Cole starts to fall for James's girlfriend Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski), forcing him to make some tough choices about his future.
Efron is relatively likeable and empathetic as Cole, and Bentley brings some much-needed humour to the film with his sharp comic timing and sarcastic delivery. Emily Ratajkowski unfortunately spends most of her screen time either dancing provocatively or pouting. She's a beautiful girl, but trying so hard to be sexy, it's painful to watch.
Cole's flatmates Ollie and Mason are sleazy and detestable characters, as is Cole's boss Joey. They lead lives of excess and intoxication, and are willing to do anything for money. The film explores the emptiness of the millennial existence, particularly in LA, with some shadows of insight. "Are we ever going to be better than this?" Cole's friend Squirrel asks.
The party scenes mirror 2012's Spring Breakers – all pounding music and slow-motion close-ups of breasts – while the chicanery and lucrativeness of Cole's job is reminiscent of The Wolf of Wall Street. Sadly, We Are Your Friends is not as good as either of those films.
If you love electronic music, you might enjoy this movie for the soundtrack alone. At the end of the film, Cole premieres the track that will make him big – composed of "organic sounds", including conversations that he secretly recorded on his phone (not creepy at all, man...). To this reviewer, it sounded a lot like that episode of Friends where Ross plays "the sound" on his keyboard.
All in all, We Are Your Friends is a dreary and predictable coming-of-age story that pretends to be deeper than it is.
Kayla Walsh
