WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS

Starring: Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski, Wes Bentley
Writers: Max Joseph, Meaghan Oppenheimer
Director: Max Joseph

*** WARNING - THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS, ONE OF THEM MASSIVE ***

Cole Carter (Efron) lives in the San Fernando Valley, promoting and generally hanging around the club scene with three friends. These four guys share not only a rented house but also share aspirations to make it big - Cole is looking for the one tune that will propel him into the ranks of globetrotting superstar DJs, Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez) is a budding actor, Mason (Ollie Weston) sees himself owning clubs rather than handing out their flyers and Squirrel (Alex Shaffer) - well, Squirrel certainly wants to do better, I'm sure, it's just not made especially clear what his career goals are here. Having people call him something other than Squirrel is probably a start. 

Complications arise when Cole is taken under the wing of older, successful DJ James (Bentley) who notices the younger guy's natural talent. As Cole looks to create the track that will facilitate his leap into the big time he meets James' personal assistant Sophie (Ratajkowski) and the two hit it off immediately. Well, not quite immediately, there's obviously that first meeting where Sophie is a bit aloof and Cole's attempts to break the ice don't quite work but deep down you know that Sophie thinks Cole's quite a nice guy so...

Meanwhile, Cole and his friends have an opportunity to make some quick cash working for real estate shark Paige (Jon Bernthal, absolutely wasted here - and I don't mean on the copious amounts of drugs handed out during the club sequences) - will they be swayed by the lure of easy money or will they stay true to their principles and follow their dreams? Hmm, that's a tough one, what do you think?

We Are Your Friends has apparently been given a huge thumbs down by Stateside audiences as it limped to the fourth-worst wide release debut in box office history. Personally, I'd be one of the first people to tell you that box office takings do not go hand in hand with the quality of a movie - some absolutely terrible films have raked in obscene amounts of cash - but in this case I have to say US moviegoers are bang on the money here.

WAYF is full of characters that it's very difficult to give two hoots about save for Efron and even then Cole isn't sufficiently interesting to draw the viewer in. His tribulations over the creation of his signature dance anthem could have been played for much more dramatic effect than they are here and his "Eureka!" moment in the tune's evolution is both clodhoppingly signposted and snigger-inducingly ridiculous. As a dance music fan, I have to say it's not even that great a tune when you finally get to hear it.

The rest of the cast have to work with such gossamer-thin material that a light breeze would cause it to disintegrate. Bernthal ought to be given an apology for being lumped with a cartoon role which appears to be the result of somone having watched Glengarry Glen Ross, being amazed by Alec Baldwin's terrifying/hilarious performance and then trying to recreate the magic here. Unfortunately, David Mamet isn't on script duty and it shows, leaving Bernthal as nothing more than the pantomime bad guy in this mess.

Cole's friends are not exactly sympathetic either. Ollie comes across as a bit of a whiner, bemoaning his lack of acting opportunities whilst giving no hint as to whether or not he's a competent thesp. However, at least he's relatively appealing compared to Mason, an arrogant, aggressive knobhead who you'd willingly cross the street to avoid - he also seems to be a bit of a sex pest too so he's the whole package, ladies. Get in line. Squirrel is just there to provide transport and make the odd "deep" comment (well, about as deep as this movie ever gets). Oh, and he dies about 75 minutes in just to provide some tragedy and to give motivation to the others to try harder. Sorry, did I just give that away? Whoops.

As for Bentley, he certainly gives the movie a decent performance but again the script hits you over the head with too many references to how damaged he's become without really addressing how he came to be like that. Ratajkowski receives some odd treatment, her character being set-up as a girl who is smart and has potential but then focusing on her ample breasts as they threaten to leap out of her dress during a slow-motion dance scene. Sophie's relationship with Cole never fully convinces either, Ratajkowski and Efron try hard enough to sell it but the script rarely gives the feeling that these two are all that into each other.

For a film whose message is all about "finding your own sound", WAYF spends most of its time nicking other people's sounds and gluing them together in haphazard fashion. It's certainly possible to create a well-written, entertaining piece about club/dance culture but in this case I'm thinking of Human Traffic, the 1999 flick starring John Simm. Don't get me wrong, the soundtrack here is pretty good - it's just about the only thing that succeeds - but a movie about dance music should carry you along on a wave of seemingly boundless energy. Instead, the film's vacuous plot, dull characters and trite message kill any momentum before it has a chance to build and the whole thing may very well have you snoozing way before the end of what is a very, very long 96 minutes.