Review of Drinking Buddies (2013) by Dirigiblepulp — 03 Jul 2017

If Joe Swanberg's filmography has an essential work, I think this is it. His filmmaking style repels that term, his body of work speaks for itself more than individual films do. I would list him as a favorite director, eagerly awaiting his next work, but without being able to list one of his films as a personal favorite.

But this is the closest, it's partly because he's working with a more "veteran" cast -- Olivia Wilde owns this thing with her charisma and "cool" girl charm, and should be killing it in more movies like this -- but also because, like most of his films, there are things to learn but no lessons, and here he hits that balance rather perfectly. Lives are left as they are, with things that have happened, and a more standard studio version of this would have wrapped things up and let the characters know exactly how they should be living their lives. Not here, not exactly.