Review of We Are Your Friends (2015) by Joel G — 30 Nov 2015

"A better title for this movie would've been "We Are So Toasted" because we have seen this movie a thousand times before.".

Movie Review: We Are Your Friends.

Date Viewed: September 4 2015.

Directed By Max Joseph.

Screenplay By Max Joseph and Meaghan Oppenheimer, Story By Richard Silverman.

Starring: Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski,.

Jonny Weston, Shiloh Fernandez, Alex Shaffer, Jon Bernthal and Wes Bentley.

Boy did this one bomb big time at the box office. It's numbers are currently in "Oogieloves in the BIG Balloon Adventure" territory. It had one of the worst openings ever for a movie screening in over 2,000 theaters. Does this news signal that "We Are Your Friends" is a bad movie? Nope. Not even close. It's just a tired coming-of-age drama that's set in the world of Hollywood DJs. On the plus side, I love the insightful information on how the DJ music-scene works in the entertainment business and Wes Bentley gives a strong performance as an older DJ who serves as the mentor of a 23-year-old underdog played by Zac Efron.

As I previously mentioned, "We Are Your Friends" is set in the world of electronic music where we meet a struggling DJ named Cole Carter (Efron). He mostly spends his days hanging out at parties with his childhood friends and working on a track that will change the face of the music industry forever.

One night at a nightclub, he meets an older DJ named James Reed (Bentley). Cole wants to know on how to hit it big as a famous DJ so he wants James to become his mentor.

The veteran DJ does become his mentor but Cole has to avoid one obstacle, don't get into a relationship with James' girlfriend, Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski).

Things get really complicated for Cole when his relationship with Sophie intensifies. His friendships also begin to crumble and when James does find out about Cole's affair with Sophie, he kicks him out of his life and out of the music business. As usual with all movies like this, our underdog must choose between love, loyalty and his music career.

Zac Efron is okay as the struggling DJ hoping to make it big in Hollywood but Emily Ratajkowski is massively miscast as the DJ's girlfriend. She is famous for appearing nude in Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines" music video. WOW! That's a start. Okay, she was okay in a small role as the college student who had affair with Ben Affleck in "Gone Girl" but I think her career is going down to Jessica Simpson territory. When she becomes impressed with Efron's skills as a DJ, the camera seems to focus more on her nice melons than her skills as a dancer.

First-time director Max Joseph could've put more insight on how the DJ world works but instead he wanted to get insight on how sexy Emily Ratajkowski is. Despite a strong supporting performance from Wes Bentley, "We Are Your Friends" is a movie that has been done a thousand times before. How about the title. "We Are Your Friends" has one of the worst movie titles in recent memory. A better title for this movie would've been "We Are So Toasted".