We Are Your Friends (2015)

Directed by: Max Joseph

Written by: Max Joseph, Meaghan Oppenheimer, & Richard Silverman

Starring: Zac Efron, Wes Bently, & Emily Ratajkowski






We Are Your Friends is a cross between Skins and Catfish.  What I mean is, the plot is similar to the British television show, while the camera shots and directing style is clearly documentary like Catfish, the show that Max Joseph is a huge part of.

We Are Your Friends stars Zac Efron playing Cole who just wants to make it big in the DJ world.  He meets James (Wes Bently), an established artist, who helps him make his music unique, but in the process Cole sees the dark side of what fame and money can do to a person.  His friends become a mess.  His love life is complicated.  And in the end, he falls back down to the bottom of the food chain.  Can he make back on top or will he stay where he is at the bottom?  Dum dum dummm.

Anyway, there were things that I loved about this movie, and then there were things that I just didn't.  For instance, this movie greatly reminded me of Skins.  (If you haven't seen the show, watch the UK version.  5 POPCORNS!!!)  There was drugs, partying, drinking, relationship triangles, etc...all like Skins, and even some of the characters were like the ones from Series 3.  Now I love Skins, but this film is way past the deadline.  It's late to the game.  It seems misplaced in the current movie stream, which kind of makes sense since originally it was supposed to be an independent film.

On the plus side, the music was amazing! And the directorial style represented documentary, which I kind of liked.  We were there with the characters and I appreciated how Joseph showed the non-glamorours side of L.A. along with the spectacular things of the city.  It gives people a sense that it isn't all sunshine and rainbows.

Other than that, not much else to say.  It was enjoyable and the whole time I was watching the film, I was wondering why Kendall Jenner is not an actress yet?  Ratajkowski looks a lot like her, just shorter and with fuller lips.  Efron was a good casting choice since he seemed out of place with his friends and the DJ world.  This made his character stand out.

Nevertheless, I thought this movie should have come out earlier when people were into these types of films, but hey, it was okay.  Not bad, but not that good either.  Hence the 3 popcorns.