I Am Your Friend

When a major motion picture only earns 1.8 million dollars its opening weekend there is a real problem. There are fingers to point and people to blame. This past weekend We Are Your Friends was the movie guilty of that horrendous box office performance. Kevin Lincoln at Vulture does an excellent job of breaking down what went wrong, and why audiences no showed to the theaters, so I’m not going to bother with all that jazz. All of that money talk is a little too inside baseball for me anyways, I’m here to tell you We Are Your Friends was not nearly as bad as the box office numbers suggest, and that maybe you should give it a chance.

Confession number one, the main reason I saw this movie was because the director, Max Joseph, is the star of MTV’s Catfish. Aren’t the poor saps who get tricked by strangers on the internet the stars? No, it’s Max. He is always there with tiny camera in hand and sensible advice for all the parties involved. Max also makes dealing with Nev for an hour much more palatable. Once I found out Max was directing a movie I knew I had to pay all the free entertainment forward and check it out.

Confession number two, one of my favorite movies is Saturday Night Fever. No really, it is. Everyone just read that sentenced, audibly snickered, and then made some disco comment. All the laughter and comments are because you’ve never seen the movie. Everyone just thinks of Travolta in the white suit striking a sweet pose. However there is a lot more going on in Saturday Night Fever. To briefly summarize the plot, Fever is about a group of teenagers/young adults, who don’t have a lot going on for them, but when they hit the dance floor all the problems go away, anything is possible and the world is their oyster. Everyone was young at some point and these are feelings we all can relate to. Side note, Fever also has one of the greatest movie soundtracks of all time; one of the tracks even helped make Robin Thicke famous, but we’ll get back to him later. Well, I happened to be watching Saturday Night Fever one afternoon, and already knowing full well that I was going to see We Are Your Friends, I convinced myself Friends would be an updated version of Fever, but replacing the dancing with DJing. I was 100% in at this point.

I saw We Are Your Friends opening weekend. I was $13 of that 1.8 million. Turns out, it was pretty good. No one is winning an Oscar and film as we know it has not been changed. However, I was interested for the entire 96 minutes while also caring about the characters on the screen. That’s’ really all you can ask for in a movie. The story of four young bros trying to find their way in the world resonated with me. It ended up not being a modern day Saturday Night Fever, but that’s ok. Friends was its own movie. All the supporting actors nailed their parts, and who doesn’t love some good party scenes. A couple areas fell flat, but all in all the movie was enjoyable.

If anyone has ever read one of my Flashback Friday posts, then you are well aware that I was a young man once, and when you are a young man your decision making may not be the best, but your ability to dream and fantasize about the future is unequaled. Friends does a great job of displaying this fantasizing on the screen. Zac Efron and his crew feel that at any moment they can break free from the San Fernando Valley and bathe in all the decadence Los Angeles has to offer. While they may always have this feeling inside them, the crew’s actions routinely sabotage any dream. Watching the ups and downs the foursome encounter was the beating heart of this movie.

When talking about Zac Efron’s crew in Friends it’s impossible not mention Johhny Weston’s portrayal of Valley born and bred Mason. To prepare for this role Weston must have watched Alpha Dog on constant repeat, audited a few courses at Pierce and hung out with my college roommate for the entire year leading up to this movie because he nailed Valley kid. He presented the perfect amount of Valley pride and suburban shame that many real life locals carry with them at all times. Mix that internal crisis with a sense of entitlement and a quick temper, and viola, you have a stereotypical valley bro. Mason was an actual person who I would have run into somewhere in the real world. My hat’s off to you Johnny Weston.

As focused as I was on Johnny Weston’s performance, it was pretty hard to miss Emily Ratajkowski. If she looks familiar, you may remember her from Gone Girl, Sports Illustrated or Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines video (NSFW). I told you Robin Thicke would pop up again. In this teaser trailer it’s pretty obvious what I mean (I only call it a teaser trailer because as the scene goes on Max Joseph and his camera really explore Emily Ratajkowski and her dance moves, so what you saw is just a tease). This scene is the most fun Efron has in the entire movie. Her gyrations bring out the best in Zach. Her story arc is kind of drab, but since she is the opposite of drab things even out.

In the linked clip above Zach Efron is having fun and being the charismatic DJ audiences expect. However, throughout most of the movie Efron is stiff, and can’t really match the kinetic energy around him. His world is constantly shifting, but we barely see any reaction greater than a shoulder shrug. I didn’t think DJs were supposed to be stoic. Had Efron been turnt up to 11 this movie could have gone from pretty good to great. Another complaint with Friends was the B story with Walking Dead alum John Bernthal. It never really got on its feet and helped to slow the pace.

We Are Your Friends is a solid movie that effectively portrays the dynamic between a group of young men trying to make it in the world together. The supporting actors shine in their scenes, and even make it hard to look away sometimes. While Zack Efron’s portrayal of a DJ could have been amped up some, he still managed to hold his own behind the Mac Book Pro. We Are your Friends did not deserve the beating it took at the box office, and everyone should give it a chance.