We Are Your Friends

Films that are based on a musical bent are usually fraught with glitz, a lot of volume, pulsation, and fairly shallow people that wouldn't know hard times if it came up and bit them on the tush. Even though "We Are Your Friends" have a great deal of these aforementioned ingredients, the fact is that this is about four young men who have come from truly hard knocks and seemingly have little to no future in store for them.

Set in the world of electronic music and Hollywood nightlife, an aspiring 23-year-old DJ named Cole Carter (Zac Efron) spends his days scheming with his childhood buddies, Mason (Jonny Weston), Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez) and Squirrel (Alex Shaffer) and his nights working on the one track that will set the world on fire. All of this changes when he meets a charismatic but damaged and jaded older DJ named James Reed (Wes Bentley), who takes him under his wing. Things get complicated, however, when Cole starts falling for James' girlfriend, Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski). With Cole's forbidden relationship intensifying and his friends unraveling, he must choose between love, loyalty, and the future he is destined for.

Others to round out the cast are Jon Bernthal as Paige, Alicia Coppola as Mrs. Romero, Wiley M. Pickett as Carl and Jon Abrahams as Nicky.

This was directed surprisingly well by Max Joseph ("12 Years of DFA: Too Old to Be New, Too New to Be Classic" (Documentary) '13). I say surprisingly because this guy is a virtual newbie, and considering he only has one other film (a documentary) and a ton of documentary shorts to his credit, this was incredibly well directed. Other than Efron, Bentley and maybe Bernthal, the actors were fairly new, so the directing has to be even more integral. It was written by Joseph and Meaghan Oppenheimer based on a story by Richard Silverman. These type of films are typically not difficult to construct, hence a usually simple premise to them, however with this, there was a bit more to it considering these four guys had many different issues: fear, anger and frustration, drugs, alcohol, to mention some. Sure all generations go through a period where they are rebelling and acting out via through all the trappings of being young and immature, but not willing to fess up to it. I feel, whether it was the intent of the writers or not, that these issues were definitely played out here, and with that gave us that look into their lives so we can either cheer or jeer them. This was a sort of rights of passage film through the eyes of musicians and would-be entrepreneurs, and even though this doesn't end with a nice pretty bow on it, it does give you a definitive look inside of those trying to make it in a world that is cutthroat. So, I feel these guys addressed this look of what these guys were going through and the lives they touched as they journeyed to get where they were hoping to be.

This wasn't anything Oscar worthy, but it certainly hits at our core, because all of us have been at those crossroads of where and how are we going to make it in a profession we truly love. Even with issues in our lives, do we still have the patience, perseverance and guts to stick it out or will we just cave into mediocrity and be OK of where we are?

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                      Rated: R                                    96mins.