We Are Your Friends (2015) NEW!

We Are Your Friends is a 2015 drama film directed by Max Joseph (in his feature directorial debut) and with a screenplay by Joseph and Meaghan Oppenheimer, from a story by Richard Silverman. The film stars Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski and Wes Bentley, and follows a young Los Angeles DJ trying to make it in the music industry and figure out life with his friends.

We Are Your Friends (2015)

Later, James calls Cole to DJ at his house party, a paid gig. Cole's friends Dustin Mason (Jonny Weston), Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez), and Squirrel (Alex Shaffer) show up, and after a party goer insults Mason, Mason gets in a fight with him and has to be pulled out of James's pool. Despite his background and friends, James sees potential in Cole and takes him as his student. After listening to Cole's original song, James criticizes Cole for imitating other well-known producers, and he suggests using organic sounds for an original vibe. They write a song using the original vibe technique and vocals from Sophie, which is well received at a local nightclub. Next, Cole and his friends head to Las Vegas for a music festival, where he meets up with Sophie, whom James ditched. Sophie gives Cole MDMA, and they sleep together, spending the night at a hotel.

Back in San Fernando, James invites Cole over to watch an MMA fight with him and Sophie. An awkward moment ends up with Sophie telling Cole to accept what happened and leave it alone, and James gives Cole a new MacBook Pro and the opportunity to open for him at a popular music festival. One day, Cole and Paige (Jon Bernthal) meet up with Tanya Romero (Alicia Coppola), whose house is being foreclosed. During the negotiation, Paige buys her house and rents it back to her, intending to sell it quickly for a substantial price, which angers Cole. While James' alcoholism begins to affect Sophie, he and Cole go to a strip club for his birthday. Cole gets sick, and James finds out about Cole's relationship with Sophie, and severs ties with him. Returning to his three friends, it is revealed that Squirrel has been looking for better jobs, and Mason has rented a house for all of them. Following intense partying, Squirrel is found unconscious and dies from an overdose. After the funeral, the remaining friends begin to question their future, and go their separate ways after Mason blames Ollie for the drugs that killed Squirrel. Cole visits James, whose alcoholism has completely consumed him, to let him know of Squirrel's death and that it could possibly have been his fault. James consoles him and also tells him that Sophie moved to the San Fernando Valley and works at a local coffee shop, where he later visits her.

It's an off week of sorts. The biggest release is extended edition of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. In fact, there are five versions of this film that are near the top of the list. There are not a lot of other first-run releases on this week's list, which means we have to look to the classics for potential Pick of the Week contenders. Fortunately, there are plenty of those worth picking up. Leading the way is The Collected Works of Hayao Miyazaki on Blu-ray. It is expensive, but you get a lot for your money. There is another top-notch release this week, Rush - R40 Live on DVD or Blu-ray, which wins the coveted Puck of the Week for best Canadian release. More...Weekend Wrap-Up: New Releases were Hunted DownOctober 26th, 2015

Cole's not a complicated guy. He likes his girls pretty, his music danceworthy, and his friends forever at his side: fast-talking Mason (Jonny Weston), aspiring actor/practicing drug dealer Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez), and Squirrel (Alex Shaffer), who, despite the nickname, is more of a puppy. They look down at the Los Angeles cityscape like it's a world, not a few miles on the freeway, away. They sing Sublime's "Santeria" after a party like it's a hymn. They're sure greatness is on its way, even if only Cole and Ollie really have anything like a plan, and even if those plans mostly involve getting famous.

We Are Your Friends and another DJ-centric movie, Eden, have bookended this summer. Eden, directed by Mia Hansen-Løve and based in part on her brother's experiences, sprawls more than a decade and charts the rise and fall of the French house scene alongside the career of its main character. We Are Your Friends is an enthusiastically pop product that throws explanatory text on screen, relies on zippy montages, and includes an ending that, while not completely tidy, is rooted in a "believe in yourself" pronouncement.

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By the time We Are Your Friends reaches its midpoint, it has settled into a predictable, routine drama about James and Cole's relationship - how this is influenced by his ties to his friends and the ways in which Sophie's presence skews things. Toward the end, the movie becomes poorly focused and, despite an impressively loud and pulsing climax, it limps to the finish line, losing its rhythm along the way. Certain complications, which seem important when they happen, are swept under the rug as if they don't matter.

Intensity is a missing ingredient. One can make a reasonable parallel between We Are Your Friends and last year's Whiplash. Although the relationship between Cole and James is nowhere near as contentious as that shared by Miles Tellers' Andrew and J.K. Simmons' Fletcher, there are similarities. Ferocity fueled Whiplash, diminishing the influence of clichéd plot elements; We Are Your Friends is too laid back for its own good. It feels familiar because it is familiar. The music sequences (with their thumping soundtrack and flailing bodies) provide caffeinated jolts but they don't last. In fact, coming down from the high of a pool party to the antics of Cole's friends is dispiriting.

Like so many movies arriving in theaters at this time of the year, We Are Your Friends is a square peg in a round hole. It's a watchable distraction but there's nothing sufficiently special to warrant a trip to a theater and there's no obvious audience outside the shrinking circle of Efron's fans. If you find yourself in an auditorium watching We Are Your Friends, there's no need to get up and leave. On the other hand, there's no compelling reason to be put in that position in the first place.

This may have something to do with the fact that while it does take some skill and discipline to get a room jumping, the process itself isn't that cinematic or even visual. In We Are Your Friends, watching Zac Efron twist his arms and work up a sweat trying to make others work up a sweat is, depending on your mood, comical or tedious.

We Are Your Friends is about what it takes to find your voice. Set in the world of electronic music and Hollywood nightlife, an aspiring 23-year-old DJ named Cole (Efron) spends his days scheming with his childhood friends 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 older DJ named James (Bentley), who takes him under his wing. \u00A0

Things get complicated, however, when Cole starts falling for James\u2019 much younger girlfriend, Sophie (Ratajkowski). With Cole\u2019s forbidden relationship intensifying and his friendships unraveling, he must choose between love, loyalty, and the future he is destined for. 041b061a72