Movie Monday (Thursday Edition) - We Are Your Friends

There are two types of people who should watch this movie: people who like electronic dance music, and people who like Zac Efron. If you're neither, you have zero reason to watch this movie. If you're the latter, you will be entertained by this rags-to-riches story, where Zefron (no one cares what his character's name is) works his way from a local club DJ to playing at a large fictional music festival, and you will be left with a less than stellar impression of what EDM culture is about. If you give a rat’s ass about EDM, you'll be both amused and offended by this movie, but I still think you should watch it. And if you're reading this, and the movie is still playing at a theater near you, go. There's a good chance you'll be the only one there, because this is the 3rd worst large scale movie release of all time, behind Oogiloves In the BIG Balloon Adventure (???) and Delgo. I was lucky enough to see the movie in this way with my friend DJ Kurtz Callum, and we were able to freely air our grievances.

When I saw the trailer for this movie, I was expecting the worst EDM movie imaginable (and I've seen Vibrations, which is on Netflix, - it's terribad). And after seeing the movie, I can say, with confidence, that the trailer compiles all of the worst parts of the movie into a three minute shitfest all over EDM. That said, I ended up hating the movie as a whole a lot less than I thought I would.

Warner Bros.

Why, you ask? Because they made it incredibly clear that I, a diehard EDM fan and DJ, was the target demographic. The sense of humor in the movie is meant for people who are very knowledgeable about EDM. I haven't laughed that hard at a movie's jokes in a long time. The movie contains brilliant cameos, niche references, and harsh jokes, and these are the features I most want to avoid spoiling. I want you to watch it and laugh at these moments, and see how much you catch.

I never laughed when the movie was trying to be serious, but I did cringe one too many times. First and foremost, the infamous “A laptop, some talent, and one track” speech. This was in the trailer too, and was the pinnacle of terrible DJ narrative. What makes this terrible is this bit was included in the trailer, because to the viewer, Zefron is speaking as an authority on what it takes to DJ. This is either misleading or offensive. But if you make it to the end of the movie, you learn that he wasn't, he was speaking an arrogant amateur DJ who learns as the movie progresses. His conclusion at the end is actually one I can get behind (even if it is tied in a pretty movie moral bow). This is common throughout; you can justify stupid shit Zefron says by reminding yourself he's an arrogant amateur who is still learning.

Warner Bros.

I would have been happier if drugs played less of a role. Zefron uses drugs. His three friends use drugs. They glorify sneaking drugs into a music festival. I'm not talking just weed either, it was molly and plenty of other stuff I couldn't identify. Zefron's mentor slips him PCP the night they first meet. The first three quarters of this movie glorifies drug use. The only cool friend Zefron had died of an overdose. Zefron and co's reaction to this was to blame themselves for it, which bothered me a little. I appreciate that they attempted to create a conversation about drugs, but it wasn't a very good one.

Aside from the PCP dose, Zefron's relationship with his mentor is a solid one. In fact, it's the probably the only good character dynamic in the movie. It was actually fun watching them work together, and help Zefron grow and get opportunities to get more exposure and experience. A romantic subplot was overall a distraction from what was decent about the movie, but I also admit it could have easily been much worse.