Critics rating: 1.5 Stars

Cast:  Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski, Shiloh Fernandez, Alex Shaffer, Jonny Weston, Wes Bentley

Direction: Max Joseph

Produced: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Liza Chasin

Written: Richard Silverman

Genre: Music

Duration: 98 Mins

The struggler to superstar journey is all too familiar a terrain for makers and the audience alike. So perhaps writers would be more creative about presenting a story from rags to eventual fame? Apparently they did not consider it for this film. Which leaves the audience suffering through another template of an incredibly attractive hero, his wastrel friends, drugs, alcohol, a woman he shouldn’t fall for and an unstable mentor.

Cole Carter (Zac Efron) aspires for EDM (electronic dance music) greatness as he works Thursday shifts at a club with only free drinks for him and his friends as payment. He meets DJ James Reed (Wes Bentley) in an alley, so that he can conveniently be taken to an art gallery with a doping, boozing crowd. It is the only stand-out scene in the film because of the animated rotoscoping used, which takes you back to Richard Linklater’s A Scanner Darkly.

He falls for Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski), James’ girlfriend, the most predictable and the only real conflict in the story. A morally unethical job under Paige (Jon Bernthal) barely takes up some of his time. And one fine day he gets past it all and performs at the Summerfest.

That’s it. That’s the whole story. Really.

There is not enough memorable EDM, characters or punchlines to redeem this dragging story. It is the uneven narrative that gets to you. It tries to be a clutter-breaker by having a documentary, cinéma-vérité style of introducing Cole and his delinquent friends as they go about inviting people for their gig. After that, the story is played straight. Suddenly, it changes when they introduce Paige’s character as he speaks about their real estate job, his dialogue superimposing itself onscreen. And then, it goes back to being boring.

We are Your Friends needed more of those bold, quirky moments instead of playing the genre in all its bland banality. Instead, you have this.

Only hardcore Efron fans and EDM aficionados need apply. We Are Your Friends will need as many friends as it can get, more so going by its box office performance.