We Are Your Friends

This review may contain spoilers!

This is without a doubt Zac Efron's greatest performance yet. I would give We Are Your Friends an 8.5/10.

This film has an exceptional story that really shows character development at it's absolute finest; Cole evolves from someone who doesn't do much in his life to a world or partying that has a lot of consequences to it. The final scene in which we see Cole play his track is without a doubt the perfect build to what has been an exceptional plot, truly fantastic pacing. The cinematography is really good because it doesn't stay still; it works closely upon taking in detail. The music for this film was stunning, I think we should have more films with a sound like this. Beyond that the special effects were fantastically used, the animation done in the art gallery scene is one of the most beautiful things I've seen recently in a film.

Zac Efron, who played Cole, crushed it as a leading protagonist; his quiet and humble role went through such extreme changes that Efron just nailed at every turn. Emily Ratajkowski, who played Sophie, was a very straight up role, I liked the honesty of her and how desperate and upset we see her get. Jonny Weston, who played Mason, was a very grounded character; I actually thought he was very amusing even if it was through some awkward humour at times. Jon Bernthal, who played Paige, gave the perfect performance as a real estate shark; his entire tone reeked of something from Wolf of Wall Street and I think he was one of the best performances of the film.

However the best performance came from Wes Bentley, who played James. Bentley can perform drunk/high really well, like the scenes where he was intoxicated were very convincing. Beyond that he played the arrogance of his role well, you could see how disconnected from his own mistakes he was. The moments where he lost control or grew violent were intense; none more so than the brawl in the strip club. Ultimately Bentley's chemistry with Efron and Ratajkowski was exceptional and some of his really nice scenes came out of interactions with these two.

One thing I didn't like about the film was it probably dragged it's protagonist through the dirt a bit more than he needed to; there were some borderline moments where you no longer felt like you could root for Cole and that let the plot down in my eyes. Beyond this the story around the woman who's house was in foreclosure felt really unnecessary and a bit out of place at times.

Shiloh Fernandez, who played Ollie, had absolutely no screen presence; his role often had very little impact upon the group as a whole and he certainly had no connection to anyone in the film. Alex Shaffer, who played Squirrel, wasn't a great performance; his tone fell flat a lot and it reached a point where his death mattered more because of how other reacted than how you felt about the character.