Drinking Buddies Review
RYAN: This is a new indie from writer, director, editor and actor Joe Swanberg who’s very connected in the indie circuit of Hollywood. It stars Oivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston. It’s a frustrating movie because it’s all build up and no release. It felt very predictable but then just fizzled out.
ERIN: I definitely expected something from the premise that there are two couples here, where each has chemistry with each others’ partner, but then nothing happens.
RYAN: It doesn’t deliver on the premise at all. It’s set up with these complicated relationships and then the whole film just, again, fizzles out… there’s zero drama or comedy. It flatlines.
ERIN: I didn’t find the relationships that complicated. The story kind of came out of nowhere so I think the script was erratic and led to nothing.
RYAN: The problem is that the same man wrote, directed and edited it which means there was no one telling him he was messing it up and it clearly snowballed into a mess. Unless you’re Woody Allen, or a short list of others, you shouldn’t be directing your own scripts.
ERIN: There were so many scenes where I turned to you and asked, “What was the point of that?!” Even looking back I thought maybe some of those things would come to make sense, but no.
RYAN: It’s true. It’s only 90 minutes long and yet there were a lot of short scenes that were completely pointless to the plot and should have been cut out. The editing was terrible.
ERIN: I question the script – I imagine the director just gave them the idea of each scene and the actors just improvised it all.
RYAN: I can’t understand why Anna Kendrick and Olivia Wilde looked at this script and wanted to do it. There’s nothing cool about the story and they didn’t even get to wear cool clothes. The costumes are hideodious.
ERIN: Atrocious. They must all have some personal relationship with the director or something.
RYAN: Interestingly, Jason Sudeikis plays Olivia’s boss. It was neat seeing them together but otherwise, nuthin.
ERIN: No point to this movie. It could have been a short film.
RYAN: It would have been much better as a short film. It felt like a short film that went on way too long.
