I'm going to sound like a curmudgeon again, but I have to say it: I haven't been to the movies much lately. It's difficult to get bang for my buck when Josie and I have to choose a middle ground film and they decide wheter we want to see the latest super hero flick, a 3D movie, some overstylized, shallow 3 hours long action film, an unnecessarily gritty crime story or some historical drama about something I already know. I am starving for subtlety. Speaking of which, DRINKING BUDDIES had a very subtle theater run last Fall. It was so quiet, it eluded me like the Ninja who lives in my house. It's not exactly a comedy, but it's a quirky and understated movie about the complexity of flirting.
Luke (the underrated Jake Johnson) and Kate (Olivia Wilde) work in a Chicago brewery, drink and flirt together. They are a perfect fit as friends and would be a perfect fit as a couple, except they both have a significant other. Luke has been dating Jill (Anna Kendrick) for six years and Kate is seeing music producer Chris (Ron Livingston). Luke and Kate organize a couples cabin retreat for a weekend that will affect the status of their relationship. Kate and Chris will go their separate ways and break the fragile balance she had established with Luke. Their words and gestures start taking new, unwanted meanings and their friendship starts suffering as their individual lives do, despite their best attempts to be mature and kind to one another.
One of your friends will tell you that ''nothing happens'' in DRINKING BUDDIES *. It's not one of these action-based movies. It's a tension-based one. There is no need for intricate plotting, only complex, layered characters. DRINKING BUDDIES is about dealing with sexual tension in a friendship and does a good job at illustrating how complicated it might be. Jake Johnson and Olivia Wilde are all microexpressions, fainting smiles and shoulder brushes. They are both actors with a limited range, yet capable of incredible precision within the scope of what they do. Director Joe Swanberg (who's made his teeth in horror movies), frames them tightly in stripped settings, increasing the nagging feeling that Luke and Kate are along in their own world. DRINKING BUDDIES was impressive for the accuracy of the feelings it's implying. It's a movie that understands the power of understatement.
There are issues with DRINKING BUDDIES, I mean aside from the terrible Anna Kendrick **. Joe Swanberg, who also wrote the movie, was visibly aware about sexism issues so he took the interesting narrative decision and made Kate lose her significant other, rather than Luke. He sees the potential issues right away, but she doesn't and really fosters the problem. It's the only blunt storytelling decision taken in the movie, yet it sticks out like a sore thumb. DRINKING BUDDIES is not a sexist movie, it's a rather delicate one in that regard, but in a movie so character-driven and based on subtleties of adult life, I would've expected something a little more powerful. Jim Jarmusch mastered the art of getting powerful messages across using understatement so it can be done. The second half of DRINKING BUDDIES felt hurried through in that regard. There were several interesting, complex ideas left unexplored and I'm not being a stupid aesthete here, you get these ideas and expect them as the movie goes along.
I probably liked DRINKING BUDDIES more than I should've. I'm a sucker for movies that imply emotion rather than puke it across the screen and paint the walls of their set with it. Having heart is not about saying you have heart, it's about making it a part of what you do and DRINKING BUDDIES definitely has a large, thumping heart. But it's a shooting star rather than a supernova. Still, it's good to know realistic, underplayed cinema is still being done nowadays and not just for documentary. I'd say DRINKING BUDDIES is very good, yet not memorable. I had a good time watching it, yet it's not a movie I would go back to. What it is though it a terrific compromise movie for a boring afternoon. It's more or less of a romantic comedy, yet it has a mind and a heart of its own.
I probably liked DRINKING BUDDIES more than I should've. I'm a sucker for movies that imply emotion rather than puke it across the screen and paint the walls of their set with it. Having heart is not about saying you have heart, it's about making it a part of what you do and DRINKING BUDDIES definitely has a large, thumping heart. But it's a shooting star rather than a supernova. Still, it's good to know realistic, underplayed cinema is still being done nowadays and not just for documentary. I'd say DRINKING BUDDIES is very good, yet not memorable. I had a good time watching it, yet it's not a movie I would go back to. What it is though it a terrific compromise movie for a boring afternoon. It's more or less of a romantic comedy, yet it has a mind and a heart of its own.
* By the way, this is the worst red flag, you-don't-know-what-you're-talking-about comment. Unless you're watching an Antonioni movie, you can't ever say nothing happens in a movie.
** It's kind of a personal thing with her, but I can't see the beauty in anything she does.
** It's kind of a personal thing with her, but I can't see the beauty in anything she does.