Drinking Buddies (2013)

Starring: Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, Ron Livingston, and Jason Sudeikis
Grade: A

Drinking Buddies makes a pretty good case as to why we should never trust wine drinkers over beer drinkers.

Summary

In Chicago, Kate (Wilde) and Luke (Johnson) work at craft brewery, Revolution Brewing. Kate works in the front office but is friends with all the guys on the line. After we see both of them working for a bit, Kate’s boss Gene (Sudeikis) tasks Kate with calling all the distributors individually to invite them personally to the anniversary party. After leaving his office, Luke walks by her and they confirm lunch for later. The guys hang out with her for lunch, and it leads to Luke inviting Kate out to the bar with the guys that night. At the bar, they’re all hanging, and Luke’s girlfriend Jill (Kendrick) comes in to join them. They all have a great night together. Once Luke and Jill leave, Kate rides her bike over to her boyfriend Chris’s (Livingston) place. They start fooling around but in the middle of it, Chris remembers he bought a book for her and gives it to her. It’s weird timing, but it doesn’t ruin the mood entirely as they still have sex that night. Immediately after, Kate goes home, even though Chris seems bothered by it and wants her to stay.

The next day, the anniversary party goes off without a hitch and everyone’s there, including Kate, Luke, and Jill. Kate introduces everyone to Chris once he arrives. As Chris talks to Jill about her being a Special Education teacher and they start to connect a bit, Luke and Kate start joking around and talking as well. Towards the end of the party, Luke tells Kate that the guys and him will clean everything so she can leave with Chris, and they all happily agree to see Jill at her ice cream tasting the next day before they leave. The next night, the four of them all head to a cabin to hang out for the weekend. When they wake up in the morning, Luke and Kate chill and talk, and they are greeted by Chris and Jill who were already awake and on the beach. To start off the day, Chris asks if they want to hike. Luke and Kate politely decline, but oddly enough, Jill says yes. As each twosome has fun in different ways, with Luke and Kate having fun drinking, playing cards, and making sandwiches, Chris and Jill hike and have a picnic. During this picnic however, after having a bit of wine and conversation, they kiss!

You thought it was going to be Kate and Luke first, but you thought wrong didn’t you?

Later, all four hang out on the beachside and back at the cabin. That night, Luke and Jill play cards and drink, with Kate joining them once Chris goes to sleep. Sometime later, Jill falls asleep, as Luke and Kate talk about how Luke used to work on the riverboats in the casinos. They bond some more, going outside to have a smoke and talk about a previous relationship of Kate’s and her current one. Eventually, it leads to the two making a fire on the beach and hanging out all night, though Luke refuses her offer of going swimming, despite her getting naked in front of him before she jumps in the water. The four of them head home the next day. The rest of story is a countdown until all of their relationship problems begin to surface.

My Thoughts:

Before I start, I must say that the amount of calories our leads consume in beer and takeout does not coincide with their body types. They must have amazing genetics.

Anyway, Drinking Buddies is one of the most organic movies I’ve seen in a while. There are no big events, crazy moments, or anything that really stands out. You’re probably thinking, “It sounds boring”. Believe me, if it was boring, I would be the first to let you know. Oddly enough, with the lack of actual events, Drinking Buddies is an incredible force of realness, with a complete and total focus on its characters, the dialogue, and the relationships that develop between them. It’s a film indicative of the “Mumblecore” subgenre that has become popular in the independent film scene. For me, it’s my introduction to this genre of film, and it’s slowly becoming a secret favorite of mine.

I understand that saying two basic things like “characters” and “relationships” isn’t a groundbreaking thing, but you have to see how this film is set up. The dialogue was improvised. The actors were given scripts that outline the general plot points, so they know where to go, but all of the dialogue that gets us there is improvised. Do you know how good of an actor you have to be, to be able to take that little of direction and still deliver? You have to understand your character inside and out and respond exactly how you think the character would. Yes, you have to do that in a regular film too, but to do that with no written lines to go off of is insanely risky. With this, Drinking Buddies basically showed us how crazy talented our principal actors are because of how well they understood where to take this, making this the most eventful uneventful independent comedy-drama in recent memory. I like that I can officially say that too because two of my favorite actors currently are Jake Johnson and Anna Kendrick. Here’s the thing, even if I didn’t know about all of this improvisation beforehand, I would still give credit to the film for how free-flowing and realistic the conversations were between the characters. Everything was smooth, and the transitions from scene to scene felt so natural and easygoing. For some reason, we want to see more and more. It’s not only because of the style of the film but also because we started to really enjoy watching these characters interact, especially Kate and Luke and their close friendship.

The whole film is centered on the classic “Will they/won’t they” premise and many (including myself) can never get enough of it. Due to Olivia Wilde’s and Jake Johnson’s great performances, they make the friendship of Kate and Luke feel so authentic and loving. Even though they may never explicitly say they are attracted to one another, there’s too many factors working against them to think otherwise. First of all, Kate is not only crazy hot, but she’s the only woman that works at the brewery. Everyone wants to hang out with her. Second of all, they work at a brewery! At lunch they are seen drinking beer, and when they go out at night to the bar, and in their free time, they are seen drinking more beer. Let’s be honest, if you’re close enough friends, you work that many hours together, and alcohol is involved (especially this much), some light flirting, and even sex, will either be thought of by one or both of the parties involved. Kate and Luke already have undeniable chemistry, so the teasing of it all makes even the most simplistic of scenes very exciting.

The improv dialogue is such a cool experiment. I can’t compliment it enough. It gives us these genuine conversations and a sense of realism that we don’t get in major Hollywood productions, igniting an irrefutable chemistry with our four leads, headed up by the free spirits and best friends in Olivia Wilde’s Kate and Jake Johnson’s Luke. Though Kate hangs out with all the guys at the brewery, her loving friendship with Luke trumps them all. She’s the front office person that hangs out with everyone in the plant. She’s down to earth, cool, and is a drinker. What’s not to like? Luke seems very close to Jake Johnson’s actual personality, which we can say accurately since this movie is mostly improv. He gets along with everyone, he’s funny, and he’s easy to like. Luke is the guy you invite somewhere if you want to have fun.

Also, an angry Jake Johnson is so exciting because we don’t get to see it too often. Here, he shows how good of an actor he truly is, giving us one of his most underrated performances showcased in the most pivotal scenes in the narrative. The “Mumblecore” movement was made for someone like him and his style.

Kate and Luke are much closer with each other than they are with their actual significant others. Sure, Luke and Jill are cute together, but they don’t seem to have the chemistry Luke and Kate have, something played with throughout the course of the movie, even though we tend to like Jill. We see them wanting to hang back and talk numerous times in the cabin. Even on the ride home, they’re both in the backseat sleeping while Chris and Jill drive in the front, showing us how obvious the divide between them is and much in common the mismatched partners have. Chris is the odd man out, played believably by the mundane Ron Livingston. I’m not sure how this man pulls women, but the situations that unfold do make sense. We can also see why he can vibe with the much more intellectual Jill, especially with the hiking scene, the most important of the film. The way the conversation goes and how everything leads up to the eventual kiss, you can see things happening as they do. Even if everything following is filled with regret, I can see this momentarily lapse in judgment happening to any good person. Maybe it’s because I find it hard to dislike Anna Kendrick. This is possible, but I think it’s more because the remorse and regret that comes from her feels so pure in that climax that I couldn’t help but believe her. She’s such an underrated actress. When she’s pouring her heart out as she tries to avoid eye contact while Luke stares bullets into her, we felt every bit of emotion that she lays out to him.

As we get deeper and we wonder how Jill will take her next few steps, we hear about Chris and Kate breaking up. This is when the movie starts to heat up because we start to see Luke’s feelings for Kate start to surface more than usual. Once again, he never explicitly says it, but a lot of us movie-watchers can read body language. When Luke puts his hand on her knee when they reconcile and he leans towards her after he does it, the massages, sleeping on top of each other, him kissing her on the forehead as a friendly gesture, and the night where she sleeps next to him after they work on moving her out, all point to the two wanting more but refusing to admit it before someone makes a real move. Their friendship was already close but if things progressed to something more, neither one would seem to object. Of course, their consideration into this potential move never lines up at the same time. It’s frustrating as hell, but it makes for some great drama between our two leads. We see it with the jealousy stemming from her fucking Dave, and Luke proceeding to have the worst day ever once he hears the news, their reconciliation, the mood change after they both sleep next to each other, and Luke getting angry once Kate includes other guys in on the move-out process.

The move-out scenes are very uncomfortable too, as all of their emotions boil over to the point of exploding, with Johnson and Wilde handling it with excellence. My jaw fell to the floor when we got Kate’s backpedaling, reminding Luke he’s dating Jill:

Kate: “You made your own bed, alright?

Luke: “And you fucking slept in it.”

Kate: “Well, you didn’t stop me”.

Damn…

They were walking that thin line between friendship and relationship and as troubling as it is, this moment had to happen for the sake of the movie and for the friendship to continue. It needs to be said where they’re at. This is why the ending was better than people give it credit for. At that point, enough was said. Sometimes, silence can speak volumes.

With a breezy runtime, a relaxed flow, great dialogue and chemistry between all the members of our cast, and a devotion to realism throughout the film, Drinking Buddies is a nice departure from comedy-dramas that we are used to watching. Its style may not be for everyone, and it may not do enough for some in general, but I enjoyed its simplistic approach and character-focused narrative.