Drinking Buddies

If there's anything we can learn from this movie, its that you should not go on double dates. Bad idea.

This movie describes itself as A comedy about knowing when to say when... this movie wasn't funny. I'm just gonna put i out there, if you're looking for a rom com, this one is not it. This movie is just uncomfortable.

So what's it about?

The movie mainly follows Olivia Wilde. She works at a Brewery and is good friends with one of the brewers played by Jake Johnson.

Johnson's character has a girlfriend played by Anna Kendrick. Olivia Wilde has a boyfriend played by Ron Livingston.

The initial set up is alright showing the relationship between Johnson and Wilde. Its the kind of relationship that people always say are like the brother and sister relationship but secretly one of them or both of them really like the other one. And then they show the relationships between Johnson and Kendrick and Wilde and Livingston. While they look like good relationships, they're very similar in the fact that both Livingston and Kendrick don't really feel like their girlfriend or boyfriend are really into them.

Well then all four of them go to Ron Livingston's cabin for a weekend away just the four of them. You can pretty much guess what is going to happen. For those who can't I won't give it away but those who do, it happens.

The rest of the movie is a will they or won't they "romantic" movie. It has its cute moments but for me, it just felt very strange.

Its strange because nobody in this movie is made out to be the bad guy. Anna Kendrick is really sweet in this movie and she's not made out to be the bitch. Ron Livingston, as limited as his role is, is not really an asshole. They're all very well written characters and you don't want to see any of them get hurt.

The problem with that is that the instinct is that they're just going to switch, cheating on the other one. And like I said, you don't really want that to happen.

As much as you want to see Wilde and Johnson get together in the end, you know it will hurt Kendrick. And lets be honest, nobody wants that.

So it creates a lot of tension that is kind of uncomfortable at times because you're saying, "Yes that's cute, but he/she's in a relationship".

And maybe that's how the movie wanted me to feel and maybe they were trying to pull some comedy out of that but it didn't really strike me as a funny movie.

I just learned that all the dialogue in the movie was improvised which makes a lot of sense now for the why the dialogue was so disjointed and strangely delivered by everyone.

The actors were given an outline of the major plot points and what needed to happen in each scene, however beyond that, all the dialogue was improvised.

I suppose knowing that now I have a little bit more respect for the writing of this movie (or lack there of) because thats an incredibly risky and creative move to do for an entire movie.

But despite that knowledge, I still don't think this movie was funny at all, which is okay I wasn't sad that I wasn't laughing during the movie, I just thought it was strange and kind of awkward.

While the movie seems predictable, the way it turns out is a pretty good resolution though not what you expect with a movie with a premise like this.

So while I think the movie was strange, awkward, not funny, and not really a movie I would recommend, I do have to give it credit for the improvised lines, the unexpected ending, and the acting. There are people that will watch this movie and relate to it right away. They will love it. I think the majority of people will relate to some aspects of it but be uncomfortable and probably not laugh. And then there are people that will hate this movie. I fall into the middle category. My girlfriend fell into the hated it category so I don't know what to think about that. She's doesn't sit and analyze movies so maybe that's saying something for the average viewer.

So that's my review of Drinking Buddies. Have you seen it? Did you like it? Comment below and let me know because it just gave me mixed feelings.

I'll leave you with this. Its not totally related... really at all but I think its funny. Frankly, I don't really know a video that would relate to this movie unless I put something from Pitch Perfect with Anna Kendrick... I'm not going to do that. So I'll leave you with a Long Story Short video. Enjoy!