We Are Your Friends
Warner Bros. | Release Date: August 28, 2015 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
46
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 32 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
15
Negative:
8
Watch Now
Stream On
Buy on
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Stream On
Expand

Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Time OutDavid EhrlichAug 25, 2015
[An] enormously fun late-summer surprise. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithAug 26, 2015
A study in intoxicants: drink, drugs, youth and Emily Ratajkowski. All four are potentially dangerous, yet nearly impossible to leave alone. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Bilge EbiriAug 28, 2015
It’s all big, dumb, broad strokes, with plot points visible from miles away. But it works where it matters: The music is fantastic, and the film invests you in its central relationship. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterJon FroschAug 25, 2015
We Are Your Friends is predictable, sometimes tacky, but the energy is unflagging, the eye candy plentiful and writer-director Max Joseph (making his feature debut after hosting MTV’s Catfish) brings sincerity and a skillfully modulated sweetness to the material. Read full review
67
HitfixGregory EllwoodAug 27, 2015
What makes “We Are” worth your time is Joseph’s skill in conveying the euphoria of dance music in the context of an actual movie. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 27, 2015
The musical sequences throb with energy and this allows We Are Your Friends to maintain its trajectory when its momentum flags. Read full review
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Laura BeestonAug 27, 2015
If you suspend your disbelief for some of the weaker plot points and unnecessary use of the c-word, the film is palatable. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneKatie WalshAug 27, 2015
Joseph's direction offers up an energetic take on the material, incorporating text visualization, quick-cutting montages, and creative uses of animation to bring the thumping electronic music to cinematic life. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayAug 26, 2015
As Zac Efront's Cole tiptoes away from his past, the film keenly observes a character who doesn't know how to secure his future, or his identity. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsJordan HoffmanAug 26, 2015
The big finish doesn’t quite land, but in fairness, it’s hard to make standing at a laptop mixing tunes look like a triumph. Still, for teens who can’t wait to be 20, this will get ’em on their feet. Read full review
60
Village VoiceAmy NicholsonAug 25, 2015
Remake The Graduate today, and an adult might corner Benjamin Braddock and whisper, "Startups." Debut director Max Joseph gives that a good shot, though the result — the EDM-fueled, drug-laced dream-crusher We Are Your Friends — is so sweaty and silly people may not notice. Read full review
60
EmpireDavid HughesAug 24, 2015
Zac Efron makes a convincing bid for movie stardom — and Ratajkowski proves she’s more than just a pretty face — in this flawed but fitfully entertaining film, even if it all goes a bit Pete Tong at the end. Read full review
50
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 27, 2015
It’s not as terrible as the premise suggests, thanks to some flourishes on Joseph’s part and an intriguing performance by Wes Bentley. Efron’s absurdly winning persona doesn’t hurt, either. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesMark OlsenAug 27, 2015
The movie is visually inventive and with enough good moments and smart moves to never be entirely dismissible, while not strong enough to overcome its essential thinness. Read full review
50
The New York TimesNicole HerringtonAug 27, 2015
The action slowly builds and breaks down, with dance beats kicking in periodically. Not much resonates here; it’s all facile entertainment. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyDevan CogganAug 27, 2015
The film fakes emotion with flashing lights and a pulsing soundtrack, and before Cole realizes the music was in him this entire time (ugh), the story falls flat Read full review
50
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 27, 2015
It’s worth remembering that movies can have soul, too, if their filmmakers are willing to do the work to find it. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChroniclePeter HartlaubAug 26, 2015
The makers of We Are Your Friends got halfway there, and then lost the beat. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 25, 2015
Talk about a mediocre mash-up. Much of We Are Your Friends plays like an Electronic Dance Music update of a very good John Travolta movie — “Saturday Night Fever” — with a liberal sprinkling of plot elements from a quite terrible Tom Cruise movie called “Cocktail.” Read full review
50
The PlaylistNick SchagerAug 25, 2015
Ultimately too busy fracturing his story’s focus and indulging in gimmicky textual graphics to really tap into either Hollywood’s or electronica’s magnetic appeal, Joseph’s debut proves to be a film with mood to spare but nothing much to say. Read full review
50
VarietyJustin ChangAug 25, 2015
We Are Your Friends” has its heart in the right place, and it’s shrewd and cuddly enough to get a few likes. But it would be an infinitely better movie if it sustained the sort of trancelike sonic ecstasy that turns fans into fanatics. Read full review
45
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeAug 25, 2015
Besides Bentley’s performance, the only thing “We Are Your Friends” has going for it is the occasional directorial flourish, with words on screen or characters addressing the camera or that painterly drug trip. These jolts are few and far between, but they’re most welcome when they arise. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerAug 26, 2015
As with "Catfish," Joseph is there with his soulful handheld camera-bobbing, trying to convey the pensive thoughtfulness of a person who may not be thinking all that much. And as with "Catfish," the audience catches on long before anyone on screen. Read full review
40
Screen DailyTim GriersonAug 25, 2015
The feature debut of director Max Joseph can occasionally be as entrancing and euphoric as the pulsating dance songs on the soundtrack. But even an empathetic performance from Zac Efron (and an impressive, nuanced turn from Wes Bentley) can’t distract from a movie that mistakes surface flash for probing, zeitgeist-y insights. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 29, 2015
A plethora of beats drop but little else of note — musical or otherwise — happens in the Zac Efron DJ fest We Are Your Friends. Read full review
38
RogerEbert.comGlenn KennyAug 27, 2015
While I might actually go out and buy the soundtrack album, the last thing I’m gonna say about the movie is friends shouldn’t let friends pay money to see We Are Your Friends. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 27, 2015
What hurts is that filmmaker Mia Hansen-Love did it better just a few months ago in "Eden," about the French house movement since the 1990s. In this movie, James tells Cole the ideal EDM track would work up the heart-rate of the crowd to 128 beats-per-minute. We Are Your Friends never even gets us to break a sweat. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 26, 2015
We Are Your Friends has no heartbeat. It flatlines, early on. Read full review
37
Washington PostCaitlin MooreAug 27, 2015
By the end, though, the original bits fade as easily as one song bleeds into another. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAug 26, 2015
It keeps its distance in the emotional depiction of its relationships, particularly the friendships among the Valley Boy quartet. Read full review
25
Philadelphia InquirerMolly EichelAug 27, 2015
Perhaps it's for the best that We Are Your Friends doesn't try to appeal to anyone outside its stars' own kind. Fewer people will have to see it. Read full review
25
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 26, 2015
The movie takes something primally appealing and attempts to explain it, fetishize it, turn it into something deeper and more dramatic than it is. Read full review
More From This Movie

46 Critic Reviews

5.4 User Reviews

Details & Credits|Trailers

Current Movie Releases
By MetascoreBy User Score
1 81 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple
2 77 Project Hail Mary
3 75 Send Help
4 73 Hoppers
5 71 The Sheep Detectives
SEE ALL
Essential Links
New on Amazon Prime Video
New on Netflix
Coming Soon to DVD/Blu-ray
SEE ALL