‘friends’ Hooks With Dj Education, Before Losing The Beat

After leaving the electronic dance music drama “We Are Your Friends,” there’s a feeling of expertise by osmosis. Like maybe you, the audience member, couldn’t DJ an actual event. [...] you might have picked up enough of the film’s lingo and philosophy to fool someone in a conversation at a party. A chance meeting with older legend James Reed (Wes Bentley) starts a mentor-protege relationship, which is muddled by Cole’s loyalty to his idiot friends and attraction to Reed’s younger girlfriend, Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski). The writers seem to be going for a “Breaking Away”/“Swingers” vibe, trying to capture that transitional moment between high school and adulthood — where anything seems possible, until reality dictates that those possibilities might be out of reach. Real-life composers of electronic dance music may find fault in the details, but for the uninitiated, the DJ scenes are very enjoyable. Joseph helms the movie like a good professor, judicially using exposition and even some animation to cover the basics, then building on the lesson throughout the film. Efron and Bentley develop a believable chemistry, feeding off each other as Cole learns to become a more organic DJ and James tries to get his groove back. A lovemaking sequence is shot in the shadows, looking like a scene-for-scene remake of the Cruise/Kelly McGillis post-volleyball romp in “Top Gun.”