Short Round: Drinking Buddies (2013) ***/*****
Joe Swanberg has made his career by making small, character focused indie films that are largely set in Chicago, and with his latest film, Drinking Buddies, he’s changing things up not at all by bringing us another small, character focused indie film that’s set in Chicago. The thing that sets Drinking Buddies a bit apart from his past work, however, and is likely to gain it the most attention that a Joe Swanberg film has gotten to date, is that instead of featuring a cast of unknowns and up-and-comers, it features a whole load of performers who mainstream audiences already know and love. To be more specific, Drinking Buddies is a dramedy about young relationships, set in a fictionalized version of Chicago’s real life Revolution Brewery, that stars names like Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Ron Livingston, Anna Kendrick, and Jason Sudeikis. Chances are you probably have a crush on at least one name on that list.
Seeing as Swanberg was one of the big names that led to film writers needing to invent the word “mumblecore,” you probably have a good idea of what to expect from this one. It features hip people in their twenties, focuses on their relationship problems, feels loosely scripted and fairly organic in its dialogue and interactions, and due to the improvisation-heavy approach with which it was likely made, is only as good as the emotional moments the actors were able to stumble into. Sometimes this technique can lead to discovering gold, but most of the time it leads to material that’s just good enough, and that’s mostly the case here. Basically, we get introduced to a foursome of characters who are paired off in romantic couples, we watch them as they sneakily and lustily test the waters when it comes to swapping partners, and then the results of their interactions are often amusing if not laugh out loud funny and often dramatic if not terribly engaging.
Of course, despite the way that the mumblecore approach generally lends itself to “nice” films that are pleasant to watch rather than “great” films that really blow your hair back, the things being made by people like Swanberg are always breaths of fresh air, because they don’t stick to the usual formulas that those abysmal mainstream romantic dramedies do. Drinking Buddies is smart enough to make its romantic foursome complicated people who all have their strengths and their faults rather than clearly marking them as heroes or villains, and it’s able to drop some wisdom in regards to why we make the choices we do while dating, and why some romantic pairings end up working and some don’t. Plus, the cast is generally fun to watch — especially Johnson, who is ridiculously charming, and Wilde, who almost manages to overcome her extreme beauty in order to play a regular girl next door. They both get the most heavy lifting to do, and they both deliver. If only this one had more of an interesting story to tell rather than just capturing a moment in time, it could have really become something special. As is, it’s mostly just a watchable diversion. One that really makes you want to drink a beer.
