We Are Your Friends - C

Rated R, 96 minutes

If you've been clamoring for a movie about electronic dance music (EDM), then the slick but vacuous drama "We Are Your Friends" may be for you. Unsurprisingly, the upbeat music, and not the stale drama, is the most memorable thing about the dull movie. Cole (Zac Efron), a struggling 23-year-old DJ in the EDM scene, dreams of becoming a major record producer. When an older DJ, James (Wes Bentley), becomes his mentor, Cole connects with James' girlfriend, Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski). Cole's relationship with Sophie blossoms and breaks the bond with his mentor, which forces Cole into difficult decisions about his future. "We Are Your Friends," directed and co-written by documentary filmmaker Max Joseph in his feature film debut, it's set against the backdrop of the L.A. EDM nightlife scene and mainly features a bunch of pretty people dancing to catchy music, with as much substance as those seemingly manufactured beats. While the premise is interesting, after all and seriously speaking - few films have been made about EDM - the cast isn't strong enough to believably pull off the story. The first major mistake was casting an untested model, uhm I mean actress like Ratajowski, best known from the "Blurred Lines" videos and a tiny role as Ben Affleck's onscreen mistress in "Gone Girl," as the lead. In other words, she's lovely but a terrible actress, and her huge lips are a big, big distraction, even with fellow lead and eye candy, Efron, who's range is rather limited himself to striking some poses. I had a hard time with the notion that 1) a pretty boy like Efron's character in such party boy mode would have no serious girlfriends, 2) that he would hang around such lunkheads and 3), which was the most obvious thing in the script, that after a little time, he and Ratajowski's character would get it on. I lost interest in the banal storyline quickly, which only seems to scratch the surface of issues such as friendship and loyalty, and without some of the energizing music, this thing would be a total bore. Unless you are really, really into EDM (and/or Efron), then I wouldn't waste my time with the dull, contrived mess that is "We Are Your Friends."