Drinking Buddies | Review #2

Friendly Persuasion: Swanberg Hones His Craft

One of the most notable members of the Mumblecore crew, the often factious Joe Swanberg, at long last seems to have outgrown microbudget miasma with his latest, and arguably best directorial effort to date, Drinking Buddies. Oft criticized for his sloppy, rough around the edges, yet impressive amount of cinematic output (directing twelve films in the span of eight years, plus a good amount of acting gigs is nothing to sneer at), Swanberg seemed forever doomed to be on the wrong end of the quality vs. quantity debate. But now, with his latest mostly improvised gem, the union of content and imagery makes this his most visually pleasing glance at complicated adult relationships to date.

Kate (Olivia Wilde) works as an office manager at a Chicago craft brewery. She’s harried, unkempt, and the only female, but seems to have a comfortably playful rapport with her boss (Jason Sudeikis) as well as the rest of the staff. In fact, it’s immediate that Kate has an extremely obvious flirtatious chemistry with co-worker, Luke (Jake Johnson), so we’re almost surprised to meet his girlfriend Jill (Anna Kendrick) when the staff all goes out drinking one evening. But Kate isn’t single either; floating in what we come to understand is a casual relationship with Chris (Ron Livingston). The two couples take a trip to a cabin owned by Chris’ family for a long weekend. While Kate and Luke are left on their own to goof around and flirt, the two anal retentive personalities navigate surprising temptations as well. Afterwards, both couples examine their current situations, while Kate and Luke seem to engage in an endless flirtation in which they fantasize about potentially being with one another, though neither seems to understand that they’re far too alike to elevate their close friendship to a healthy and successful higher level.

Swanberg elicits some surprisingly natural performances from his cast, especially considering that nearly all of this is improvised since they worked mainly from an outline rather than a fleshed out script. Utilizing Ben Richardson of Beasts of the Southern Wild as cinematographer, the picture quality is bright and clear, making this Swanberg vehicle the first not to be impeded by a distracting cheapness. While Livingston and Kendrick are nice supporting accents (fellow directors Frank V. Ross and Ti West fill roles as fellow brewery colleagues), our continued interest in the rather simplistic set-up is mostly due to the highly entertaining performances from Johnson and Wilde. While Kate’s proclivities for beer and questionable hygienic living situations don’t necessarily match the stunning exterior of the actress playing her, this is perhaps the first time Olivia Wilde (usually relegated to eye candy or poorly conceived supporting characters) really gets to stretch her legs for an astute and engaging characterization. She’s got Kate down to the tiniest character tics, and upon having her defense mechanisms finally exposed during a heated and uncomfortable situation with Luke at the film’s climax, you begin to realize how much life she’s breathed into this potentially dry, overly familiar material. While Drinking Buddies is not a spectacular film, even as it examines thorny material like monogamy anxieties in the heterosexual realm, its strengths are in what it’s not explicitly saying but quietly showing, something most films (especially those examining complicated attractions) are unable to do. And, of course, this marks, most excitingly, a definite turning point for Joe Swanberg, often accused of not having anything relevant to say.