BEFORE: It seems like maybe this film really belongs in a February chain, but since I'm working on a perfect year, some allowances have to be made. I'm sure there will still be plenty of film romances to watch when next February rolls around, and I can't really exclude all films with any love or relationship issues in them, because what would that leave me with? Plus I did watch a couple of films in March & April that could have counted as horror films, so really, this year, all bets are off. Heck, for that matter you could count "Green Book" as a Christmas movie, because the concert tour ends on Christmas Eve - only I didn't KNOW that when I scheduled it for May, so there you go.
Jake Johnson carries over from "Tag", and another one of these actors is going to get me all the way to Mother's Day.
THE PLOT: Luke and Kate are co-workers at a brewery who spend their nights drinking and flirting heavily. One weekend away with their significant others proves who really belongs together and who doesn't.
AFTER: Ah, now we're getting to a subject that I know well - and by that I mean craft beer, not just the fragile nature of relationships. If anything I wish there could have been a bit more in this film about running a small brewery, not just the drinking and the camaraderie between the employees there. Like what beers does this brewery put out, what are the flavors, what's the ABV, what are the CLEVER NAMES of the brews, for Cripes sake? I've lived in this world, gone to many of the big beer craft beer festivals in NYC, often drinking more than my share, and attended many beer dinners at semi-fancy restaurants - that's a prix fixe dinner where four courses of food are paired with beers from specific breweries, which is really a promotional opportunity for the brewery to pitch sample glasses of their beers to the elite drinkers in that region. For a long while I was a fixture at these events, so at two or three restaurants that did this regularly, I knew all the staff and they knew me, plus I became acquainted with several of the distributors from breweries all over. The beer dinner trend seems to have died down, but I wish they'd bring it back. If the distributors were pouring at a beer festival and recognized me, I might get a little larger pour in my tasting glass.
But I'm digressing - the focus in this film is really on relationships, and while Kate is in a committed relationship, that doesn't prevent her from flirting with her friend Luke, who works at the brewery. (Again, though, I would have loved to know more about Luke from a brewer's perspective, what makes him a good brewer, is it his palate, his knowledge of hops or flavoring ingredients? Does he specialize in making pilsners or stouts, or ales with fruity flavors? Is he good at coming up with punny names for the brewery's special brews? What makes him tick?) And if Kate's flirty with Luke during the workday, imagine what happens when they go out drinking after work? What could possibly go wrong when alcohol is involved and everyone's resistance is lowered? Where social lubricants are concerned, as my drinking buddies used to say about beer festivals, if you can't make friends at one of them, there's something seriously the f*ck wrong with you.
Anyway, at an anniversary event for the Chicago brewery in question, Kate brings her boyfriend and Luke brings his girlfriend. The foursome connects, and they plan a vacation together in Michigan, I assume in the Upper Peninsula, though this isn't explicitly stated. Now I've seen a lot of relationship-based films, so for a while it seemed like they were working on a simple couple-swap here, but what happens on the trip ends up to be a bit more complicated than that. (Besides, it's probably been done many times, going back to the days of Shakespeare, even.) Of course Kate's attracted to Luke, and vice versa, but sometimes people have potential romantic partners in their life where they never, ever act on those feelings, that's very possible. Sometimes you have people in your life that you know you HAVE to keep at arm's length, because you don't want to screw up the real relationship you have with one person, just for the potential relationship you could have with someone else. Because you know as soon as you give up what you have, you'll probably screw things up with the new person, and be left with no relationship at all.
Then again, I don't know you, maybe you're a serial monogamist, the type of person who's always trading up, ditching the relationship you have on a whim just to explore something with someone new. That's another way to live, I guess, not the way I've chosen for myself - I've only burned my relationship to the ground when I had no other alternative, when the only way to go forward seemed to be to get out at great cost, to go through the pain because it was the one way to ultimately feel better. No judgments, if you're the kind of person who can balance two or three relationships at a time that's very forward-thinking of you, but there's so much more potential for things to get complicated. But I don't know where you find the time, because even keeping one solid relationship going strong requires some effort, two or three just seems exhausting.
For any relationship or friendship to work, there have to be boundaries, and that's what Luke and Kate have to learn. But even that knowledge comes at a personal cost, it seems. So, what can we learn here? How about "never date your work friends" or "don't drink so much with your platonic friends" and maybe "never help your friends move" while we're at it? Umm, unless you're going to need their help moving your own stuff soon, but come on, you know they're not going to show up in return, right? Everyone should just hire professional movers, just to be on the safe side. If you can't afford professional movers, then don't move, stay where you are, or just leave your stuff behind and get new stuff later.
I've finally had some success in cracking into the "mumblecore" movement, after years of only hearing about it - earlier this year I watched "Frances Ha" and that was my first "official" mumblecore film, I think, but I'd been making inroads into the genre by focusing on films directed by Noah Baumbach like "The Squid and the Whale" and "Kicking & Screaming", only to find out that Baumbach is only considered sort of mumblecore-adjacent, I guess maybe he's considered too successful, and therefore not "arty" enough? Anyway, the director of "Drinking Buddies" is Joe Swanberg, and Wikipedia says he's definitely mumblecore, he directed "Hannah Takes the Stairs" and helped launch the careers of Greta Gerwig, Lena Dunham and the Duplass Brothers. That's so indie... But with my luck, I bet "Drinking Buddies" represents his first film outside of mumblecore, like this was probably his attempt to go mainstream, with known actors. True mumblecore remains elusive - I'll have to catch up with it later, like all the Ingmar Bergman films that are on my (way)back burner.
But all of the dialogue here was improvised, and usually I hate that technique - probably because not all actors are very good at improvising dialogue. The fact that I didn't notice any problems here means that these actors are quite good at it. Still, I admit that about 15 minutes in to the film, I had to double check the IMDB to make sure I hadn't seen this one before (if I sign in and see that a film is rated, that for sure means I've seen it in the last 11 years). Something about it felt quite familiar, but it just might be similar to other films, like maybe "Extract" or "Sleeping With Other People".
Also starring Olivia Wilde (last seen in "Alpha Dog"), Anna Kendrick (last seen in "Pitch Perfect 3"), Ron Livingston (last seen in "The 5th Wave"), Jason Sudeikis (last seen in "Kodachrome"), Ti West, Mike Brune, Frank V. Ross and a cameo from director Joe Swanberg.
RATING: 6 out of 10 pint glasses
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