We Are Your Friends

An aspiring DJ (Zac Efron) comes under the wing of a respected veteran turntable artist (Wes Bentley), but his ambitions are threatened by his growing attraction to the man's girlfriend (Emily Ratajkowski) and the aimless lifestyle of his friends (Jonny Weston, Shiloh Fernandez, Alex Shaffer). That aimlessness spreads to the script by Meaghan Oppenheimer, Richard Silverman and director Max Joseph, all three of whom are here making their feature-film debuts in not-ready-for-prime-time fashion. At times the movie plays like a sluggish road company of Entourage, with the sterile expanse of the San Fernando Valley standing in for the glitz of Hollywood. Meanwhile, Joseph and company's efforts to portray the hero's audio doodling as a musical art form comparable to Bach or Mozart aren't very convincing. J.L.