'We Are Your Friends' review: Zac Efron uninspiring and clueless in the film!

Film: We Are Your Friends
Director: Max Joseph
Cast: Zac Efron, Emily Ratajkowski, Wes Bentley
Rating: ** (Two stars)

What's it about:
An upcoming DJ, Cole Carter lives just outside Hollywood and along with his friends promotes parties, even playing at some of them. All this while holding down a real estate job he really doesn't enjoy being at. His life takes a turn when an older DJ James Reed offers to help him land a big gig. He quickly falls for Reed's neglected girlfriend-cum-assistant. Pool parties, eye candy and pontificating about the making of music goes down. In the end, does talent, a laptop and that one track get Cole to where he wants to be, does he have it in him or will all his dreams come to nought?

What's hot: 
The cinematography (Brett Pawlak) is competent and leaves nothing to be desired. Of the performances, Wes Bentley is the only one you need to watch. Emily Ratajkowski is the ultimate eye candy. She tries acting, but that's the trouble, it's not natural enough. The soundtrack, however, is something else. Director Max Joseph seems to know his music and what he wants to see in the film and that's probably the one really good thing about the film.

What's not:
Zac as an aspiring DJ is uninspiring. He's got a clueless look plastered on his face throughout, quite stoned by the looks of it. His character Cole is seemingly talented, supposedly has it factor, has abs, is a hit with the ladies. Everything Zac is. But in most of his other movies, he's not what he is in this -- terribly boring. After the first few times that thing he does with his eyes (think 'the smoulder' from Tangled) becomes old. Moreover, the screenplay is so blah, you can literally walk in at any time in the first half and not really have missed anything significant. And that ending was so silly, I'm surprised it even took 96 minutes to get there. Lost cause.

What to do:
There's very little these days that can bring down EDM - currently at the peak of popularity as a genre of electronic music - even with its several excesses. Well, this one tries its level best. And succeeds.