Drinking Buddies

Studio: Magnolia
Directed by Joe Swanberg

Aug 22, 2013 By John Oursler Web Exclusive

Easily his most commercially viable film, indie worker-bee Joe Swanberg’s Drinking Buddies is a serviceably masculinized update on the oft-hackneyed romantic comedy. The eponymous friends are Kate (Olivia Wilde) and Luke (Jake Johnson), flirtatious co-workers at a local brewery who often go out drinking with their respective significant others, Chris (Ron Livingston) and Jill (Anna Kendrick). As a genre film, there’s little surprising here in terms of content. What makes the film worth a watch is the breakout performance of Olivia Wilde, an actor who rarely gets a role she can really sink her teeth into. Her sexy tomboy schtick goes down smooth, as Swanberg smartly plays up Wilde’s sheer likability to use her character as a point of entry for the audience. The film plays like the bro-side to Sarah Polley’s Take This Waltz, which isn’t at all a bad thing.

Reviews