DRINKING BUDDIES (2013) ***

Drinking Buddies is a mostly improvised micro-budgeted comedy-drama set in the microbrewing industry.  Because of the setting, I feared director Joe Swanberg was going to populate the film with a bunch of bearded hipsters going on and on about hops.  Really though, it could’ve taken place anywhere as the characters are all three-dimensional, flawed, and likeable.

Olivia Wilde does publicity for a small independent brewery.  She and her boyfriend (Ron Livingston) go for a camping weekend with her co-worker (Jake Johnson) and his girlfriend (Anna Kendrick) and it becomes obvious that they are clearly more into each other’s mates than their own.  When Wilde and Johnson are left to their own devices for a week, he tests the waters to see if she’s interested in taking things to the next level.

Drinking Buddies is full of finely drawn performances and the natural dialogue rings true quite often.  It asks a lot of intriguing questions too.  Like, if someone is a better match for you than your mate, should you take a chance with them?  Should you risk screwing up a work relationship by getting romantic with them?  I think it’s easy to get crushes on a co-worker.  After all, you spend eight hours a day with them and get to know them rather well in a short span of time.  Drinking Buddies sort of acts as a cautionary tale of acting on those impulses.

Swanberg is mostly on my radar because of his great performance as the asshole in You’re Next.  That film's director, Ti West returns the favor here playing an unlikeable douchebag.  I’ve only seen a few of the movies Swanberg’s directed, but this is by far my favorite.  It’s small in scope, and a little on the slight side.  However, because it’s full of fine actors and actresses playing characters we ultimately like and care about, it totally wins you over, and even manages to sneak up on you emotionally as it nears its conclusion.