Early on in Drinking Buddies (now available on iTunes and On Demand), Ron Livingston’s character references Albert Camus’ “The Myth of Sisyphus.” The essay finds that Camus eventually sees Sisyphus smiling as he pushes the boulder up the mountain time and time again, knowing a seemingly impossible action can make the journey that much more enjoyable if you truly love the action.
It’s a heady allusion for a movie ostensibly about a foursome of twenty- and thirtysomethings dealing with the murky fluidity of relationships. But, surprisingly, it serves as a loose thesis throughout the film.
Drinking Buddies follows two couples: Chris (Livingston) and Kate (Olivia Wilde), and Luke (Jake Johnson) and Jill (Anna Kendrick). Kate and Luke work together at a craft brewery in Chicago, which means Luke sports the kind of aggressively bushy beard that all craft brewers must possess.
Drinking Buddies is a romantic comedy for people who operate in the real world. There are no contrived plot points revolving around tired rom-com tropes.
Kate is a tomboy in tank tops and little makeup, capable of drinking just about anyone under the table. And they drink a lot in this movie.
Lesser movies would make their significant others a harpy and an asshole. But here, Livingston and Kendrick eschew stereotypes for characters who are just as sympathetic and relatable as Johnson’s and Wilde’s.
The plot is straightforward, as the four characters figure out just where they stand with one another during the course of 90 minutes. The film relies almost exclusively on talking, and the movie was entirely improvised, so the actors are front and center the entire time.
Because of this loose structure, the film is only as good as the actors. Fortunately, everyone is game. The chemistry between Luke and Kate fills the frame each time they interact.
They’re two peas in a pod; they are sarcastic, scruffy, and really enjoy a good beer or five. You root for these characters even when you know it would mean hurting their partners, who mostly haven’t done anything wrong.
Drinking Buddies is a romantic comedy for people who operate in the real world. There are no contrived plot points revolving around tired rom-com tropes.
These characters aren’t pure good or pure evil. They’re flawed beings who have moments of weakness and frustration and all the things that come with attempting to figure out if the person you’re with is the right person for you. It’s a refreshing shift from the sheen of the likes of Josh Duhamel and Kate Hudson.
The laughs, fights and quiet doubts that can seep into the tiniest cracks of a relationship give the film a lived-in quality. It’s helped, no doubt, by director Joe Swanberg’s mumblecore background, though Drinking Buddies carries a more well-known roster of actors and a more defined reason for existing than most films of the genre.
What Drinking Buddies explores — besides the question of how much beer is too much (answer: no such thing) — is the line between a flirtatious friendship and actual cheating.
Can you be attracted to a friend and still be a good partner to your significant other? Whom do you really want to spend the rest of your life with, and is the possibility of something new and exciting worth destroying something that works near perfectly? And what happens when you realize that seemingly greener pastures have similar weeds?
And that’s really what Camus’ Sisyphus is about. It’s the acceptance that worthwhile things are often the most difficult. A relationship, whether romantic or platonic, requires effort and, to a degree, sacrifice and compromise.
These characters, particularly Luke, are tasked with deciding which boulders they will push up the mountain. Each misstep is the rock rolling back to the base. But, unlike Sisyphus, there seems to be hope that these drinking buddies can stay at the top.
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Drinking Buddies opens at Magnolia theaters August 30.
If you tried to keep up with the characters' beer drinking, you would lose.
