Drinking Buddies

Director Joe Swanberg, a prolific creator of mini-budget so-called “mumblecore” films about modern relationships, makes a significant stride forward with this romantic comedy involving two workers and longtime friends at a Chicago microbrewery. Kate (Olivia Wilde) is the company's marketing honcho, while Luke (Jake Johnson) is the production foreman. Although the pair share an easy familiarity, each is committed to someone else: Luke to live-in girlfriend Jill (Anna Kendrick), and Kate to older businessman Chris (Ron Livingston). But things heat up on a trip that the quartet take to a rustic Michigan cabin, where nature hikes, loaded conversations, and a midnight jaunt to a nearby beach end up testing the current romantic lineup. Sound familiar? Wisely, Swanberg doesn't followed the clichéd narrative of most Hollywood rom-coms, instead employing an improvisational approach that allows for situations to develop in unexpected ways, while the solid cast invests the characters with surprising layers of emotion. Recommended. (F. Swietek)