Movie: Drinking Buddies (2013) Caution Spoiler Alert

 

Drinking Buddies

Came out; 2013

Time; 1 hour 30 Minutes

Watched: Max

Rated: R for language throughout

IMDB Rating; 6.1/10

Rotten Tomatoes:

Tomato Meter 84%

Popcorn Meter 29%

Caution; Spoiler Alert

Staring;

Olivia Wilde as Kate

Jake Johnson as Luke

Anna Kendrick as Jill

Ron Livingston as Chris

Ti West as Dave

Jason Sudeikis as Gene Dentler

Story Line;

Luke and Kate are co-workers at a Chicago brewery, where they spend their days drinking and flirting. They're perfect for each other, except that they're both in relationships. Luke is in the midst of marriage talks with his girlfriend of six years, Kate is playing it cool with her music producer boyfriend Chris. But you know what makes the line between "friends" and "more than friends" really blurry? Beer.

Thoughts:

This movie is rather slow moving, it's truly the most “watching someone else's life” movie I've ever watched

It wasn't the best movie I've seen but it was a totally believable one.

The cast is great! The plot was ok.

CAUTION; Spoiler Alert

Kate (Olivia Wilde) and Luke (Jake Johnson) are co-workers at Chicago craft brewery Revolution Brewing, where they spend their days drinking and flirting. Luke handles the back-end machinery that brews beer, while Kate manages the front office to handle customers. They are perfect for each other (they vibe with each other, enjoy each other's company, share food and even finish each other's sentences), except that they are both in relationships: Kate is with Chris (Ron Livingston), and Luke is with Jill (Anna Kendrick). Jill wants to know if Luke is ready to talk about marriage.

Luke is busy brewing beer and Kate handles phone calls (to all the distributors who are also invited to the party) to set up the anniversary party for the brewery. During lunch they agree to go out for drinks after dinner with all their co-workers from the brewery. While all are drinking at the bar, Luke's fiance, Jill, arrives. After the bar, Kate rides her bike over to her socially awkward, but extremely nice boyfriend's apartment where he gives her dinner and a copy of Rabbit, Run. Chris does not drink beer (and doesn't enjoy Kate taking food from his plate and wants her to use the coasters when she drinks beer on his furniture), while Jill does not enjoy staying late at parties and prefers to spend time at home.

At the brewery anniversary party, Chris invites Luke and Jill to join them for a trip to his family's cottage. During the trip Jill and Chris go for a long hike in the woods (where they have a picnic. Jill is super organized, very prepared and very unlike Kate), where they end up kissing. Luke and Kate spend the whole trip drinking (playing blackjack with Luke acting as the dealer, make a disgusting ham sandwich and end up playing with their food) and staying up late alone together. Chris and Jill return and act like nothing has happened. Luke spends time with Jill playing blackjack and drinking, but Chris ignores Kate, making her feel lonely. After Jill falls asleep, Luke offers to make a bonfire for Kate on the beach. Kate invites Luke to go skinny dipping before stripping off her clothes and running into the lake.

After the group returns home, Chris decides he needs to talk to Kate and the two break up. Newly single Kate makes the whole brewery crew go out the next day for drinks. Kate is visibly upset and shaken. Luke tries to talk to her separately, but she refuses and stays in the company of her co-workers. Luke continues to keep a watchful eye on Kate, but eventually leaves for home. Kate refuses a ride home from Luke and is super drunk. Luke returns home and tells Jill that Chris and Kate are broken up. Jill wants to talk to Luke about getting married. Luke says that he is committed but wants to wait to figure out the right time to conduct the ceremony. Kate ultimately ends up sleeping with a co-worker, Dave (Ti West). This makes Luke very angry at both Dave and Kate, and he spends the whole next day angry, snapping at both of them. Luke refuses to have lunch with Kate and wanted to leave at the end of the day without having a beer with Kate. Kate pleads Luke to have a beer with her. Kate and Luke make peace with each other and Luke admits that Kate is a grown woman and can sleep with whoever she wants. Jill decides to go away for a week with some friends from college to Costa Rica. During this trip, Luke and Kate go out for dinner and fall asleep together on the couch. Luke agrees to help Kate clean out her old apartment and move the next day, and at the end of the day Luke falls asleep on the bed. Kate joins him.

During the next morning, Luke invites Kate to dinner, but then cuts his hand. Kate is squeamish about the blood and is completely unhelpful. An impatient driver (Joe Swanberg), blocked by the moving van, yells at them and starts a fight with Luke. After Luke ends up with a fat lip, Kate ends up calling Dave to help finish the move. Dave invites Kate to go out for drinks, and she tells Luke that she wants to go with Dave, rather than going to dinner with him. Luke is annoyed, and an argument ensues.

Returning home, Luke finds Jill has returned home early, crying. She admits to kissing Chris while at the cottage, asking Luke if he is upset. Luke forgives Jill and lets her know that he still loves her and wants to marry her.

The next day at work Kate and Luke awkwardly interact and then eventually end up sitting together at lunch. Mirroring earlier, they each offer each one other food items before they crack a smile, and drink a beer.