Film review: Drinking Buddies (15)

Joe Swanberg, 91mins. Starring: Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson

Eric Rohmer meets Richard Linklater in this amiable but not entirely plausible drama about two friends (Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson) who work in an upmarket brewery.

Their attraction to one another is self-evident but, as the film starts, they are already in relationships with other partners (Ron Livingston, Anna Kendrick).

Joe Swanberg (one of the leaders of the "mumblecore" movement) shoots in long takes with constant close-ups and with minimal music, focusing on the behaviour of the characters with anthropological relish.

As in Rohmer's movies, the protagonists are young, good-looking and prone to negotiating themselves into a huge romantic pickle.

They drink vast quantities of beer without suffering from any noticeable hangovers while reading Camus and John Updike. Wilde has star quality, even if her character is hard to believe in.