“Drinking Buddies” is a comedy about blurring the line between work friendship and budding romance. And when you work in a brewery — and partake of your product as often as you can — that line gets even blurrier.
Writer/director Joe Swanberg premiered his movie Saturday night at the South By Southwest film festival. Known for indie flicks with minuscule budgets, he brought his eighth film to the Austin gathering. It’s also easily the biggest production, with a cast featuring Olivia Wilde, Anna Kendrick, Jake Johnson and Ron Livingston.
Walking the red carpet, Swanberg said he didn’t feel extra pressure despite the more-lavish production.
“The film grew to its size really organically,” he said. “There wasn’t a concerted effort to make something bigger; it’s just that this was a story that I wanted to tell and then, as the actors came on board, the budget grew.”
Though the plot was scripted, Swanberg had the actors improvise their dialogue so that the audience could “see real people coming through.”
“You’re not watching famous Hollywood actors playing roles, what you’re seeing is their personalities shining through,” he said. “They’re still playing characters, but they’re bringing a lot of themselves into it.”
Wilde said she so relished making her lines up as she went along that “Drinking Buddies is the highlight of her career so far.
“It’s the thing I’m most proud of,” she said. “I feel that I devoted myself to this in a way I’ve never done. Improvising the entire film meant that I was constantly creating.”
Wilde and Jake Johnson of TV’s “New Girl” play colleagues at a Chicago brewery whose close friendship teeters on turning into something more — even though both are in relationships with other people.
Kendrick, who garnered an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for “Up in the Air” and also starred in “Pitch Perfect” and “50/50,” plays Johnson’s girlfriend. Livingston, of “Office Space” fame is involved with Wilde. But another star of the movie is beer, with bottles and glasses and plastic cups of it being swigged from copiously throughout.
The movie features few characters — though Swanberg himself makes a cameo — and the dialogue they share often feels spontaneous. That left a packed-house crowd at the Texas capital’s stately Paramount Theatre laughing early and often on the festival’s second night.
“It’s a different muscle,” Livingston said of improvising. He added of Swanberg: “He’ll go without a net. He’s not afraid to change the story as we go.”
Johnson said he came of age improvising on stage and continues to do so at times on his television show.
“Joe knew what he wanted so it wasn’t free form,” Johnson said. “It was very disciplined improv.”
Swanberg lives in Chicago and filmed on-location at breweries there. An avid home-brewer, he said he picked up more than a few choice tips during shooting.
“Making a movie in a brewery,” Swanberg said, “that’s about the greatest thing I could imagine.”
Director Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Dreams (Sex Love)” Wins Top Prize At The Berlin Film Festival
A Norwegian film about love, desire and self-discovery won top honors at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on Saturday.
A jury headed by American director Todd Haynes awarded the Golden Bear trophy to "Dreams (Sex Love)" by director Dag Johan Haugerud.
Haynes called it a "meditation on love" that "cuts you to the quick with its keen intelligence."
The film focuses on a teenager played by Ella Øverbyer, infatuated with her female French teacher, and the reactions of her mother and grandmother when they discover her private writings. It's the third part of a trilogy Haugerud has completed in the past year. "Sex" premiered at Berlin in 2024, and "Love" was screened at the 2024 Venice Film Festival.
The runner-up Silver Bear prize went to Brazilian director Gabriel Mascaro's dystopian drama "The Blue Trail." Argentine director Ivan Fund's rural saga "The Message" won the third-place Jury Prize.
The best director prize went to Huo Meng for "Living the Land," set in fast-changing 1990s China.
Rose Byrne was named best performer for her role as an overwhelmed mother in the Mary Bronstein-directed "If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You." Andrew Scott won the supporting performer trophy for playing composer Richard Rodgers in Richard Linklater's "Blue Moon."
The climax of the festival known as the Berlinale came on the eve of Germany's parliamentary elections after a campaign dominated by migration and the economy.
The national election is being held seven months early, after Chancellor Olaf Scholz's governing coalition collapsed in a dispute about how to revitalize the country's economy.
Efforts to curb migration have emerged as a central issue in the campaign — along with the question of how to handle the... Read More