Drinking Buddies (2013)

Interesting facts

• Filmed in: Chicago

Drinking Buddies is a 2013 American comedy-drama film written, directed and edited by Joe Swanberg, and starring Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick and Ron Livingston. The film is about two co-workers at a craft brewery in Chicago.

Production

The idea to set the film in a brewery came when director Joe Swanberg received a brewing set-up as a birthday present. According to Swanberg,

I wanted to do something about Craft Beer [independent breweries] and set in the Craft Beer world but also I was inspired by Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, a Paul Mazursky movie. Just to tell a complicated adult [story] that was funny, that managed to remain funny even though it was getting into serious, interesting things.

The dialogue was improvised. Instead of a script, the actors received outlines which covered the major plot points and were told each day what had to happen in that day's scenes. Relying heavily on improvisation is a key feature of the Mumblecore film movement.

Filming took place in Chicago, Illinois in July 2012. The film was shot in an actual brewery, called Revolution, where one of the female brewers named Kate was the basis for Wilde's character. The actors actually drank real beer during the filming and even did real work for the brewing company. Wilde would later comment that the cast was "hammered the entire movie."

The film concludes with an open ending with Swanberg stating "it's hard for me, knowing how uncertain the world is, to put a certain, definite ending on a movie. I feel like I'm hopefully hinting that there's a resolution without it being cemented down, or hammering you over the head with it."

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