Hey, Buddies

Can up-and-coming indie director Joe Swanberg, like his mumblecore-to-mainstream brethren Mark Duplass (Cyrus) and Lynn Shelton (Your Sister’s Sister), make good on his first truly star-filled movie? Magnolia Pictures thinks so. The studio purchased Swanberg’s comedy Drinking Buddies, led by Olivia Wilde and Anna Kendrick, after the film earned a riotous reception at South by Southwest.

Wilde stars opposite New Girl’s Jake Johnson as chummy coworkers at a small craft brewery in Chicago. But when Wilde’s relationship with Office Space star Ron Livingston ends badly, will her flirtations with Johnson turn into something more?

Filmed by New Orleans-based Beasts of the Southern Wild cinematographer Ben Richardson, the comedy is Swanberg’s most accessible and best-looking effort to date, a humorous but heartwarming look at modern relationships with an authentic, lived-in aesthetic. Jason Sudeikis and Ti West co-star.

Drinking Buddies will have a Video On Demand release July 25 and arrive in a limited number of theaters Aug. 23.

JULY 5: Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer in The Lone Ranger.
JULY 12: Idris Elba and Charlie Hunnam in Pacific Rim.
JULY 26: Hugh Jackman and Famke Janssen in The Wolverine. Cate Blanchett and Alec Baldwin in Blue Jasmine.