WE ARE YOUR FRIENDS (15, 96 mins)

Drama/Musical/Romance. Zac Efron, Wes Bentley, Emily Ratajkowski, Jonny Weston, Shiloh Fernandez, Alex Shaffer, Jon Bernthal, Alicia Coppola. Director: Max Roberts.Released: August 27 (UK & Ireland)

When it rains cinematic love letters to the electronic dance music (EDM) scene, it pours.

We Are Your Friends arrives shortly after Eden, Mia Hansen-Love's autobiographical account of shattered dreams set against the backdrop of the 1990s French music scene.

While that film expertly mixed style and substance with a pulsating soundtrack from the era, director Max Roberts' present-day soap opera taps its foot to a more predictable beat in the sun-baked San Fernando Valley.

According to the film's narrator, this unfashionable stretch of Los Angeles County has a thriving pornography industry, airhead blondes and the best sushi in California.

It's also a playground for dreamers - wannabe musicians, actors and DJs - who hope to be talent-spotted on the other side of the Hollywood sign and offered their one-way ticket to fame and fortune.

It's a pungent setting for Roberts and co-writer Meaghan Oppenheimer to explore the frailty of a get-rich-quick generation, obsessed with stories of twentysomethings, who invented an app or performed songs on a video sharing website and are now multi-millionaires.

We Are Your Friends has a smattering of grit, including scenes of drug-taking plus a senseless tragedy that is telegraphed in neon lettering, but the sweetness and sentimentality of this bro-mantic fairytale is overpowering.

Consequently, Roberts can't resist a feel good coda to reset the film's moral compass.

Zac Efron plays Cole, a 23-year-old DJ who lives in the valley with buddies Mason (Jonny Weston), Ollie (Shiloh Fernandez) and Squirrel (Alex Shaffer).

One night at a club, Cole meets EDM demi-god James Reed (Wes Bentley), who commands vast fees for his sets.

James takes the twinkly-eyed upstart under his wing and grants Cole 24-hour access to his recording studio.

As the newcomer hones his craft, he kindles an attraction with James' younger girlfriend, Sophie (Emily Ratajkowski), which threatens to spark a full-blown affair.

We Are Your Friends starts promisingly, bombarding the screen with snazzy visuals and captions as Cole delivers an idiot's guide to the Valley and EDM.

A PCP-induced trip in an art gallery sparks a terrific animated sequence.

After this initial rush of blood to the head, Roberts tempers the directorial brio and reveals the deeply conventional heart beneath the film's shiny exterior.

Efron plies his usual boyish good looks and charm as a counterpoint to Bentley's world-weary EDM veteran.

"You used to be good. Now you're just a sell-out collecting a cheque," Cole defiantly informs James during one exchange.

Ratajkowski looks ravishing in pouty close-up, but has little to do besides drive a wedge between her two suitors.

Big name DJs including Alesso, Posso and Nicky Romero enjoy cameos to lend authenticity to a film that ultimately doesn't have the courage of its convictions.

RATING: 5/10