After the miserable failure of We Are Your Friends, one might think that movie producers might be able to figure out exactly why it failed and then fix the issues the next time around. Unfortunately, however, this is not the case. Following the exact same plot line as We Are Your Friends, XOXO stories a no-name bedroom producer as he makes a hit track, and then climaxes with a big festival set in front of thousands of people. To be honest, the idea of this does have appeal, and I could see the possibility of this plot line actually working out, however through countless plot-holes and obnoxiously unrealistic portrayals of the EDM world, the movie falls apart into yet another flop. To break down some of the the worst parts of the movie, and the few good parts, I’ll go through some pros and cons.
XOXO’s Pros:
–Absolutely stunning display of how hard it is to get a USB into its slot. The movie sums up the incredible amounts of frustration this ordeal presents with impeccable accuracy.
–Really good music. XOXO’s producers hired Pete Tong as their music advisor, and anyone who listens to BBC Radio 1 will know that this is a good thing. Picking songs from a wide variety of genres, ranging from never heard before, to classics like Flume’s “You & Me” remix, the soundtrack does not disappoint.
-Features an old person who thinks that the music industry is the worst thing ever nowadays and that it should be like it was back in the 80s. We all know this person.
-Great representation of the crazy stuff that people wear/bring to music festivals, and what a music festival actually looks like.
-Does a really good job of showing how hard it is to find your friends at a festival with absolutely no cell reception.
XOXO’s Cons:
–Literally the first thing that happens is the lead character’s track gets a million views over night, and then the next day he is booked for a festival that is literally happening 8 hours later. Maybe getting a million views over night. Maybe. But a festival booking for the next day? Come on you can do better.
-Lead character’s best friend and manager starts tripping so hard to the point of being unable to do his job after making out with a girl with a tab of acid on her tongue. Where to even begin. Maybe something as unrealistic this would be okay if it was a very minor part of the movie, but the fact that nearly all of the drama in the movie arrises because of this brings into the question the creative capabilities of the movie’s writers.
-Another instance of the writers scripting something entirely unrealistic to wring more drama out of the already relatively drama-free rag that is XOXO is the inability of the lead character to even get into the festival. When the person at the front gate won’t let him in because he is “not on the list” a couple behind them gives him one of their tickets that leads to a whole new drama line that ends with them sneaking in through the sewer, getting caught by security, but then still being allowed into the festival…after the festival had sold out. Ignoring any of the the sewer crap (no pun intended), any artist playing at a big festival does not go in the front gate. They have have a separate artist entry gate that does not involve waiting with swabs of fans who would recognize any major name and immediately swarm for autographs etc. Also let’s just go back to the whole “not on the list” thing. Even if it was even remotely possible, the fact that later in the movie you can see his name on big banner inside the festival casts some serious doubt on this one. How could they have enough time to print out his name on a big banner, but not put it on the silly list?!
-Stealing a headlining DJ set. Literally the climax of the entire movie. I guess it’s fun to think about, but after making an absolute train wreck of his actual set earlier in the festival, it’s hard to imagine that any crowd who was waiting for the esteemed ‘Avilo’ (Avilo cleverly written in the same font as Avicii’s logo), would be very receptive to a no-name who screwed up his set earlier in the day taking the headlining spot.
I could go on much longer about all the issues with XOXO’s plot, but I’ll spare you the pain. If you want to judge for yourself, however, just fire up Netflix and check out the ‘new releases’ section.
