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

He said, "knowing that the structure was already pretty heavily in place, it was about letting the actors own their characters, and have a big say in the clothes that they wore, and in the interactions that they have with each other."

He added: "The improv was used to mainly make the middle of the movie more complicated, and less predictable than a typical romantic comedy would be."

Swanberg also stated "They need to be listening to each other and reacting honestly and I need to be paying really close attention because there’s not a script to fall back on.

[10] 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.

"[11] Drinking Buddies has music supervised by Chris Swanson, Grant Manship and Kathleen Cook of Jagjaguwar.

There was no script for the film, only Swanberg as its captain, and Wilde told her director she wanted to skinny dip because "it felt so incredibly organic to that moment.

The site's consensus reads, "Smart, funny, and powered by fine performances from Olivia Wilde and Jake Johnson, Drinking Buddies offers a bittersweet slice of observational comedy.

"[15] On Metacritic the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "general favorable reviews".

[16] A. O. Scott of The New York Times remarked "Mr. Swanberg’s camera weaves through bodies at rest, at work and at the bar in no particular hurry, and his script captures the idioms of men and women who are equally inclined to waste words and to say very little.

But the busy tedium of their lives is given shape and direction by the skill of the cast and by the precision of the director’s eye, ear and editing instincts.

"[17] Upon the film's UK release, Peter Bradshaw gave the film three stars out of five, calling it "a lo-fi relationship drama that is interesting, if unevenly presented...an intriguing and distinctive story, soberly told"; according to Bradshaw, "Swanberg interestingly shows how booze loosens them up, lowers their inhibitions, and yet blurs their emotional reactions, in the process weirdly muting and endlessly deferring the sexual drama.