Story

When five best friends graduate from college, the whole world is their playground. Arthur, Eric, David, and Brian eagerly embrace the freedom of leaving school, but Lucas struggles with the uncertainty of what comes next. Seeking structure, he joins the army and soon ships out to training camp. The other four boys live together in Portland, and quickly establish a lifestyle that demands no commitments – they work for pizza parlors and as street corner solicitors, dabble in art projects, drink their beers after work and forget about Lucas. Eric falls madly in love with an idealistic young activist named Katherine.

Katherine urges the boys to take a stand, but their ‘protest’ party turns wild when they project obscene videos against the house. The rebellion culminates with Arthur climbing onto the roof, his body becoming screen over which the videos flicker, drunkenly proclaiming independence from an ambiguous oppressor to the crowd below. The police arrive, and Eric, David and Brian are arrested and spend the night in jail.

After this sobering reality check, the boys regroup at a smoky dive bar. Dispirited yet defiant, they toast to continued friendship and the pursuit of personal happiness. At the same time, Lucas ties his boots with shaking fingers in preparation for his first armed conflict in the Middle East.

But the boys’ easygoing apathy begins to backfire. Katherine leaves Eric heartbroken. Arthur finds himself stuck as a coffee boy in a design firm, and Brian is fired from his job. David, an aspiring filmmaker, receives a letter rejecting his film from a festival. This series of failures causes eruptive fights at the house, and the boys’ friendships begin to splinter.

Then Eric receives a phone call. Lucas is dead.

Shocked and unmoored, the boys begin to reassess their lives in light of this tragedy. The easy leisure of their former lives is thrown into question, as each boy seeks new ways to commit to careers, relationships, and each other.