Weekend (2011)

It is a performances centric movie

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

A lot of fun.

Blistering performances.

I watched this film probably around a year ago and haven't had the desire to watch it again despite it being set in Nottingham (where I work).The problem I have with so many gay films or portrayal of gay characters is the colour-by-numbers approach. The guys are always pretty good looking, fairly well off, drug taking, club hopping and sexually over- active.This may be the reality for some gay men but it isn't for everyone. The amount of drinking, drugs, sex and clubbing in films like this is completely unrealistic - especially to those who don't live in big cities, frequent gay bars or sleep about.Maybe a writer/director could attempt to create something with a sense of grounding, hard-faced reality and where the characters aren't one-dimensional, vapid and shallow or where the "plot" goes beyond their own wet dreams.Last night I watched '4th Man Out' and whilst it still is a by-the-numbers sort of film, at least the main character felt real and relatable. He wasn't a druggie, he wasn't a gay clubber, he wasn't camp or a tart - he was a mechanic with straight male friends who enjoyed sports and just wanted to meet someone.This film has a long way to go to come even 1% close to the likes of Shelter or Beautiful Thing.

Nowadays, the perception about relationships has changed significantly, due among other things to the changing priorities of life, in which casual encounters that do not involve any kind of attachments (either for lack of time to be in a relationship or even for fear of falling in love) are increasingly common. But what happens when the need to know the other person comes after one of those? What happens when feelings start to make their appearance? This is the dilemma that faces Russell (Tom Cullen), a British lifeguard with a normal life with no major surprises, but with few close friends (the closest person in his life is his best friend Jamie). One night, on his way back home from Jamie's, he decides to go to a bar and meets Glen (Chris New) with whom ends up spending the night in his apartment. After detailing to Russell how they hooked up and slept together,Glen leaves, but Russell has the desire to keep watching him, which happens, but there is one small detail: Glen must go to the US to take an art course for 2 years. Within the "genre" of romance movies, there are several examples of casual encounters, such as David Lean's Brief Encounter and more recently Richard Linklater's Before Sunrise. In fact, could be said that the latter is the most influential for Andrew Haigh, who in Weekend gives us a particular point of view about relationships and the reasons that lead us to want or not want to get involved emotionally. In the case of Glen and Russell is evident that there is an attraction that goes beyond the physical aspect, and as they spend time together, the connection between them is notorious. Thus Haigh, no tricks, no melodrama, through his characters makes interesting reflections on what means to be gay in these times, and how gay men perceive concepts such as happiness, love or loneliness through their experiences and how they are noticed by straight people. Glen has a point of view about life that's slightly different than Russell's: despite being attracted to him, he is reluctant to fall because of a failed relationship and does not believe in marriage or long term commitments. Russell, meanwhile, believes in love and live life without hiding even though he is more reserved and somewhat shy. With a film language closer to documentary, and a remarkable chemistry between Cullen and New, who are not afraid to take the risk of playing gay, Haigh takes us to be witnesses on how two people who barely know each other share their hopes, fears and cravings, making entirely believable that everything takes place in one weekend. Which in turn, makes harder for the viewer the inevitable moment of the farewell and in the end one can only hope that one day, they will meet again to find out whether it was really love what was flourishing between them.

Contains spoilers...After all the praise that has been given to this film, I was surprised by finding myself becoming so bored by it I struggled to make it to the end.The film consists of two broadly uninteresting people having mostly downbeat and unoriginal conversations. One, Glenn, is a 24 year old aspiring artist, though what we learn about the quality of his mind and the limited range of his consistently solipsistic thinking suggests he will be without success. He complains that straight people aren't interested enough in hearing about gay sex, that if he did a show about him talking about gay sex then straight people wouldn't come, that there aren't enough gay story lines on TV, that heterosexuality is shoved in his face, that marriage is too conformist, that gays are too pigeon– holed etc ad nauseum. And many other things the average gay man will have heard expressed 100 times before, with as little depth. Glen's friends hold him back, he thinks, seeing him only as he used to be, whereas he feels he is constantly changing. He hates Nottingham. He doesn't want a boyfriend.The protagonist, Russell, is more endearing and essentially likable, but most of the time words need to be dragged from him, sometimes in a mumble. His relationship with his best friend Jamie is much dwelt upon, but when together he barely holds a conversation with him. He maintains a habit of writing down his depressing sexual encounters with closeted or cheating or just unhappy men. Several of these are later read out, Glen and Russell taking in turns.Most of the film takes place inside Russell's small and dreary flat. The director's choice of a washed out colour palette of grey and blue compounds the dreariness. Outside, people shuffle up concrete paths. Russell lives there in a vacuum. Glen has some friends, but from what little we see of them, they are neither interesting or pleasant and he doesn't like them much. Really there is little of anything in their lives. What others found deeply romantic, I experienced more as claustrophobic and was unconvinced by the depth of foundations of the connection. Both characters are lonely and slightly unhappy and fancy each other. But it was easy to imagine the relationship being broken off, whether or not Glen does ultimately go to Portland (the film's only plot point). The most exciting thing they do together is have a backie on a bike.The sex is believable and unerotic, to my mind at least, and even the drugs are no fun. In this film taking large amounts of cocaine only makes people crave gloomy and irritable conversations with each other; I would suggest another dealer. These men in their mid 20s talk a great deal about whether and when they feel embarrassed or ashamed to be gay, and about coming out and the extent to which they are out. Which hasn't been my own experience of what English gay men in their mid 20s talk about with each other (yes, I've been one). As well as a lack of plot, there is no cinematography to speak of that could be described as filmic. It could easily be made for TV, except there's deliberate camera shakiness and blurring. There's little in the way of a soundtrack. The film is very well acted; the leads play their parts convincingly, it's the characters that lack interest. There is most of the time a strong sense of verisimilitude. And that has been the biggest source of praise for the film. But filming people talking on a bus would also have a sense of verisimilitude. The question is what would be the point? Where is the creativity? Are the leads being gay sufficient justification for the film? I certainly don't feel it told me anything about life, or made me see life in a slightly new way. The sense it brought to mind was of being stuck in a corner at a disappointing and dingy house party, being spoken to at length by someone dull, but being in two minds whether to leave yet as it's a long journey home and I'm not yet drunk, so I hang around.

Second gay film I have watched (after Freier Fall) and like Freier Fall... and like most realities in the gay world, there is no happy endings.I like Freir Fall more but an 8/10 rating will do for this movie. It was real, at least that was what I felt while watching it.I guess that is the "norm" in gay films? that they don't have happy endings? At least with weekend, there is something to ponder about after the movie ended. Lastly, albeit this is an all out gay movie I like how the story actually brought out real issues in relationships that normal people actually experience in real life (without any script).What I did not like about this move (also with Freier Fall) is that they have drugs in it. Then again, that probably is part of the "realness" of the story.But anyway, this is worth your time if you decide to watch it.