Weekend

Saw this is at Provincetown film Festival. This takes place in Britain. After a night with straight friends closeted Russell (Tom Cullen) goes to a gay bar and meets Glen (Chris New). They go home and have sex. Despite the sex being nothing special they start talking and become attracted to each other. Unfortunately Glen is relocating to the US that Monday. This leads to more sex and discussions on life, love and relationships. I did love this film but it has problems. The British accents were so thick I had trouble understanding some of the dialogue (Cullen's isn't bad but News' was virtually incomprehensible). Still I was able to follow it more or less and found it interesting. The dialogue (what I could figure out of it) was sharp and insightful and the acting was excellent. Also the sex scenes were fairly explicit (there's a fair amount of nudity) and hot but nothing hardcore. Well-done gay drama. Worth catching.

superv

Great

This film is about two men's one night stand blossoming into a relationship that lasts through a weekend. I applaud filmmakers for making a gay romance film, especially one that lacks the fluffy elements that increase its commercial appeal. "Weekend" is a dialog heavy film, that concentrates on the development of friendship and then emotional attachment between two characters. It sounds good on paper, but the execution is disappointing. I find the film rather dull, as the two guys talk all the time and do little else. Being in their shoes would certainly be a wonderful thing, having found a partner to share all their thoughts, hopes and dreams. However, watching the conversation go on and on is rather bland and uninteresting.

I don't understand why people praise this movie so much. OK, it's a decent low-budget indie movie, that has it's moments, but overall it's not as good as we're told ( or I was told ). "Weekend" is a very slow movie, which isn't the problem, because I love this kind of movies. The problem is that besides the engaging dialog, not much happens here. Slow movies are supposed to build up a lot of tension, so the last half hour is packed with events and/or plot twists. In this case, the story isn't going anywhere. We can only see the two protagonists going out, doing drugs, having sex, and talking a lot. As I said before, the drug-sodden discussions were interesting, though a bit boring at some point; the sex scenes were raw and passionate, and there were also interesting camera angles. But despite all this, the whole story falls somehow flat, leaving you unsatisfied-at the end we don't get pretty much anything. Also, the characters could have been better developed-I was left with the impression that I didn't get to know them at all, despite the vast dialog. I'm not saying that this was a bad movie, just that I didn't exactly got what I was promised-a complex story, with well-developed characters involved in an interesting plot, that will definitely move you. I wasn't moved that much, the ending was pretty much predictable, and it kind of killed it for me-call me a hopeless romantic, but I love a - at least partially - happy ending.

Russell (Tom Cullen) is a cleaned up, well-mannered man, working as a lifeguard, who, after one night at a house party, is searching the streets looking for someone to talk to and hook up with. He ventures into a gay nightclub, and picks up the aspiring artist, Glen (Chris New), a man more comfortable and open about his homosexuality. Russell and Glen become surprisingly close and what was destined to be a simple one night stand evolves into one of the most meaningful and tremendously potent on-screen romances from independent cinema in a long time. Andrew Haigh's Weekend is a delightfully different picture, about two gay men who take on a fondness for each other in the least conventional sense. They wind up equally understanding each other, taking each other for who they are, and become more open in their conversations than I'm sure lifelong friends have. To say how and why it happens is so subjective it's not even wholly explainable. Sometimes, a person catches you by surprise and, despite only knowing them for a short time, you can feel heavily sympathetic towards their problems and issues, begin to talk openly with one another about personal subjects, and, after a while, begin to become transgressive in your discussions, just talking about whatever you feel like. Perhaps it is just that other person's presence that makes each of them feel so comfortable and open. What Russell and Glen discuss over this forty-eight hour relationship probably hasn't even been vaguely brought up when talking with family. Cullen and New are exceptionally perfect in their chemistry together. One of the most poignant scenes in the film comes a little after the hour mark, when they are discussing gay rights with each other. To discuss the treatment of gays in society and in the media is obligatory when dealing with a film focusing on a same-sex relationship, but being that Weekend is a British film, it has a welcomed take on the subject, showing us that passionate relationships with two people of the same gender exist all over the world. We learn Glen must board a train on Monday and from there on out, is Oregon-bound to take a two year long art course. It is quite possible that this adds to the rush of discussing as many topics as possible before the inevitable morning comes. The crisp photography of the picture is to be commended as well. There are some evocative, crisp location and involving scenery shots scattered throughout the entire picture. Haigh's directorial effort is truly an astonishing work of indie-art, as it shows photography in not a pompous light, but as a background delight to the foreground extravaganza we are enduring. It is too complimented by some delightful framing, where it seems everything inside of the frame has some sort of true, bountiful significance. Another talk of true satisfaction is when the Glen tells Russell to act as if he was his father and come out of the closet to him. It is at that moment, after the deed is done on Russell's part, Glen utters the most satisfying and beautiful line in the entire picture. To repeat it here is an act of criminal spoiling. Weekend is a naturalistic and touching film, whether you're gay, straight, bisexual, or whatever orientation. This is a film that can give you relationship advice and life guidance no matter what you're orientation may be. It isn't an indulgent film bringing only a unique gay relationship to light and nothing more, and it isn't an ode to "coming out" and stockpiled clichés of "being different." It shows how the slightest, most unassuming interaction with a person, regardless of two days in length or six years, can have a truly provocative impact on you as a person. This is one of the wisest and least condescending independent films I've seen this year. Starring: Tom Cullen and Greg New. Directed by: Andrew Haigh.

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.

This is a film where low budget certainly means low budget. I realise that some much more expensively produced films can be far too brassy and bombastic - however I do feel that this film was lacking in surprise and depth. There was some quite nice dialogue between the two leads but I would have liked the other characters to have been given more to do. I would have hoped for a little more interest from the leads as well. They went to the usual boring clubs and were of course keen on drugs. Not all gay men are like this. Does it all have to be so downbeat. I would like to have seen a more cinematic treatment in the visuals. This could quite easily have been watched on television. John Sayles - a notable independent director - also makes very understated films but his are most definitely films for the cinema. I don't think this in any way measures up to Brokeback Mountain - I was really drawn into that story. In Weekend I never really knew Russell or Glen - they were too shadowy and my empathy for them was correspondingly weak. Even at the moving climax to the film - I still wanted something more

There are so few films of distinction about gay relationships that one which is even half insightful gets lauded as something greater than it actually is, and such a film is 'Weekend'. This slight affair covers the 48 hour period where two guys pick each other up in a bar, rapidly develop an emotional attachment for each other, spill out some of the details of their somewhat alienated lives and then. Well, I won't spoil the plot. Not that there is a plot in the conventional sense. Which is my gripe. The normal standards by which we measure feature films when we visit the cinema tend, as gay men, to be lowered just because it's a film dealing with 'gay issues'. Engaged as I am to see gay men talking about gay men (and in this film the main topic of conversation between these guys is that they are gay men) I actually like things to happen in films. I like plot twists and subtle characterisations, memorable lines, striking shots. Weekend has none of these things. But it does have plenty of that quality that seems to hang over all gay movies. It has angst - lots of it. We are reminded in almost every shot what a burden it is to be gay. How lonely, how weighty, how alienated and how painful. And sometimes it is. But sometimes it's not. One can redeem Weekend in various ways. You can say it follows to an extent the rules of the Dogma 95 movement in its unrelenting realism, and the writer/director has striven to get a sense of authenticity in the nature of the two guy's awkward emotional exploration, lacklustre sex and bad quality instant coffee. You might also call is subtle and thought-provoking in its drawn-out wordy scenes and oblique camera angles. You might even say it's the gay 'Brief Encounter' if you connect with the two boxed-in main characters. But actually, in truth, it's just a rather boring movie about two characters who happen to be gay and don't do very movie.

I watched this film after a friend highly recommended it. The gay film festivals and critics' awards and nominations it's been getting are much deserved. Russell (Tom Cullen), a young gay man in Nottingham, UK, picks up Glen (Chris New) at a nightclub. They have a one-night stand but realize they share much more than animal attraction. They spend a weekend together trying to figure out whether or not they can turn this into something "concrete". "Weekend" is part of the 'brief encounter' subgenre I am a big fan of. It's a 'talkie' for excellence; if you love films like "Lost In Translation", "Before Sunrise" and "Before Sunset", you'll probably be smitten by this as well. A naturalistic approach to filmmaking - especially to such a dialogue-driven narrative like this - is very hard to pull off; but writer/director/editor Andrew Haigh knows how to create sparks. Special kudos go to the excellent protagonists, Tom Cullen and Chris New, whose on-screen chemistry is palpable, moving, and simply a pleasure to watch. This is a weekend you shouldn't sleep through.