Weekend

Saw Weekend, a modern gay romance. It uses the lo-fi aesthetic of mumblecore films and adopts the associated realism which eschews pat resolutions. It follows Russel, a gay dude whose friends playfully bully him and later drunkenly ignore him. He skulks home in a long-shot, washed in street noise and alienation. He meets Glen and picks him up but what is a one-night stand turns into an intense, but weekend-long relationship. Glen confronts Russel with his own shyness and relative closeted-ness. He challenges him to speak up and make a fuss. Well and good, but this is yet more amiable dickishness. Later on in the film, Glen reveals that he has his own walls and elaborate justifications of his own.

The film is really sweet. I liked it, anyway. The romance of the two is at first kind of tawdry and confrontational but becomes increasingly adorable. The film atypically does not contain beatings or AIDS. There is no seemingly mandatory scene which establishes gay life as being super hard. The leads never say the word "love" to each other. There's so much that's so refreshingly right! It's fairly political in bits, which will probably date it later on down the road (gay marriage and a thematic shot of surveillance equipment (this is set in the UK) will probably not be so hot-button in ten years.) but there are other philosophical arguments which will endure. The film is also not super-progressive. There are no lesbians, no transgendered folk, this film is only about the relationship between two men (which, alas, is inherently socio-political when put on screen.)

The characters are well-drawn and nuanced. They are largely sweet but also flawed and, during one long, long late-night discussion, even kind of ugly. Their peripheral friends are less well drawn of course. They both keep diaries however of their sexual encounters which serve as little poetic sketches of unused characters. Glen's diary seems sort of leering and gross, while Russel's seems queasy and sad. Note the cleverness of the film then, that gives Glen's diary a more well-thought-out explanation. The film is understated and well-observed. The only time I felt things were going awry was when they discuss politics and I felt the writer's hand pressing heavy. That aside, I felt they were real, genuine people.

This is a difficult film to review for me. It hits very close to home for me and, blinded by proximity, I don't think I can be objective about it the way I can be about, say, Submarine. Gay films are usually either too twee or too dour for me to really identify with, never mind enjoy. This film, for me anyway, hits exactly the right pitch and is excellent.