NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS
Written & Directed by Joe Swanberg & Greta Gerwig
Produced by Gerwig, Anish Savjani, Dia Sokol & Swanberg
Released by IFC Films
USA. 79 min. Not Rated
With Greta Gerwig, Joe Swanberg, Alison Bagnall, Elizabeth Donius, Jay Duplass, Kent Osborne, Lynn Shelton & Ellen Stagg
 

Nights and Weekend is, in every sense, a full frontal study of a young relationship: organic and completely unadorned. Stitched almost entirely from the banal minutes of everyday life, this touching project feels more like a mirror of our own existence than a peephole into someone else’s. 

Written, directed, and acted by Greta Gerwig and Joe Swanberg, the film is a welcome addition to the mumblecore movement—characterized by raw emotional ramblings from fragile 20-somethings. Gerwig, the emerging princess of mumblecore (Baghead and Hannah Takes the Stairs), plays Mattie in her classic non-acting acting style—achieved simply by seeming tipsy and fatigued. Yet somewhere between the long takes of her charming tongue-tied mutterings stifling her speech, Gerwig manages to make room for pithy dialogue.

“One of the grossest things in the world is someone eating a banana,” she points out to her boyfriend James (Swanberg). This may not seem like a nugget of wisdom, but in the context of a film dominated either by silence or small talk, these unexpected observations ring surprisingly interesting and true.

Although they’re in love, Mattie and James are in a long distance relationship between Chicago and New York, and their time apart produces an unshakable awkwardness in their affair. When they meet on the weekends, we watch them have sex, eat, get dressed, make plans, kiss, stumble over words, and reacquaint themselves. As Mattie looks at James, her childlike expressions palpably betray her love, fears, and expectations. James, on the other hand, is reticent and takes a while to catch up with Mattie in terms of dialogue and depth of character. But when he does, and the subtle, psychological snags of their relationship begin to take shape and cause them pain, the emotional impact of the film suddenly sets in.

For the most part, Nights and Weekends is a guilty pleasure for voyeurs who don’t simply want nudity and sex (although they’ll get plenty of that here) but find inexplicable delight in watching someone (anyone) brushing their teeth. It lulls us into the intimate world of this ordinary couple—so close and real you may feel like a third wheel. Yana Litovsky
October 10, 2008