SXSW 08 Film Reviews

Nights and Weekends

So close to the way things are in real life it's barely a movie, Swanberg and Gerwig's Nights and Weekends is the revealing story of two people during two discrete periods separated by the span of a year, first as long-distance lovers and then as long-distance ex-lovers. The narrative, in Swanberg fashion, is entirely improvised, and the co-directors' respective characters come off as extremely volatile and in-the-moment. Several of the dialogue exchanges, overflowing with fumbles and hems and haws, surpass the penetration-inclusive love scenes in viewer awkwardness – erect nipples, cock, and all. But it's these scenes dissecting the irrational nature of human emotion that make this romantic drama worth watching among the hordes of rom-coms rehashing the same breakup scene time and time again. There is no breakup scene in Nights and Weekends, just ample nudity and graphic sex.