Another year, another Criterion Month, already a fading memory, soft and delicate, like a confessional whispered into a tape recorder. Much like Glen records his subjects speaking of love and intimacy in Andrew Haigh’s subdued romantic drama Weekend. Yet again, I’m saying farewell to Criterion Month with an Andrew Haigh film, despite my ongoing struggle to articulate what it is he does best: people talking.
Despite the timeline (spoiler: it’s a weekend) and occasional change in setting, Weekend, much like, All of Us Strangers, feels akin to watching a play, a character study of two men engaging with each other and unpacking their hopes, desires, and fears as gay men in contemporary culture.
Russell (Tom Cullen) is a thoughtful, if emotionally guarded, young man who works as a lifeguard at a community pool and keeps a private diary of his sexual encounters on his laptop. He’s never come out to his family and prefers to keep his personal life quiet and contained.
Glen (Chris New), by contrast, is bold, brash, and unafraid to challenge others. He’s an artist with plans to attend a two-year program in Oregon (the film was set and shot in Nottingham, btw) and uses his work to interrogate how queerness is represented and perceived. But like Russell, Glen carries emotional baggage. Burned by a past relationship, he’s cynical about romance and uses his art as emotional armor.
The two hook up at a club on a Friday night, and we follow as Russell and Glen spend the weekend talking, having sex, going to the carnival, and gradually peeling back their own layers of self-doubt and desire. Because much like Shrek, a good movie has layers.
“Can two people fall in love so fast?” the film asks. And it’s not all sunshine and roses for Russell and Glen. At one point, Glen discovers that Russell once hooked up with his ex, leading to a tense standoff between the two. Why get so upset over a weekend fling? Unless, of course, what they’ve found isn’t a fling at all.
There’s a level of authenticity in Weekend that you don’t often get in indie dramas of this kind. Though the film was scripted, Cullen claims much of the dialogue between him and Chris New was improvised, which adds to the realism. The film never feels like it’s trying to force pretentious ideas about relationships into conversation. It’s what the characters don’t say that’s most revealing.
Films like Weekend are the kinds of films I like to watch and hate to write about. Unless you’re going to unpack every conversation and every nuance, it’s hard to feel like you’re doing the film justice. Just watch it, let it sink in, and let’s sink together when we do this all again next Criterion Month.
Cheers.