Nights and Weekends – DVD Review

The Film:

The latest film to come out of the sub-genre of independent films dubbed “mumblecore” is Nights and Weekends, a collaborative effort between “mumblecore” darling Greta Gerwig and director Joe Swanberg. The two worked together in 2007′s Hannah Takes the Stairs, and now they share the tasks of writer, director, and actor in this portrait of a long distance relationship.

The genre is defined by 20-something urban hipsters – art school grads who, well, mumble their way through relationships. Consider Bergman’s Scenes from a Marriage, and add a few “likes” in the script here and there. In theory, it’s not a horrible idea – but, the genre’s limitations have been thoroughly explored by consistently dull works too ambitious for their own Converse kicks.

James (Joe Swanberg), a video game designer based out of Chicago, and Mattie (Greta Gerwig), a nursing school student from New York, attempt to keep their relationship afloat despite living many hours apart. They certainly make the most out of every moment together – it’s not long after the opening credits that we catch a glimpse of an aroused James strip and make love to Mattie on the floor. Their dates include an amalgam of activities constructed to make the film as quirky as can be – attending photoshoots, buying plastic elephants, prancing around Chicago’s bean in the rain.

The film, documenting over a year in a relationship, paints a portrait of both the things that keep couples together and the things that pull them apart. The problem, however, is that James and Mattie only seem to care about sexual attraction. Neither of them have anything interesting to say, and their conversations are the sort that you have with your friends once you’ve exhausted literally every other talking point.

Now, I don’t have any gripes with naturalism – in fact, I very much admire it. To use a contemporary example, consider “Rachel Getting Married”. That film had similar “raw” moments to heighten it’s realism, but director Jonathan Demme and writer Jenny Lumet were able to draw a distinct line between artful monotony and purely tiresome drivel. Do we really need to see Greta Gerwig wipe herself while on the toilet?

When the “mumblecore” genre drops it’s gag-inducing self-aware quirks and finds something interesting to say, it could be an exciting movement. These are obviously not dumb kids, and some of them are, in fact, quite talented – Gerwig, for instance, is an enormously charming screen presence. But I simply don’t buy that a film like Nights and Weekends is revealing of the small gestures that make or break a relationship – James and Mattie are constructed so one-note and lifeless that it’s impossible to assume that they feel anything at all. There’s talent on display in the film, but these filmmakers continue to tread water with a sub-sub-genre that, despite their best efforts, has yet to light the world on fire.

The DVD:

Audio/Video: The picture looks fine given the film’s budgetary limitations. There’s a healthy coat of grain throughout, and only in some of the darker scenes does the image begin to look bad. The audio track, like the video, is about what you’d expect from the resources the filmmakers had available.

Audio Commentary: The audio commentary is provided by producers Dia Sokol and Anish Savjani. The track is very dry, pausing for great lengths of time only fifteen minutes into the film. It would have been nice to hear Swanberg and Gerwig discuss their improvisation, but the track instead focuses on the mechanical production concerns.

Joe Swanberg Teasers: This five minute feature is comprised of three short scenes of Swanberg and Gerwig, in character, having conversations about their relationship. It almost serves as a series of deleted scenes – but I can’t say that I was craving more whispered pseudo-intellectual mumblings.

Test Short: Again, after eighty minutes of similar material, another five minutes of this couple arguing is the last thing I needed. The feature runs about six minutes, and takes place entirely in bed.

Trailer: The trailer is almost identical to one of the “teasers” on the disc. There’s nothing more to say – it’s baffling that both would be included to pose as separate special features.

Conclusion: Nights and Weekends is a competent addition to this indie movement, but the problem is that the filmmakers have continued to castrate themselves from anything of actual interest. The film feels ambitious, in a way, and perhaps as a treatment it would look highly appealing – but, take that same treatment and have it adapted by an eighth grade girl and you have the mumblecore genre in a nutshell. This isn’t Woody Allen, it’s a MySpace blog entry.

The Film: Rating:
The DVD: Rating: