The Weekend

Andrew Haigh's The Weekend is a lovely movie.  It's about a one-night stand between two men that turns into more, but is doomed because one of them is leaving the country at the end of the weekend.  It illustrates that the length of a relationship isn't correlated with its intensity.  At all.

It's similar to Before Sunrise in that aspect - another favourite of mine.  I also liked Before Sunset, but I worry that a third (possibly in the works) can't work as well.  Once people are together for a time, once they're stable, then the story isn't as interesting.  Then it needs peripheral characters to keep the action going unless someone's dying - or, god forbid, having babies.  Maybe they'll get a cat.  Another Year is a good example of a film about a comfortable stable relationship. It got good reviews, but I found it boring.  And it wouldn't be watchable without the weird friends coming and going.  

There are a few very realistic discussion in The Weekend about the annoyance and difficulty of being gay in public.  It's not as dangerous as it once was, but it's not entirely accepted either.  There's a perception that it's easier in the US, and he's going to find out.  

Both men reveal a practice of tracking relationships - one in writing, and the other on tape as an art installation.  The art aspect reminded me of another excellent film:  Me and You and Everyone We Know.  Miranda July plays an burgeoning artist who films people talking about photographs or pieces of their lives.  It's actually worth it just to see the different things she films - like her shoes talking to one another or the game she plays walking down the street.  But I like quirky.

Me and You is also about the difficulty of connecting - the push-me-pull-me of first meeting, the  resisted desires that can mess up an otherwise enjoyable life.