''Nights and Weekends'' is a 2008 American

mumblecore Mumblecore is a subgenre of independent film characterized by naturalistic acting and (sometimes improvised) dialogue, low budgets, an emphasis on dialogue over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of young adults. Filmmakers associ ...

film written, directed, co-produced by and starring

Joe Swanberg Joe Swanberg is an American independent filmmaker. Known for micro-budget films which make extensive use of improvisation, Swanberg is considered a major figure in the mumblecore film movement. His films often focus on relationships, sex, tech ...

and

Greta Gerwig Greta Celeste Gerwig ( ; born August 4, 1983) is an American actress, screenwriter, and film director. Initially known for working on various mumblecore films, she has since expanded from acting in and co-writing independent films to directing ...

. The film follows a

long-distance relationship Partners in LDRs typically use frequent telecommunications to maintain their relationship A long-distance relationship (LDR) or long-distance romantic relationship is an intimate relationship between partners who are geographically separated fro ...

and its aftermath. The film premiered at

South by Southwest South by Southwest (SXSW) is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in mid-March in Austin, Texas. It began in 1987 and has conti ...

, screened within such festivals as

Maryland Film Festival The Maryland Film Festival is an annual five-day international film festival taking place each March in Baltimore, Maryland. The festival was launched in 1999, and presents international film and video work of all lengths and genres. The festiv ...

, and was released theatrically in the United States on October 10, 2008.

Plot

The film recounts a

between two people, one of whom lives in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

, the other in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

. The first half of the film follows their relationship while the second half focuses on the dissolution and potential continuation of it, which occurs a year after the events of the first half of the film.

Cast

* Alison Bagnall as Reporter * Elizabeth Donius as James' brother's wife *

Jay Duplass Lawrence Jay Duplass Jr. (born March 7, 1973) is an American filmmaker, actor, and author widely known for his films ''The Puffy Chair'' (2005), ''Cyrus'' (2010), and '' Jeff, Who Lives at Home'' (2011), made in collaboration with his younger br ...

as James' brother *

as Mattie *

Kent Osborne Kent Matthew Osborne (born August 30, 1969) is an American animator, writer, producer, director, and actor. He has worked for such animated television shows as ''SpongeBob SquarePants'', ''Camp Lazlo'', ''Phineas and Ferb'', '' The Marvelous Mi ...

as Mattie's sister's boyfriend *

Lynn Shelton Lynn Shelton (August 27, 1965 – May 15, 2020) was an American filmmaker, known for writing, directing, and producing such films as '' Humpday'' and '' Your Sister's Sister''. She was associated with the mumblecore genre. Early life Shelton was ...

as Mattie's sister * Ellen Stagg as Photographer *

as James * Jesse Cilio as the Neighbor

Production

The second half of the film was shot a year after the first half, mirroring the timeline of the story.

described filming the nude love scenes as "kind of an awful experience".

Release

Critical reception

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 85% based on 20 reviews, with an average rating of 6.8/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which assigns a

weighted average The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating to reviews, the film has a weighted average score of 59 out of 100, based on 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

Accolades

''Nights and Weekends'' producer

Dia Sokol Savage Dia Sokol Savage is an American film and television producer, director and writer. She is best known as the executive producer of MTV's hit series '' 16 & Pregnant'' and ''Teen Mom'' franchise and as a producer on Andrew Bujalski's films '' Mutual ...

was nominated for the Piaget Producers Award at the

25th Independent Spirit Awards The 25th Independent Spirit Awards, honoring the best independent films of 2009, were presented on March 5, 2010. The nominations were announced on December 1, 2009. The ceremony was hosted by Eddie Izzard. Winners and nominees Films wit ...

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nights and Weekends American independent films 2008 films 2008 independent films Films directed by Joe Swanberg Films directed by Greta Gerwig Films with screenplays by Greta Gerwig Mumblecore films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films English-language independent films