Tired of reading Josh’s dispatches from South by Southwest, wishing you could be seeing these movies instead of being stuck with 10,000 B.C.? Well, that’s about to change! No, Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay isn’t coming out early—though that would totally rule. A film that debuted at SXSW, Nights and Weekends, has been picked up for distribution by IFC Films, which means it will soon be playing at an arthouse near you.
The film is by Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig, who wrote, directed and star in it together. They’re part of the much-hyped “mumblecore” movement, which is basically what Garden State would have been with a tiny budget and more talented actors. Swanberg and Gerwig’s film Hannah Takes the Stairs also debuted at SXSW last year, and was also picked up by IFC. It was praised by some twenty-somethings as perfectly capturing their lives, and was derided by other twenty-somethings for pretty much the same reason.
I’ve never been to SXSW, but Nights and Weekends seems like exactly the kind of small movie you would find there, aimed at youth culture and not trying to be a giant blockbuster. So, loyal readers, are any of you in Austin, and have any of you seen this movie? We count on you to give us the scoop ahead of time, so spill the beans! Is Nights and Weekends, about a long-distance couple, going to change our lives, or is it going to be another part of this hyped-up “mumblecore” business that doesn’t seem to actually exist outside of the one IFC theater in Manhattan. Short question: Should I care?
