Weekender

Weekender follows a couple of young guys in Manchester in 1990. The pair of them are petty thieves but soon realise that they can make some money if they begin organising their own raves. Everything starts out well but serious problems soon complicate things.

Weekender is a likable snapshot of the early 90's when dance music as we now know it was just emerging from the underground. Many people started going along to raves and got loaded on ecstasy. While the movie follows the usual trajectory of ascent and descent, similar to films such as Human Traffic it doesn't have a 'drugs are bad' message. Instead the villains of the piece are local gangsters who turn up on the scene and start controlling things with force. Weekender does look back on those early 90's times with a certain amount of fondness and there is an effective soundtrack of house music to emphasise the sense of time. The music isn't the usual familiar array of well known dance anthems from the time; it goes for a more specific selection of tunes that ravers would have encountered back in the day.

In fairness there isn't anything overly new in Weekender. Its story doesn't really offer up any surprises at all. However, it's a good little movie about an important time in British music history.

(no pills were popped in the watching of this film)

Much like Chris Coghill's other film "Spike Island" the plot is merely an excuse to drive a nostalgia trip forwards, there's no substance to it at all. I think the main driving point is that two young men in their 20s are organising a rave as if that's some sort of unique story, I'd argue that almost all rave organisers at that time were young men in their 20s.

It's also a poorly executed and anachronistic nostalgia trip at that, the fashion and overall aesthetic is very much a mashup of different periods of the rave scene from 1988-1999 that has been appropriated for the early 2010s, which many "period" films particularly low budget ones are guilty of. The music is also all over the place but that's the same with the slightly superior "Beats" from 2019, I kind of get it as the vague setting makes it appeal to a wider audience but it also paints a false picture of the rave scene, I promise you that no one in 1990 was listening to Mentasm by Joey Beltram because it hadn't come out in 1990.

The film would have never survived on its plot alone but I feel like it would have been more valid as mindless nostalgia if it had more direction, I. E the early illegal acid house raves of 1988-1990, the big legal breakbeat hardcore raves taking over in 1991-1993, the decline in the mid-late 90s etc. Because the setting is so jumbled and inauthentic it means the film doesn't work. Chris's other work "Spike Island" is a significantly worse film but has a bigger audience because it actually sticks to one setting which in turn makes it more valuable as an excuse for a limp plotted nostalgia trip.

It scores some points because the two talented lead actors do the absolute best with the fairly shallow roles they've been given, every other character is fairly forgettable though to be honest.

Props are also due for not falling in to cliche period dialogue like so many British films set in the past do for the sake of reminding you that it's not in modern day, none of that "I rented this new VHS that came out, got home and my Amiga wasn't working, drove my 1990 Ford Escort to Dixon's to buy a new one, because it's 1990. Did I mention I hate our current prime minister Margaret Thatcher?"

Also poor effort including that VERY obviously modern stock footage shot of Amsterdam.

A short satisfying romp. Deceptively satisfying as the ending is not so. I really got to like the characters and would have hoped for a better resolve, alas the pill bashing, money grubbing, bouncer smashing film came to a very bad ending.

Fine good-looking believable cast and a great development of the relationships between characters, especially between Matt and Dylan who I enjoyed watching as a fun boyish pair. There was a lot of good music, pretty girls and heavy drugs which made for an exciting yet hardly novel adventure.

I'm not sure if I recommend this film as it's finalle isn't really a finalle atall. It's like a really well built up tune that once fully ascended drops into nothing but a whistle and rolling credits.

Charming little bit of early 90's nostalgia that deserves far more than the 3 out of 10 currently being offered up by IMDb users.

I can only assume that the people giving this film low ratings were not the people who were partying in the early 90's - if they were they'd be rating it far higher just from the nostalgia perspective.

Great soundtrack that pretty much corresponded chronologically (except for Kendo Nagasaki which was a much later track, but hey its a great track so who's complaining!!).

No where near as dark as Trainspotting and less schmaltzy than Human Traffic this is well worth a watch if you are looking for a trip down memory lane or if you fancy an glimpse of how it was.

Weekender takes place in the 90's, following the story of a couple of petty, small time crooks Dylan and Matt who find a new outlet for their fun loving schemes, hosting raves.

As their success grows boundlessly they are swiftly brought back to reality when they begin to attract a more sinister side of rave culture, that of violence and power/dominance. The movie demonstrates these discourse extremely well in my opinion. The acting by both of the protagonists I found to be quite enjoyable, with almost flawless performances. The castings' were great in this film with every actor representing and portraying their characters traits very realistically.

The Weekender may not have the most extraordinary plot in its twists and turns, but is with out a doubt a good if not great movie, with a solid stand up plot-line/narrative and cast. This movie for me was definitely a 6/7 out of 10. I urge you to see this movie because you will not be disappointed. IT'S NOT A BAD FILM!!! (p.s. I don't know how this film could have such a low rating because it is NOT a bad film and not a film that should be 3.7 on IMDb)