Weekender

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.

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.

STAR RATING: ***** Saturday Night **** Friday Night *** Friday Morning ** Sunday Night * Monday Morning

Manchester, 1990. Dylan (Jack O' Connoll) and Matt (Henry Lloyd Hughes) are two scallywags who get by nicking fruit machines from pubs, until they spot a marketing opportunity in the shape of the emerging acid house/rave culture that is springing up in towns and cities across the UK, with hordes of disenfranchised, disaffected young folk breaking into abandoned warehouses to get off their faces and dance the night away, only for the authorities to clamp down on them. Dylan and Matt propose the biggest rave yet, and enlist the help of a top DJ to help see them over. However, it's not long before drugs arrive on the scene and the criminal element involved plunge the lads into a new and dangerous world that threatens to destroy everything they've worked to build.

Ever since it arrived over from Ibiza in the late 80s, rave culture has played it's inimitable part in the music, fashion and style of a certain generation of young people, and what it went to lead on to was arguably it's greatest achievement. Weekender attempts to be a story based around this phenomenon and is squarely aimed at the audience the film is depicting. At the beginning it starts out as sort of style over substance, opening with the start of what promises to be a funky, lively soundtrack featuring just the sort of tunes that made that period in musical history so memorable.

The soundtrack remains the best asset of the film, but it's worth sticking with the story, because although it retains it's sense of being frenetic and sort of jumbled and incoherent, it does develop into a more engaging portrayal of two lads living in a very recent time, caught up in an emerging world with unexpected dangers cropping up in it. The manner of the film is in line with it's style, with it's sped up shots and blurry camera moments giving it it's added authenticity.

Performances wise, O' Connoll is convincing in another notch to his resume, while Hughes, best known as the bully in The Inbetweeners, is pretty decent support. Emily Barclay and Zawe Ashton are the chicks on display, and they make their mark on the film.

The problem with Karl Golden's film is it sometimes (most disasterously at the beginning) gets lost in it's own style and doesn't have an engaging story to follow. But it still comes off as a fairly decent thriller, inspiringly set against the back drop a lot of people young back then can remember. ***

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.

I don't think they nailed the drug scene accurately, but its a cool film none the less.

I liked the music and sound track.

I liked the venues and different locations.

The plot was easy to follow and I didn't get bored at all.

Difficult to compete with the original Human Traffic movie but I collect clubbing movies so I can happily add this one to my movies shelf ;-)

I don't really have much more to say about it. i have no idea why I must write 10 lines of review.