remains romantic at heart.
One of the more intriguing entries is Joe Swanberg’s NIGHTS AND WEEKENDS which requires no shaping narrative to step inside the lives of a young couple facing a long distance relationship. Basically, the film presents a series of random snapshots of recognizable relationship moments: insatiable passion, half-hearted compromise, bickering, disappointment, excitementthe whole darn grab bag.
NATURAL CAUSES, MEDICINE FOR MELANCHOLY and THE LOST COAST all give their own spin to the genre: the first plays it for comedy; the second weaves in questions of race, class and urban gentrification; and the last delves into problems of friendship and sexual identity. All in all, the extremes of the titles, from the clinically quotidian NATURAL CAUSES to the elegiac THE LOST COAST, point to a generation firmly caught between the