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    <title>Nights and Weekends's Recent Activity - Spout</title>
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      <title>Nights and Weekends's Recent Activity - Spout</title>
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      <title>Film:Nights and Weekends</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/films/Nights_and_Weekends/365071/default.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<table width='100%' style='font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><tr><td><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s365071.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' /></td>
<td>
<strong>Title:</strong> Nights and Weekends<br/>
<strong>Year:</strong> 2008<br/>
<strong>Director:</strong> Greta Gerwig<br/>
<strong>Plot:</strong> Two people who fall in love while separated by 800 miles find it's hard to stay friends while living in the same city in this low-key independent drama. James (Joe Swanberg) and Mattie (<a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P___487290/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Greta Gerwig</a>) are in love and trying to make their relationship work. But James lives and works in Chicago, while Mattie calls New York home, and though they try to visit one another as often as they can, their infrequent weekends together are punctuated by telephone calls, e-mails, on-line chatting, and sending digital pictures back and forth. As much as Mattie cares for James, in time the space between them is too much to deal with and they break up. Twelve months later, James' career as a video-game designer is taking off, and a new project necessitates a move to New York City; while they're no longer lovers, he tries to reconnect with Mattie, though his recent success has added a new and uncomfortable element to their relationship. Joe Swanberg and <a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P___487290/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'>Greta Gerwig</a> wrote, directed, and produced Nights and Weekends as well as playing the two leads; the film received its world premiere at the 2008 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide<br/>
<strong>Times Tagged:</strong> 11<br/>
<strong>Number of Lists:</strong> 1<br/>
<strong>Number of blog posts:</strong> 3<br/>
<strong>Number of discussion threads:</strong> 1<br/>
<strong>SpoutRating:</strong> 4<br/>
</td></tr></table>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:01:04 GMT</pubDate><spout:Title>Nights and Weekends</spout:Title><spout:Year>2008</spout:Year><spout:Director>Greta Gerwig</spout:Director><spout:Plot>Two people who fall in love while separated by 800 miles find it's hard to stay friends while living in the same city in this low-key independent drama. James (Joe Swanberg) and Mattie (&lt;a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P___487290/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Greta Gerwig&lt;/a&gt;) are in love and trying to make their relationship work. But James lives and works in Chicago, while Mattie calls New York home, and though they try to visit one another as often as they can, their infrequent weekends together are punctuated by telephone calls, e-mails, on-line chatting, and sending digital pictures back and forth. As much as Mattie cares for James, in time the space between them is too much to deal with and they break up. Twelve months later, James' career as a video-game designer is taking off, and a new project necessitates a move to New York City; while they're no longer lovers, he tries to reconnect with Mattie, though his recent success has added a new and uncomfortable element to their relationship. Joe Swanberg and &lt;a href="http://www.spout.com/players/P___487290/default.aspx" style='text-decoration:underline'&gt;Greta Gerwig&lt;/a&gt; wrote, directed, and produced Nights and Weekends as well as playing the two leads; the film received its world premiere at the 2008 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide</spout:Plot><spout:TimesTagged>11</spout:TimesTagged><spout:taglevel>Tag Target (&gt;10)</spout:taglevel><spout:Numberoflists>1</spout:Numberoflists><spout:NumberOfBlogPosts>3</spout:NumberOfBlogPosts><spout:NumberOfDiscussionThreads>1</spout:NumberOfDiscussionThreads><spout:SpoutRating>4</spout:SpoutRating><spout:FilmCoverURL>http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s365071.jpg</spout:FilmCoverURL><spout:SpoutFilmDetailURL>http://www.spout.com/films/Nights_and_Weekends/365071/default.aspx</spout:SpoutFilmDetailURL><spout:type>Film</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: The Stagg Party. Clip of the Day</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/10/17/36467.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s365071.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/9325/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog on spout.com</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 10/17/2008 5:01:04 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> 
Joe Swanberg has a new web series called The Stagg Party, which premiered this past Monday on IFC.com. It’s a documentary series about commercial photographer Ellen Stagg, who also appears briefly in Swanberg’s latest feature, Nights and Weekends. The show is very much NSFW, as it focuses on Stagg’s erotic photography work and features a lot of nudity. Therefore, it’s taken a few days for me to get a clip suitable for sharing here. Fortunately the upcoming third episode, from which the clip is taken, concentrates more on Stagg’s family than on her photo shoots. Here she chats with her brother, Jared, about how they first met.
The series in general, and this clip in particular, is especially interesting to me, because I’ve known the Staggs for almost 15 years, and it’s kind of funny to see some family photos here that I’ve definitely seen before. It’s terrific that Ellen has become the subject of a series by Swanberg, whose previous web series Butterknife was presented by Spout.com. While I’ve been familiar with Ellen’s erotica photography for a long time, I’m actually learning a lot about the origins and the process of the work through this candid and humorously intimate series.
For the first two episodes, which I must remind you are NOT SAFE FOR WORK, check out the Stagg Party page at IFC, and stay tuned for Episode 3, which debuts on Monday. Also, be sure and visit Ellen Stagg’s sexy photo blog, Stagg Street — again, when you’re NOT AT WORK. Unless you work with Sasha Grey. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 17 Oct 2008 21:01:04 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>SpoutBlog</spout:postby><spout:postto>SpoutBlog on spout.com</spout:postto><spout:postdate>10/17/2008 5:01:04 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>
Joe Swanberg has a new web series called The Stagg Party, which premiered this past Monday on IFC.com. It’s a documentary series about commercial photographer Ellen Stagg, who also appears briefly in Swanberg’s latest feature, Nights and Weekends. The show is very much NSFW, as it focuses on Stagg’s erotic photography work and features a lot of nudity. Therefore, it’s taken a few days for me to get a clip suitable for sharing here. Fortunately the upcoming third episode, from which the clip is taken, concentrates more on Stagg’s family than on her photo shoots. Here she chats with her brother, Jared, about how they first met.
The series in general, and this clip in particular, is especially interesting to me, because I’ve known the Staggs for almost 15 years, and it’s kind of funny to see some family photos here that I’ve definitely seen before. It’s terrific that Ellen has become the subject of a series by Swanberg, whose previous web series Butterknife was presented by Spout.com. While I’ve been familiar with Ellen’s erotica photography for a long time, I’m actually learning a lot about the origins and the process of the work through this candid and humorously intimate series.
For the first two episodes, which I must remind you are NOT SAFE FOR WORK, check out the Stagg Party page at IFC, and stay tuned for Episode 3, which debuts on Monday. Also, be sure and visit Ellen Stagg’s sexy photo blog, Stagg Street — again, when you’re NOT AT WORK. Unless you work with Sasha Grey. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: YEAST and NIGHTS &amp; WEEKENDS: Greta Gerwig x 2</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/karina/archive/2008/10/10/36142.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s365071.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/19702/default.aspx'>Karina</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/karina/default.aspx'>Karina on SpoutBlog</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 10/10/2008 1:01:10 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> With Mary Bronstein’s Yeast debuting on DailyMotion tonight, and Joe Swanberg’s Nights and Weekends opening this weekend at the IFC Center, the two SXSW 2008 premieres starring Greta Gerwig will suddenly become available to a non-festival audience simultaneously. When I heard this was going to happen, I dug up some of the press Gerwig has garnered over the past year, most of it pegged to her appearance in the Duplass brothers’ Baghead. I quickly noticed a trend: Gerwig has been covered exhaustively by male writers who a) have a tendency to label her an “ingenue” or an “‘it’ girl“, and b) devote much column space to the question of whether or not Gerwig’s main talent is playing herself.
Certainly, the great success of Hannah Takes the Stairs, the highly improvised project on which the pixie-cute actress collaborated with Swanberg and friends, is that it parts of it seem so lacking in cinematic artifice, they can play as glimpses into lives in progress. But if Hannah seems real enough to reach through the screen and touch, Gerwig’s title character is too exasperating to make that a particularly attractive proposition (or maybe not: almost like a classic femme fatale, it’s hard to deny her appeal even as she’s leaving you for your best friend). So when in Baghead, she plays a pixie-cute actress collaborating with friends on a highly improvised project––who drinks too much, takes little convincing to remove her top, and ultimately ends up with the funny, schlubby nerd––it seems too coincidental to be fiction, and apparently too cute to resist.
Gerwig hasn’t resisted the suggestion that the roles she plays grow out of who she is, but Nights and Yeast add two disparate but fully realized characters to her repertoire. Yeast is, for some, an endurance exercise; for me, it’s a comedy, and on the contrary, it’s the comparatively gentle but fundamentally flawed Nights and Weekends (on which Gerwig is billed as co-writer/director alongside Swanberg, and co-producer alongside Swanberg, Anish Savjani and Dia Sokol) which tries patience. If the latter shows Gerwig pushing a character way beyond adorable, it often feels like an exhausting exercise for all involved. It’s her work as Yeast’s only semi-relatable comic relief that throws up a middle finger at the ingenue concept, literally.

I’ve written a great deal about Yeast and don’t want to rehash too much of my previous ramblings here. But watching the film this week for the first time in months, it was impossible to ignore the lack of vanity amongst all three actresses. In a film with concerns about as far as you can get from the bedroom-bound romantic roundelays associated with the M-word, Gerwig’s crunchy Gen is sweaty and zitty and nothing at all like the DIY sweetheart at the center of so many Arts & Culture profiles. Both a catalyst for the film’s girl-on-girl violence and the only character in the film who seems to be a stone’s throw away from the ability to be civil, Gen’s vacant smile is both compelling and really unsettling. Punctuating sentences with a Butthead-like “heh”, Gen’s grin never fully matches up with her ping-ponging eyes.
Those who want to stick to their perception of Gerwig as the quirky, if frequently topless, object of desire would best be advised to stick to Nights and Weekends. Or would they? Though both Swanberg and Gerwig cross nudity off the checklist in the first scene, Gerwig spends much of the first third of this naturalistic long-distance relationship drama cast in the role of insecure shrew. Her Mattie, a New York-based nursing student who visits boyfriend James (Swanberg) in the depths of a Chicago winter, waste precious nestling time needling, a bad, nervous habit which hits its zenith with the shriek, “I don’t respond to sarcastic fun!” Mattie’s obsession with controlling every moment feels unnatural, and Gerwig’s plays it with unexpected affectations, her voice snapping quickly from deep mumble to high-pitched sing-song of doom.
I’ve seen the film twice now, and both times I’ve struggled to find a way in until almost half-way through. I now think it’s because Gerwig doesn’t ever seem to play to her expected strengths until about thirty minutes in. By this time, the action has jumped to New York, and Mattie is dead scared, apparently both of losing James and of being bonded to him for life by a baby. In the midst of a conversation between James and Mattie about the sincerity of “I love yous”, the camera settles on a reaction shot of Gerwig, her pupils drifting off into the corners of her eyes. At this point, the actress seems to suddenly yank the reigns of a film that just a moment earlier felt as if it was to floating without direction, and demands that we pay attention. We come to realise that the first section of the film feeds into an incredibly delayed punchline: the pattern of conflict that Gerwig and Swanberg set up at the start and then leave behind eventually pays off, but it doesn’t really happen until Night’s final ten minutes. I’m not sure if the wait is ever made all the way worth it, but it’s ameliorated by Gerwig’s performance in the film’s final scenes, in which Mattie temporarily gives up control, and then, suddenly and rather spectacularly, reclaims it. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:01:10 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>Karina</spout:postby><spout:postto>Karina on SpoutBlog</spout:postto><spout:postdate>10/10/2008 1:01:10 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>With Mary Bronstein’s Yeast debuting on DailyMotion tonight, and Joe Swanberg’s Nights and Weekends opening this weekend at the IFC Center, the two SXSW 2008 premieres starring Greta Gerwig will suddenly become available to a non-festival audience simultaneously. When I heard this was going to happen, I dug up some of the press Gerwig has garnered over the past year, most of it pegged to her appearance in the Duplass brothers’ Baghead. I quickly noticed a trend: Gerwig has been covered exhaustively by male writers who a) have a tendency to label her an “ingenue” or an “‘it’ girl“, and b) devote much column space to the question of whether or not Gerwig’s main talent is playing herself.
Certainly, the great success of Hannah Takes the Stairs, the highly improvised project on which the pixie-cute actress collaborated with Swanberg and friends, is that it parts of it seem so lacking in cinematic artifice, they can play as glimpses into lives in progress. But if Hannah seems real enough to reach through the screen and touch, Gerwig’s title character is too exasperating to make that a particularly attractive proposition (or maybe not: almost like a classic femme fatale, it’s hard to deny her appeal even as she’s leaving you for your best friend). So when in Baghead, she plays a pixie-cute actress collaborating with friends on a highly improvised project––who drinks too much, takes little convincing to remove her top, and ultimately ends up with the funny, schlubby nerd––it seems too coincidental to be fiction, and apparently too cute to resist.
Gerwig hasn’t resisted the suggestion that the roles she plays grow out of who she is, but Nights and Yeast add two disparate but fully realized characters to her repertoire. Yeast is, for some, an endurance exercise; for me, it’s a comedy, and on the contrary, it’s the comparatively gentle but fundamentally flawed Nights and Weekends (on which Gerwig is billed as co-writer/director alongside Swanberg, and co-producer alongside Swanberg, Anish Savjani and Dia Sokol) which tries patience. If the latter shows Gerwig pushing a character way beyond adorable, it often feels like an exhausting exercise for all involved. It’s her work as Yeast’s only semi-relatable comic relief that throws up a middle finger at the ingenue concept, literally.

I’ve written a great deal about Yeast and don’t want to rehash too much of my previous ramblings here. But watching the film this week for the first time in months, it was impossible to ignore the lack of vanity amongst all three actresses. In a film with concerns about as far as you can get from the bedroom-bound romantic roundelays associated with the M-word, Gerwig’s crunchy Gen is sweaty and zitty and nothing at all like the DIY sweetheart at the center of so many Arts &amp; Culture profiles. Both a catalyst for the film’s girl-on-girl violence and the only character in the film who seems to be a stone’s throw away from the ability to be civil, Gen’s vacant smile is both compelling and really unsettling. Punctuating sentences with a Butthead-like “heh”, Gen’s grin never fully matches up with her ping-ponging eyes.
Those who want to stick to their perception of Gerwig as the quirky, if frequently topless, object of desire would best be advised to stick to Nights and Weekends. Or would they? Though both Swanberg and Gerwig cross nudity off the checklist in the first scene, Gerwig spends much of the first third of this naturalistic long-distance relationship drama cast in the role of insecure shrew. Her Mattie, a New York-based nursing student who visits boyfriend James (Swanberg) in the depths of a Chicago winter, waste precious nestling time needling, a bad, nervous habit which hits its zenith with the shriek, “I don’t respond to sarcastic fun!” Mattie’s obsession with controlling every moment feels unnatural, and Gerwig’s plays it with unexpected affectations, her voice snapping quickly from deep mumble to high-pitched sing-song of doom.
I’ve seen the film twice now, and both times I’ve struggled to find a way in until almost half-way through. I now think it’s because Gerwig doesn’t ever seem to play to her expected strengths until about thirty minutes in. By this time, the action has jumped to New York, and Mattie is dead scared, apparently both of losing James and of being bonded to him for life by a baby. In the midst of a conversation between James and Mattie about the sincerity of “I love yous”, the camera settles on a reaction shot of Gerwig, her pupils drifting off into the corners of her eyes. At this point, the actress seems to suddenly yank the reigns of a film that just a moment earlier felt as if it was to floating without direction, and demands that we pay attention. We come to realise that the first section of the film feeds into an incredibly delayed punchline: the pattern of conflict that Gerwig and Swanberg set up at the start and then leave behind eventually pays off, but it doesn’t really happen until Night’s final ten minutes. I’m not sure if the wait is ever made all the way worth it, but it’s ameliorated by Gerwig’s performance in the film’s final scenes, in which Mattie temporarily gives up control, and then, suddenly and rather spectacularly, reclaims it. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog » Karina Longworth</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: YEAST and NIGHTS &amp; WEEKENDS: Greta Gerwig x 2</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/archive/2008/10/10/36140.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s365071.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/9325/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/blogs/spoutblog/default.aspx'>SpoutBlog on spout.com</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 10/10/2008 1:00:59 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> With Mary Bronstein’s Yeast debuting on DailyMotion tonight, and Joe Swanberg’s Nights and Weekends opening this weekend at the IFC Center, the two SXSW 2008 premieres starring Greta Gerwig will suddenly become available to a non-festival audience simultaneously. When I heard this was going to happen, I dug up some of the press Gerwig has garnered over the past year, most of it pegged to her appearance in the Duplass brothers’ Baghead. I quickly noticed a trend: Gerwig has been covered exhaustively by male writers who a) have a tendency to label her an “ingenue” or an “‘it’ girl“, and b) devote much column space to the question of whether or not Gerwig’s main talent is playing herself.
Certainly, the great success of Hannah Takes the Stairs, the highly improvised project on which the pixie-cute actress collaborated with Swanberg and friends, is that it parts of it seem so lacking in cinematic artifice, they can play as glimpses into lives in progress. But if Hannah seems real enough to reach through the screen and touch, Gerwig’s title character is too exasperating to make that a particularly attractive proposition (or maybe not: almost like a classic femme fatale, it’s hard to deny her appeal even as she’s leaving you for your best friend). So when in Baghead, she plays a pixie-cute actress collaborating with friends on a highly improvised project––who drinks too much, takes little convincing to remove her top, and ultimately ends up with the funny, schlubby nerd––it seems too coincidental to be fiction, and apparently too cute to resist.
Gerwig hasn’t resisted the suggestion that the roles she plays grow out of who she is, but Nights and Yeast add two disparate but fully realized characters to her repertoire. Yeast is, for some, an endurance exercise; for me, it’s a comedy, and on the contrary, it’s the comparatively gentle but fundamentally flawed Nights and Weekends (on which Gerwig is billed as co-writer/director alongside Swanberg, and co-producer alongside Swanberg, Anish Savjani and Dia Sokol) which tries patience. If the latter shows Gerwig pushing a character way beyond adorable, it often feels like an exhausting exercise for all involved. It’s her work as Yeast’s only semi-relatable comic relief that throws up a middle finger at the ingenue concept, literally.

I’ve written a great deal about Yeast and don’t want to rehash too much of my previous ramblings here. But watching the film this week for the first time in months, it was impossible to ignore the lack of vanity amongst all three actresses. In a film with concerns about as far as you can get from the bedroom-bound romantic roundelays associated with the M-word, Gerwig’s crunchy Gen is sweaty and zitty and nothing at all like the DIY sweetheart at the center of so many Arts & Culture profiles. Both a catalyst for the film’s girl-on-girl violence and the only character in the film who seems to be a stone’s throw away from the ability to be civil, Gen’s vacant smile is both compelling and really unsettling. Punctuating sentences with a Butthead-like “heh”, Gen’s grin never fully matches up with her ping-ponging eyes.
Those who want to stick to their perception of Gerwig as the quirky, if frequently topless, object of desire would best be advised to stick to Nights and Weekends. Or would they? Though both Swanberg and Gerwig cross nudity off the checklist in the first scene, Gerwig spends much of the first third of this naturalistic long-distance relationship drama cast in the role of insecure shrew. Her Mattie, a New York-based nursing student who visits boyfriend James (Swanberg) in the depths of a Chicago winter, waste precious nestling time needling, a bad, nervous habit which hits its zenith with the shriek, “I don’t respond to sarcastic fun!” Mattie’s obsession with controlling every moment feels unnatural, and Gerwig’s plays it with unexpected affectations, her voice snapping quickly from deep mumble to high-pitched sing-song of doom.
I’ve seen the film twice now, and both times I’ve struggled to find a way in until almost half-way through. I now think it’s because Gerwig doesn’t ever seem to play to her expected strengths until about thirty minutes in. By this time, the action has jumped to New York, and Mattie is dead scared, apparently both of losing James and of being bonded to him for life by a baby. In the midst of a conversation between James and Mattie about the sincerity of “I love yous”, the camera settles on a reaction shot of Gerwig, her pupils drifting off into the corners of her eyes. At this point, the actress seems to suddenly yank the reigns of a film that just a moment earlier felt as if it was to floating without direction, and demands that we pay attention. We come to realise that the first section of the film feeds into an incredibly delayed punchline: the pattern of conflict that Gerwig and Swanberg set up at the start and then leave behind eventually pays off, but it doesn’t really happen until Night’s final ten minutes. I’m not sure if the wait is ever made all the way worth it, but it’s ameliorated by Gerwig’s performance in the film’s final scenes, in which Mattie temporarily gives up control, and then, suddenly and rather spectacularly, reclaims it. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 10 Oct 2008 17:00:59 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>SpoutBlog</spout:postby><spout:postto>SpoutBlog on spout.com</spout:postto><spout:postdate>10/10/2008 1:00:59 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>With Mary Bronstein’s Yeast debuting on DailyMotion tonight, and Joe Swanberg’s Nights and Weekends opening this weekend at the IFC Center, the two SXSW 2008 premieres starring Greta Gerwig will suddenly become available to a non-festival audience simultaneously. When I heard this was going to happen, I dug up some of the press Gerwig has garnered over the past year, most of it pegged to her appearance in the Duplass brothers’ Baghead. I quickly noticed a trend: Gerwig has been covered exhaustively by male writers who a) have a tendency to label her an “ingenue” or an “‘it’ girl“, and b) devote much column space to the question of whether or not Gerwig’s main talent is playing herself.
Certainly, the great success of Hannah Takes the Stairs, the highly improvised project on which the pixie-cute actress collaborated with Swanberg and friends, is that it parts of it seem so lacking in cinematic artifice, they can play as glimpses into lives in progress. But if Hannah seems real enough to reach through the screen and touch, Gerwig’s title character is too exasperating to make that a particularly attractive proposition (or maybe not: almost like a classic femme fatale, it’s hard to deny her appeal even as she’s leaving you for your best friend). So when in Baghead, she plays a pixie-cute actress collaborating with friends on a highly improvised project––who drinks too much, takes little convincing to remove her top, and ultimately ends up with the funny, schlubby nerd––it seems too coincidental to be fiction, and apparently too cute to resist.
Gerwig hasn’t resisted the suggestion that the roles she plays grow out of who she is, but Nights and Yeast add two disparate but fully realized characters to her repertoire. Yeast is, for some, an endurance exercise; for me, it’s a comedy, and on the contrary, it’s the comparatively gentle but fundamentally flawed Nights and Weekends (on which Gerwig is billed as co-writer/director alongside Swanberg, and co-producer alongside Swanberg, Anish Savjani and Dia Sokol) which tries patience. If the latter shows Gerwig pushing a character way beyond adorable, it often feels like an exhausting exercise for all involved. It’s her work as Yeast’s only semi-relatable comic relief that throws up a middle finger at the ingenue concept, literally.

I’ve written a great deal about Yeast and don’t want to rehash too much of my previous ramblings here. But watching the film this week for the first time in months, it was impossible to ignore the lack of vanity amongst all three actresses. In a film with concerns about as far as you can get from the bedroom-bound romantic roundelays associated with the M-word, Gerwig’s crunchy Gen is sweaty and zitty and nothing at all like the DIY sweetheart at the center of so many Arts &amp; Culture profiles. Both a catalyst for the film’s girl-on-girl violence and the only character in the film who seems to be a stone’s throw away from the ability to be civil, Gen’s vacant smile is both compelling and really unsettling. Punctuating sentences with a Butthead-like “heh”, Gen’s grin never fully matches up with her ping-ponging eyes.
Those who want to stick to their perception of Gerwig as the quirky, if frequently topless, object of desire would best be advised to stick to Nights and Weekends. Or would they? Though both Swanberg and Gerwig cross nudity off the checklist in the first scene, Gerwig spends much of the first third of this naturalistic long-distance relationship drama cast in the role of insecure shrew. Her Mattie, a New York-based nursing student who visits boyfriend James (Swanberg) in the depths of a Chicago winter, waste precious nestling time needling, a bad, nervous habit which hits its zenith with the shriek, “I don’t respond to sarcastic fun!” Mattie’s obsession with controlling every moment feels unnatural, and Gerwig’s plays it with unexpected affectations, her voice snapping quickly from deep mumble to high-pitched sing-song of doom.
I’ve seen the film twice now, and both times I’ve struggled to find a way in until almost half-way through. I now think it’s because Gerwig doesn’t ever seem to play to her expected strengths until about thirty minutes in. By this time, the action has jumped to New York, and Mattie is dead scared, apparently both of losing James and of being bonded to him for life by a baby. In the midst of a conversation between James and Mattie about the sincerity of “I love yous”, the camera settles on a reaction shot of Gerwig, her pupils drifting off into the corners of her eyes. At this point, the actress seems to suddenly yank the reigns of a film that just a moment earlier felt as if it was to floating without direction, and demands that we pay attention. We come to realise that the first section of the film feeds into an incredibly delayed punchline: the pattern of conflict that Gerwig and Swanberg set up at the start and then leave behind eventually pays off, but it doesn’t really happen until Night’s final ten minutes. I’m not sure if the wait is ever made all the way worth it, but it’s ameliorated by Gerwig’s performance in the film’s final scenes, in which Mattie temporarily gives up control, and then, suddenly and rather spectacularly, reclaims it. Originally posted on:SpoutBlog</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Post: Re:Are there any women directing?</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/groups/Emerging_Filmmakers/Re_Are_there_any_women_directing/546/26113/1/ShowPost.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div><img align='left' src='http://www.spout.com/ProductImages/s365071.jpg' hspace='10' style='height:80px;' />
<strong>Post By:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/members/5471/default.aspx'>porcupine</a><br/>
<strong>Post To:</strong> <a href='http://www.spout.com/groups/Emerging_Filmmakers/546/discussions.aspx'>Emerging Filmmakers</a><br/>
<strong>Post Date:</strong> 3/11/2008 9:16:27 PM<br/>
<strong>Body:</strong> Another woman director at SXSW 08 is Greta Gerwig, who co-directed Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg. Her acting in the film is also phenomenal.<br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 12 Mar 2008 01:16:27 GMT</pubDate><spout:postby>porcupine</spout:postby><spout:postto>Emerging Filmmakers</spout:postto><spout:postdate>3/11/2008 9:16:27 PM</spout:postdate><spout:body>Another woman director at SXSW 08 is Greta Gerwig, who co-directed Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg. Her acting in the film is also phenomenal.</spout:body></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:relationship</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/relationship/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/relationship/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>relationship</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 1090</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 50</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 189</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Sat, 24 Oct 2009 19:18:01 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>1090</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>50</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>189</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:SXSW</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/SXSW/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/SXSW/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>SXSW</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 213</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 14</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 274</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 02 Apr 2009 02:26:40 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>213</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>14</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>274</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:breakup-romantic</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/breakup-romantic/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/breakup-romantic/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>breakup-romantic</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 164</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 10</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 15</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 12 May 2009 13:09:30 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>164</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>10</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>15</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:sxsw-film-festival</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/sxsw-film-festival/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/sxsw-film-festival/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>sxsw-film-festival</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 182</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 5</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 230</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Thu, 24 Sep 2009 02:07:10 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>182</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>5</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>230</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:south-by-south-west</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/south-by-south-west/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/south-by-south-west/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>south-by-south-west</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 102</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 127</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:08:39 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>102</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>2</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>127</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:south-by-southwest-2008</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/south-by-southwest-2008/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/south-by-southwest-2008/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>south-by-southwest-2008</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 103</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 129</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:40:32 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>103</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>2</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>129</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:south-by-southwest-film</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/south-by-southwest-film/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/south-by-southwest-film/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>south-by-southwest-film</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 51</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 52</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:59:42 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>51</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>2</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>52</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:sxsw-2008</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/sxsw-2008/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/sxsw-2008/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>sxsw-2008</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 52</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 2</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 53</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 14 May 2008 22:37:16 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>52</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>2</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>53</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:film-festival</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/film-festival/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/film-festival/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>film-festival</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 50</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 50</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Fri, 07 Mar 2008 19:59:42 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>50</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>1</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>50</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:south-by-southwest</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/south-by-southwest/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/south-by-southwest/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>south-by-southwest</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 52</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 52</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:29:56 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>52</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>1</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>52</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:sxsw-movie</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/sxsw-movie/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/sxsw-movie/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>sxsw-movie</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 51</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 1</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 51</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:40:32 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>51</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>1</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>51</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
    <item>
      <title>Spout Tag:longdistance</title>
      <link>http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/longdistance/MemberTagFilms.aspx</link><description><![CDATA[<div style='display:block;height:120px;width:400px;font:10px/10px Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;'><a href='/members/0/tags/longdistance/MemberTagFilms.aspx'>longdistance</a>
<strong><br/> Number of films tagged:</strong> 24</br><br/>
<strong>Number of people who tagged:</strong> 0</br><br/>
<strong>Number of times used:</strong> 0</br><br/>
</div>]]></description><pubDate>Wed, 01 Apr 2009 13:03:30 GMT</pubDate><spout:numFilms>24</spout:numFilms><spout:numPeople>0</spout:numPeople><spout:timesUsed>0</spout:timesUsed><spout:type>Tag</spout:type></item>
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