FLEETING INTIMACIES

It’s Friday night in Nottingham. Russell and Glen meet at a local gay bar for a hookup. But what’s assumed to be a one-night stand between two men with different approaches to identity and intimacy unexpectedly blossoms into the possibility of real connection. Confronted with this chance (and risk), Glen divulges that he plans to leave the U.K. on Monday indefinitely.     

Critic and author Manuel Betancourt reflects: “Weekend posits a queer love story that depends on its own ephemerality—and in so doing reminds us that we should often look at and find different ways of valuing the intimacies (sexual and otherwise) we nurture with those strangers who walk into our lives.” 

In this discussion, Betancourt returns to Galerie to pose the question: What might Weekend teach us about the genre of love stories in the 21st century?