Movie Review - The Weekend (2019)

Sasheer Zamata was a cast member on Saturday Night Live. She was only there for three seasons. She left in 2017. Here, she gets her first leading role since stepping away from the sketch series. She plays a woman named Zadie who is herself a black, female, stand-up comedian. Her style though is nothing like her persona or kind of characters she did on Saturday Night Live. Zadie gets on stage and talks about being depressed and pathetic, specifically after breaking up with her boyfriend. When she's on stage, she seems like she's mostly baring her soul and not even telling jokes. Not too many people laugh, but it's not as if she's expecting them too. She's just confessing personal details about her life in a rather droll way. She comes across as somewhat sardonic.

Written and directed by Stella Meghie, the film is about Zadie dealing with her depression and pathetic nature, which have seemingly been the result of her break-up. She's been broken up for about three years. Instead of having suffered a total loss, her ex-boyfriend is still a part of her life. She's still friends with him. In fact, she invites him and his new girlfriend to spend three days up in the California mountains at her parents' bed-and-breakfast. While most people would think spending time with one's ex-boyfriend and his new girlfriend, during a romantic getaway, is awkward and weird. Zadie does so anyway.

Tone Bell (Fam and Whitney) co-stars as Bradford, the ex-boyfriend of Zadie. He broke up with her because he couldn't deal with her bipolar behavior. He's found another girlfriend, but she isn't exciting him the way that Zadie did. He can't let go of Zadie. He claims to be friends, but it's clear that he still harbors loving feelings for his ex. For some reason, he can't let go of his current girlfriend either. He buys an engagement ring, but yet he doesn't give it to her for six months. He carries it with him, but he doesn't consider when he's going to use it. He goes on this romantic getaway with both his ex and his current girlfriend. It's like he's trying to have his cake and eat it too. It's as if he can't make a decision or fully commit, even though he might want to do so.

Watching both Zadie and Bradford interact, in the way that Meghie renders this film, it's almost like watching an all-African American version of a Woody Allen film. The neurosis, the love triangle, the preponderance of jazz music and a comedian proxy puts this on the level with a Woody Allen narrative. The only difference is that this film isn't set in some metropolitan city. Because the director is a woman, this film felt akin to Wine Country, which Amy Poehler directed. Wine Country had a bigger cast and was all women, but it had a similar vibe of people strolling or relaxing in the hills and the mountains of California. That film has a bit more drama than this one.

Y'lan Noel (Insecure and The First Purge) also co-stars as Aubrey, a Canadian who also recently broke up with his girlfriend. He's dealing with heartbreak much better. He's moving on. How he was dumped is pretty pathetic. When Zadie learns of his pathetic dumping, she takes more of an interest in him. Besides going for moonlit walks and programming video games, Zadie seems to connect with him simply because he's there.

DeWanda Wise (She's Gotta Have It and Shots Fired) plays Margo, the current girlfriend to Bradford. I get that she wants to be friendly, but why she puts up with having his boyfriend's ex as a third wheel in what should be a romantic getaway is baffling. It becomes obvious that Bradford is losing interest. She doesn't really fight for their relationship, so there's no real drama that explodes out of this. Wise's nuanced performance is effective, but it's not all that compelling.

Rated R for some language.
Running Time: 1 hr. and 26 mins.

Available on VOD.