"All These Sleepless Nights" (2016 release from Poland; 100 min.) brings the story of two college-aged friends, Krzysztof and Michal. As the movie opens, we are informed what the meaning of the term "Reminiscence Bump" is while massive fire works go off. We then watch Michal at a party interacting with Monika, who looks to be an ex-girlfriend. After that, we follow the two guys as they roam the streets of Warsaw, seemingly going from one party to the next, and the next after that, while they discuss love and the meaning of life. Then one day at yet another party, they run into Eva, who takes an immediate liking to the guys. What will become of the guys? And of Eva? To tell you more of the plot would spoil your viewing experience, you'll just have to see for yourself how it all plays out.
Couple of comments: this is the latest movie from up-and-coming Polish writer-director Michal Marczak, best known as a documentary maker. Which leads me to ask: is this movie a documentary or a fiction feature in which the characters happen to play themselves? (I didn't realize that until seeing the end credits.) When I said I should spoil more of the plot, you need to take this with a grain of salt, as there really is no plot to speak of, and much of what we see playing out appears to be improvised. In fact, this movie reminds me of the latest Terrence Mallick movie "Song to Song. Let me admit that I struggled big time to make it to the end of "All These Sleepless Nights", as I never connected with any of these characters (or real people), I kept hoping that it would draw me in eventually, but it simply didn't happen.
"All These sleepless Nights" opened this weekend out of the blue and without any fanfare at my local art-house theater here in Cincinnati. The Saturday matinée screening where I saw this at was attended poorly (4 people, including myself). Given the abstract-leaning and plot-less nature of this movie, I cannot see this playing more than one week in the theater. So if watching a mostly abstract film from Poland that may or may not be a documentary seems like your cup of tea, you'll most likely have to catch it on VOD or eventually on DVD/Blu-ray.
