All These Sleepless Nights

Part documentary, part drama, the Warsaw-set All These Sleepless Nights tries to capture that rarefied experience during young adulthood of exploring the world's mysteries and rules with a friend, as outsiders looking in. The characters here are just ordinary guys trying to fit into social norms and relationship expectations before maturity kicks in. Art students Kris (Krysztof Baginski) and Michael (Michal Huszcza) roam the streets of their city during the wee hours every night, speculating about everything and nothing (but without any kind of compelling theme or inquiry). At times they act like impulsive schoolboys; at others they probe issues related to work or romance. Somehow they always manage to find a party in progress or a crowd of peers drinking and dancing in public. Unfortunately, this repetitiveness wears the viewer down, and even when a breach occurs in the bond between Kris and Michal, the film doesn't become more dramatically interesting. You get the feeling that director Michael Marczak wanted to make a defining work for a generation, but it's just too empty to mean much of anything. Optional. (T. Keogh)