Leigh turns to the story of two former university roommates who are seeing each other for the first time in 6 years. Juxtaposing 80's flashbacks filled with the wailing voices of The Cure and collegiate heartbreak, and 90's Career Girls' concerned with finding a flat and a mate, Leigh probes memory and friendship in his own straightforward style. Yes, I learned a lot of my skills originally in the theater context. In principle, the way in which I make my plays and the way in which I make my films, is, on the whole, pretty damn similar. Which is to say huge amounts of exploration, leading to a point where then you structure it, define the material in a precise manner.
Film defines the material.
But only by going out and starting to see it in film terms and define it as a narrative, does it really start to have any meaning, and that meaning is the film. The reason for doing that is that the subject matter demanded it, rather than artistic considerations. How we age and change and how our memories effect us and how we're rooted in our past instead of our present, fascinates me endlessly. And I'm particularly interested in the journey in this film, in the specific journey you make between 20 and 30. It's quite a long journey.