That phrase, “the lost weekend,” has a few meanings in pop culture. I associate it with John Lennon, who, my not-always-acute memory leads me to believe, spent a year and a half or so away from Yoko Ono, partnered up with another woman, and indulged in excessive substance use.

I know none of such things to be the case for Keanu Reeves, but those three words hold a certain power.

(The Lost Weekend is also a novel from which Lennon borrowed the term. For some, this may be an interesting rabbit hole to follow).

Here, I think I mean it to say, “this long period where…” Hm, I don’t know. Keanu’s career was trying to figure itself out?

It may seem odd to term the years between 1995 and 2003, which included the first three Matrix movies, as “lost.” Certainly, Keanu could still get work. But there’s a wandering feel to this set of films. Just a little more wandering than the eras that have followed, as if Keanu feared reaching the age of 40 and never being able to work again — so he overcompensated by making all the movies.

• Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
• A Walk in the Clouds (1995)
• Chain Reaction (1996)
• Feeling Minnesota (1996)
• The Last Time I Committed Suicide (1997)
• The Devil’s Advocate (1997)
• The Matrix (1999)
• The Replacements (2000)
• **The Watcher (2000)**
• The Gift (2000)
• Sweet November (2001)
• Hardball (2001)
• The Matrix Reloaded (2003)
• The Matrix Revolutions (2003)
• Something’s Gotta Give (2003)

Of course, this whole period of time, the late 1990s to mid-2000s, was pretty lost for a lot of us. It was a weird time.

**For reasons explained on the post, I won’t watch The Watcher (2000).

May 2023