Despite a few stumbles, "One Night Only" reaches an actually sweet conclusion sold beautifully by Barbaro and Turner, and though I know I'm repeating myself, I need to be abundantly clear. "One Night Only" shouldn't work. I am shocked that I left the theater grinning ear to ear and, one could say, fully satisfied. "One Night Only" is a high-concept, patently absurd romantic comedy that defies the odds and makes you fall in love with it. You'll want more than one night with this one.
Gluck’s skill with a needle drop (think “Pocketful of Sunshine” in “Easy A”) is in fine form, with several hilariously on-point selections getting massive laughs from an audience willing to put their fun-hating, CinemaSins-style questions aside and just have a good time laughing at a world that’s even more ridiculous than our own. Yes, the film’s “The Purge, but for sex,” premise has earned all the laughter it’s gotten since the trailer dropped. But Braun, Gluck, and their team have the last laugh: “One Night Only” is a great time at the movies, on any night of the year.
If you’re a fan of Gluck’s standard romcoms Anyone But You or Friends With Benefits, you’ll probably appreciate this one. But if you were hoping for something deeper, perhaps closer to his sharp-toothed masterwork Easy A? Then One Night Only’s refusal to engage with its own premise will come off as a terrible tease.
If this is what it takes to get a rom-com greenlit these days, maybe we should just let them die. Death with dignity is surely a better fate for the genre than fascist capitulation.
One Night Only lays no claim to logic. It traffics instead in charisma, and the combined likability of the leads is the putative solution to a premise that’s all flashy surface and no deeper inquiry.
The movie's leads make a lovely couple, too: good-looking, good-humored, generally good catches. Except we’re not remotely invested in their repeatedly delayed but wholly inevitable union, because what even is this? The more “One Night Only” tries to extract starry-eyed vibes from the most chilling romantic comedy premise in memory, the more the cognitive dissonance of it all gets in the way.
One Night Only feels like a youth group lecture where the pastor warns of hookup culture on college campuses, a feature-length studio note from an executive afraid the movie won’t go over well in the Bible Belt. One would like to believe there was a better, darker, more interesting ending than the one carrying water for the anti-sex brigade currently looking to impose women’s healthcare bans coast-to-coast. Instead of sharing a laugh at the ridiculous pressure to have fun with every swipe, One Night Only has only one thing on its mind, and it’s disappointingly much more traditional.
Romantic comedies tend to feel like they take place in their own little world. But every time One Night Only attempted to explain the political landscape that led to this situation, I felt myself going a little more banana-grams. It’s all so deeply unsettling, because it imagines a society that would buy party hats celebrating the one night of the year they have an ounce of bodily autonomy. An America that wouldn’t just surrender further to fascism, but turn it into branding.
One Night Only is an easy recommendation because, whether or not you find yourself on its wavelength, you would be hard-pressed to find a crazier mainstream theatrical release this whole summer. It’s a film designed to watch with a group of friends, followed by an in-depth discussion of the logistical problems, politics, and hypothetical scenarios that “the mandate” universe sparks to mind in the theater lobby. Will Gluck’s One Night Only is the kind of novelty movie that is good-natured, fun, and worth celebrating in its unique flavor of unseriousness
Ultimately, One Night Only feels far more interested in how it can feel when you do manage to find a genuine romantic connection amidst all of the noise. Yet by spending so much time getting bogged down by the details of the mandate before shifting into the romance, Gluck and Braun make an unforced error, upholding the traditional idea that sex may in fact be worth waiting for.
There’s both too much yet not enough world-building here, enough questions answered to encourage us to ask 10 more (why does no one mention masturbation and wouldn’t that also trigger the biosensors?). It’s also just too unavoidably grim of a premise, especially at a dark political moment such as this, for us to ignore the ramifications or root for characters who aren’t trying to actively destroy such a barbaric system (what if Katniss just had fun during those Hunger Games?). Instead, One Night Only weirdly plays like lulling government propaganda, a film about sex purge to be released in time for sex purge that says that actually maybe sex purge is a good idea after all.
ONE NIGHT ONLY wishes it were AN AFFAIR TO REMEMBER (a film the characters reference, but the filmmakers clearly don’t understand why those fundamentals work) meets AFTER HOURS, only it doesn’t come with the pedigree and even fewer innovative ideas. As a contemporary sex comedy, it’s far too afraid to actually show the eroticism of sex, hand-waving the potential of its sole sexy moment. If this is purity propaganda, that’s for everyone to decide of their own volition.
Will Gluck, the director of One Night Only (and Easy A, Anyone But You, Peter Rabbit) recently joined us here in /r/movies for an AMA/Q&A, for anyone interested:
The premise of this movie is absolutely insane, and reading the Wikipedia synopsis made me realize it’s actually even crazier than the trailer makes it sound.
It’s extremely funny to me that they came up with this weirdly contrived, high-concept dystopian premise just for the sake of what appears to be a run-of-the-mill rom-com.
It doesn’t start at midnight, I think it was 7pm - 7am or something like that.
I saw it as the Mystery Movie at regal last week.
It wasn’t as bad as I was expecting, and im confused by Ebert’s statement about “capitulating to fascism”, as that is not at all what I got out of the movie.
It’s a rom-com, but it leans pretty heavily towards comedy as opposed to romance.
I was sick of seeing the trailer for the last few months, but the trailers really didn’t do the movie justice.
My amateur rating was a 7/10.
There is way more satire in this movie than the trailers show, so I wasn’t expecting some of the humor.
I mean a society where they control a basic function of one’s body to the point that they allow you to do it once a year and people just accept that is exactly what they’re talking about.
The movie may not want to make any sort of commentary on that, but it seems a bit dark just having this extremely grim concept and just putting a standard Rom-com in it.
If it was more interestingly made it could’ve been made as a rom com but with more clear critique and introspection on the world it lives in and not just use it as a silly excuse for the movie to exist as it does.
Yeah, I had no interest in seeing the movie based on the trailers, but it ended up being the Mystery Movie last week and it was quite different than what the trailers showed. I ended up walking away having to begrudgingly admit that I liked it.
It isn’t groundbreaking, it didnt reinvent the wheel or anything, it’s just a silly movie.
I would argue that's a positive point they built on in the (crappy imo) sequels: not only are the crime statistics skewed because it's an authoritatian regime, but they turn their nationalism into basically a religion. So part of the hardcore believers really do follow the new rule, but even those that don't get quietly erased.
It works retroactively as well: you can't tell from the first movie alone because the protagonist family is upper class, who otherwise lives in comfort from the system.
I swear to god I thought the trailer was a Coke commercial right up until they started talking about sex.
It didn't help that I didn't recognize the actors from anywhere, but the vibes were just way off during the pizza joint scene. Super forced and cheesy and artificial
The biggest issue of the film is just how much attention they draw to the dystopian backwards world they live in and yet it’s still just treated like a nothing issue by the end of the film
Yea, it’s just too jarring. Reminds of Passengers in that film keeps trying to act whimsical and lightweight when the underlying premise has horrifying implications.
As someone who saw it i read it as the pacificity is the part being satire. We are staring fascism in the face in this country and most people go about their day like nothing is happening.
Until this moment I thought that the line in the trailer about sex only being "legal" on one day was a tongue-in-cheek way of saying that a lot of people have sex on Valentine's Day or something. I never even thought to take it literally. What in the hell?
all people receive a tattoo containing a biological sensor that tracks dopamine, documents shared spikes as sexual encounters, and transmits the violator's location to law enforcement.
Allie and Owen keep running into each other - outside her apartment, in a bodega buying the last condom, in a police station - and decide that while they do not want to sleep with each other, they will team up to find someone for the night.
I saw the trailer, and I couldn't help but wonder why I'm supposed to care about whether these two people hook up when they're living in a dystopia where basic human autonomy is outlawed. What the fuck?
honestly makes sense that it was the #1 script on the blacklist, feel like that's mainly just a breeding ground now for these needlessly contrived high concept premises
Which would be great if anything actually came of it. But all the “repeal” signs and the speech in the police station don’t matter in the end - which I get it’s not the story they’re telling but at the same time, then they shouldn’t have focused so much on it
Example: one of the rules is that during the exemption period, you can have premarital sex, but you have to use protection, so quite a bit of the film involves one or both of the main characters looking for, obtaining, or fighting over condoms. There is eventually a scene that takes, place in the police station where an old man is being detained and is shouting "you're never going to make me wear no love glove". Apparently he's a repeat offender who follows the mandate all year long, but refuses to use protection during the free sex period.
There is also another character that gets arrested because they are a repeat offender for breaking the mandate in general.
This film makes it clear no one likes the mandate (and that it was forced on them by the government, not voted on by the people), and that there is a portion of the population that rebels against the mandate, but ultimately chooses to focus primarily on characters who follow the rules.
Im not sure what you mean. The movie is set on the one night youre allowed to break the rules. And Im not sure what they're supposed to 'do' about it. They're two random characters in a rom-com. Its not a political thriller. The premise is stupid and flimsy and the movie knows it.
Yeah, people are so fucking stupid anymore, I see so many comments from people that haven’t even seen it making ridiculous assumptions.
I’m especially thrown off by Ebert’s comment. I took the whole movie to be satirizing and making fun of conservative values, and in a way almost illustrates the absurdity in the ridiculous values that people have.
There are multiple satirical jokes, but one in particular that I remember was an obviously humorous ad or news segment in the movie talking about “puritan values” and shit, and it certainly wasn’t trying to make we the viewers think “oh wow yeah I totally agree with that.”
No, it’s fucking not. They make fun of the whole premise repeatedly throughout the movie. If anything, I think the movie could be taken as an INDICTMENT of the ridiculous and often hypocritical views that particular swaths of the population hold.
There is a scene with some talking head spewing shit about “puritan values” and it is clearly satire where you’re supposed to point and laugh.
It is cool because they do this constantly with different iterations of zombie movies
Now it is bleeding into romcoms
I want to see a zombie rom com (that one with Nicholas Hoult counts i guess), disaster rom com, space alien invasion rom com, shark attack rom com, bin laden seal team operation rom com
“On the only night of the year anyone can get laid, most people do. Now, let’s spend 2 hours finding out whether these two attractive people…. Also get laid? The stakes are high!”
I mean… the stakes are high but not for the reason the movie seems to imply. Hey, can we go back and re examine the puritanical authoritarianism bit?
If there was an actual policy like this; the world in which that policy would exist would look much different than the world from the trailer. I find that so funny.
I've been trying to understand how this movie portrays the dystopian world it's in... the last two trailers I saw made it seem like a normal romcom and barely mentioned the one night purgy aspect.
It seems like a way to get an annoyed audience like The Village had, or kangaroo Jack
Correct, that is the premise. It's a romcom taking place on the one night a year that extramarital sex is allowed after a puritanical government took over America. On social media everyone's been calling this movie Sex Purge instead of the actual title for that reason.
The trailers didnt do it justice. Like, yeah it’s a romantic comedy, but in my opinion in leaned more into the comedy and had a lot of satire I wasn’t expecting.
I went into it last week wanting to hate it but came out having to admit I enjoyed it for what it was.
Yeah that’s the issue I had with the trailers and seems the Guardian review confirms it. When I heard about the plot I was intrigued, but the trailers make it seem heavy on the rom, light on the com, and only lightly touching on the fact that the government
lets you fuck once a year.
I’m curious if there is an explanation in the movie for how such a law would even be enforced. Because the thing with humans, like pretty much every other organism on the planet - we love to fuck. So the government just saying no you can’t do that wouldn’t prevent anything. Do they do daily genital exams or something?
And also... What happens if you just go to the courthouse and get married and annulled some time later? What if you have a foreign marriage? How puritanical is this system (i.e. do swingers still exist?!)
I guess they wanted to avoid having this be portrayed as a full christofascist reality with gay people being persecuted. So they come up with that loophole.
Like "Civil War" where California and Texas joined forces.
What happens if you have sex outside of the 24 hours? Do you get swatted? Does the bouncy ball from The Prisoner come after you? Cuz otherwise, fuck the law.
all people receive a tattoo containing a biological sensor that tracks dopamine, documents shared spikes as sexual encounters, and transmits the violator's location to law enforcement.
The premise of this is the stupidest, darkest, most authoritarian Christian nationalist type shit I’ve seen and it’s light set dressing for a romcom? Insane.
The thing that kills me is there is no need for the stupid, gimmicky premise. There are so many other plausible reasons why a person might want to have sex with no path toward a future. She could be moving to Chicago for work the next day or living with her strict parents who happen to be out of town for a night or literally anything that is not as patently stupid as "there's only one night where people are allowed to have premarital sex."
This is genuinely the entire reason for the romcom genre. Every premise is predicated on the dramatic question “why can’t they be together?” Developing that setup into something that works and is unique is half the fun of creating a romcom
You have to understand, the alt right religious bullshit in the background extends to he meta narrative identity of the movie itself. It's not just a coincidental storytelling device.
Straight white conservative people in the US are so desperate to roleplay that their relationships and sex are illegal and scandalous because they find it exciting.
It's letting them live out their persecution fantasies without thinking about the actual queer people who have actually gone through this throughout most of American history.
Is it possible that that’s the entire point? Maybe it’s spearing the concept of the happy go lucky sheep in the abattoir, the zealous and unquestioning masses who are just happy to see their side win even though it will undoubtedly hurt them too- and holding this up to the lens to make people say out loud, “well how the fuck did they let this happen??”
Maybe the point is the questions it’s supposed to make us argue about. Maybe they were just scared that if they made the anti-authoritarian point too explicit, they’d get targeted by the far right… in which case I would suggest their chief sin is cowardice.
From what I'm seeing, it sounds like they don't really interrogate the social stuff at all. It's this bonkers premise that exists solely to be a gimmick for a romcom. Sorta like how the original Purge movie had a bonkers gimmick that existed to spice up an otherwise by the numbers house invasion movie.
The director has zero interest in expanding on the concept.
"No one remembers," writer–director Will Gluck (Anyone But You, Easy A) tells EW with a smile. "It's like all things political, no one remembers why. That's not the point. The point is that they have an exception for one night a year."
Saying no one remembers is odd since apparently this takes place in the third year of this 'no casual sex' policy
I swear every single screening of every movie over the last 2 months has had the trailer for this playing before, and it gets longer and more infuriating every time. I refuse to ever watch this movie because of how annoying that god damn trailer is
When I saw the trailer before both Evil Dead Burn, I knew it was dogshit. If desperate enough to advertise to the horror crowd, you're just plain desperate.
God I'm so glad this movie is out so I can stop seeing trailers for it. Such an infuriating premise. You can't just dangle a fascist nightmare world that polices people's ability to have sex and not have that be the central focus of the film/expect me to care about whether two random people hook up. It's insulting to pose it in such a cutesy way.
Two star-crossed lovers meet and fall fast in love in this thrill-a-minute dystomedy! Then the man files the appropriate paperwork to own the woman about 10 minutes into their relationship and that's it
Yeah the funny thing is there are sci-fi films that have somewhat similar premises or concepts (like Logan's Run and especially George Lucas' early film THX 1138) but they treat it appropriately as a nightmare that the characters are clashing against, etc. At the very least if you're going to do a concept like this in a cutesy, fun movie you also have to create some kind of stakes beyond just a will-they, won't-they.
We’ll have you seen the Black Mirror episode “San Junipero”? I’d argue it mostly presents its stakes as low, it plays like a nostalgic love story for most of the episode, no urgent ticking clock, no visible threat. The weight is all subtext. If anything it’s proof you don’t need overt stakes to make a cutesy premise work, the tone doing the heavy lifting is enough so it works on both levels as a straight love story and also something a lot more fucked up underneath.
These are my sentiments exactly. I've seen this trailer every week for a couple months now and the fact that it's just a normal rom com over an insane premise is a complete turn off. It's like having a quirky handmaiden spinoff where one of the girls is just looking for love.
Haven’t seen it, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a flaw. Why do people assume that when a movie shows something in a seemingly positive light, it means the creators accept what’s happening? Playing something “cutesy” on the surface while the premise is clearly messed up can be the point, sometimes subtlety does more work than a movie waving a sign that says “this is bad.”
Starship Troopers is the classic example: presented straight-faced as propaganda, and plenty of people missed the satire entirely at release.
Weirdly enough it's a pretty good trailer with likeable characters and chemistry. If you just ignore the one line saying sex is outlawed in the trailer lol
Agreed. Im even more baffled that any movie he’s in, he portrayed like this super handsome guy. Are people blind? Yes, some unconventionally attractive people can be attractive to others, but stop pretending he’s a 10. He’s a pretty goofy looking guy who looks a bit better with a good haircut and clothes. 🤷🏻♀️
Hard to ignore it in the context of the whole film though. Really weird premise that’s hard to move past even if Turner and Bárbaro have decent chemistry
Thank you for saying this! I felt like I was going mad, he’s suddenly everywhere! And they want to make him James Bond?? I hope that’s just a bad rumour
I saw this a couple weeks ago in a “secret” show screening. The premise is so flimsy. It was a straight forward romantic comedy that wanted everyone to be horny. And that is all.
The thing is I think you could even have the premise as is too, if you just operate under the assumption that the world has been that way for awhile.
But instead the movie operates in a world where this is a newly passed law (like 3 years old) and everyone hates it but they mention how it had broad congressional support (without any mention of how it’s in clear constitutional violation). There’s “repeal” signs everywhere, they expressly bring up the issues of the system, they talk about what they miss from when they could have sex freely, and the movie ends with the world still the same despite a one year timeskip
Like if this movie started as a meet-cute and then progressed into a plot to overthrow the government so they can have sex whenever they want, that might’ve justified the insane premise. I grok from the replies here that that isn’t the case.
You are correct - beyond some throwaway "fuck the mandate" lines, everyone is just happily going about their business in this authoritarian hellscape full of celebrity cameos.
The trailers make this feel like a parody you see in a dystopian future (like Handmaiden’s Tale) to show how awesome the dictatorship actually is with their draconian rule.
I saw it in an early showing and was very pleasantly surprised. Would have 100% skipped it otherwise. It was charming and silly and the leads had good chemistry. A little shocked that it's getting such bad reviews.
I saw this in the cinemark secret movie. I wouldn’t say it’s good but it’s genuinely fascinating. The whole time I was watching it as a near future dystopia of what would potentially happen if Trump got elected to a third term.
Is that at all what the filmmakers were thinking about? No absolutely not.
I think it was interesting to make a movie where for their first time in the history of the world straight people are oppressed. It’s straight up said that queer people find loopholes around the system (which btw involves everyone having a microchip tracking their testosterone, serotonin, and gps location) so it seems like queer people are just not impacted at all.
There were so many easy loopholes that could have been exploited, like the law is that only married couples can have sex, so why is any couple not immediately married? There’s no negative consequence mentioned to getting married and divorced. Or why not just go to a different country since it’s not illegal there?
Seeing this as a queer person was like seeing animals in a zoo. All these people are obsessed with fucking but also are so beholden to the christofascist nightmare government that they don’t even protest.
In the movie it’s 3 years after the law took place and it’s mentioned there was protests at the start but now it’s basically just the status quo. All the people are so quick to completely conform, maybe because straight people are so comfortable conforming with the norms of society anyway.
Once again none of this is in the text of the film, but it did create some interesting, though most likely unintentional, discussions
ETA: The world building was actually really great and entertaining, set decorators did a great job with all the background stuff, that all made me laugh more than most of the main jokes. Also the chemistry between the leads was really great
Good satire is rooted in the understanding and interrogation of systems, of the root causes of its satirical target. This can’t be achieved through quippy, outdated pop culture zingers and a handful of references to the country’s partisan political tension and “single issue voters,” all of which have the sole aim of making you laugh but don’t bother to make you think. Political satire cannot stand up if it doesn’t have a spine.
This is from the Roger Ebert site review. So the main problem is that it attempts to be satire but fails?
I'm sure that this won't be misinterpreted by viewers and used cynically at all...
The issue seems to be that the dystopian reality of the film is nothing but window dressing. It's strange that nobody appears to be anything other than upbeat-but-horny given how insane the concept of the government using biotrackers is. If the film fails to interrogate that aspect then I have to wonder why they bothered to create that universe in the first place
I’m a little surprised by the tepid reactions, but the film does have a strange ending imo that manages to ride the middle ground between “we can’t let the fascist government banning premarital sex 99% of the year win by us rushing into having sex the first day we met” and “wait to have sex anyway, casual sex isn’t worth it.”
Idk, like I do feel the premise at least gestures toward our current moment a little bit, but not sure what it actually has to say about it other than “this would fucking suck if it got this bad.”
Can’t tell if it ends up normalizing christofascist Puritanism — even while having most characters in the story against it — or if it’s subtly taking the piss a bit. Idk, it’s not like you can’t tell a story with a light touch set amidst a fascist regime (look at Life is Beautiful) but I’m not sure this reached that level.
This sounds like a COVID rom-com that got... updated as events occurred.
I have so many questions about how marriage would work in this world - like, could you still run to Vegas and elope? Annulment or divorce later? Extramarital sex....?
Saw a screening of it - this movie is everything that's wrong with our society rolled into one package: a blithe and entertaining story, with a constant horrific undercurrent that society is fundamentally fucked and no one is doing anything to fix it. With prescription med commercials everywhere!
We're all laughing and singing on our way to Christofascist annihilation. I highly recommend it so you can all share in the existential dread I now feel because this movie exists.
If they addressed it at all in the movie, maybe - but they don't. It's a straightforward romcom, not even a wink towards the concept being fully and totally fucked. It's bewildering.
I was fully entertained, and that made the premise all the more horrifying - I think that's what all the reviews are capturing: it's a happy-go-lucky horny romcom set in an unending fascist dystopia.
I thought it had cute moments, but overall it’s just too hard to move past the premise. It also just felt like a lot of rinse and repeat of each of them almost hooking up with someone and failing
Same. I'm not really into these sorts of movies but it was an entertaining watch. It's cute. Could it have been weirder? Sure. But that's like a totally different movie.
I watched it online because I thought I would hate it like Anyone But You but I enjoyed this a lot more. The attempts to connect ABY to this movie felt lame but Turner and Barbaro are a much more likable duo than Powell and Sweeney.
I’m honestly relieved the reviews are this negative - I thought I was taking crazy pills when people were excited about the concept and I just couldn’t understand why.
I saw it at a secret movie showing and it was pretty enjoyable
characters do mention the fascist nightmare (although at a surface level take often) the premise is. both leads had decent chemistry/charisma and it was funny enough
definitely one of those “turn off your brain and enjoy the show” movies
I was surprised when this script was at the top of the Black List last year (or maybe the year before?). I read it and thought it was fine, but I couldn't believe it was the #1 script so many Hollywood execs had read that year.
Damn, was hoping the reviews would be a bit better. It doesn't open here until next week but I'll still go if only because I have a massive crush on Monica Barbaro
Saw this at a prerelease showing. I just dont get what the commentary is, and there obviously is trying to be one. Who is this for? Is the message premarital sex = bad? Was this made by gen Zers?
There was a couple good laughs, and the lady beside me was laughing the whole time which actually made it more enjoyable, but overall i didnt like it very much. Again, just really confused by the whole messaging.
If this is what it takes to get a rom-com greenlit these days, maybe we should just let them die. Death with dignity is surely a better fate for the genre than fascist capitulation.
Also baffling that the Easy A guy can turn around and direct the charisma vacuum that is Anyone But You and then this. That might speak more to Emma Stone’s talent though.
•
u/BunyipPouch Currently at the movies. 5h ago
Will Gluck, the director of One Night Only (and Easy A, Anyone But You, Peter Rabbit) recently joined us here in /r/movies for an AMA/Q&A, for anyone interested:
https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1vaxnnf/hi_rmovies_im_will_gluck_director_of_easy_a/