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<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nIt takes a very generous suspension of disbelief to enjoy \u201cOne Night Only.\u201d The film is set in a not-too-distant future where premarital sex is outlawed, save for one night a year. Comparisons to \u201cThe Purge\u201d are inevitable, which to me raises an interesting question: Which would lead to more violent crime in this country \u2013 one night of legalized violent crime, or gradually-building sexual frustration on all but one night?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Never mind that such laws would never in a million years be passed, enforced, or obeyed. The characters in this film \u2013 which takes place in a fully-recognizable New York City and not some bleak dystopian fantasy world \u2013 accept that the law is set in stone, and occasionally complain about it, but we never see any serious resistance. That\u2019s a big strike against the film right off the bat \u2013 it\u2019s hard to identify with anyone in this world because everybody is inherently ridiculous enough to go along with this law.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
To be fair, this film is not about the 364 days a year where this law wouldn\u2019t work, it\u2019s about the one upside, the lone night where all the single people are allowed to go crazy. And go crazy they do, with almost every shot in the movie showing people hooking up, in at least the background. Of course, it\u2019s all in a tame R-rated way with the naughtiest bits out of view of the camera. I shudder to think what this movie would have looked like if it took the X-rated approach, though that movie would have at least been memorable. As it is, I probably won\u2019t forget the weird premise anytime soon, but I\u2019ll probably have forgotten the title of this movie by year\u2019s end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The movie follows traditional rom-com characters Owen (Callum Turner) and Allie (Monica Barbaro). He\u2019s a pizza cook who works too hard. She\u2019s a singer who has stage fright. He has a girlfriend (Maya Hawke) who treats him badly and tells him he\u2019s on his own for finding a partner for tonight. She\u2019s not that serious about finding someone. Both have friends and family who tell them that they need to lighten up and have some fun. They bump into each other a few times while on separate adventures, initially having animosity that turns into a rivalry before considering that maybe they should be together. Will they become a couple, physically or otherwise?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The good news is that Turner and Barbaro are sweet enough leads. I was digging their chemistry and interactions with one another. They\u2019re basically having a PG-13 relationship while the world around them is super R-rated (though not as \u201chard-R\u201d as it probably wants to be). It\u2019s all corny, in traditional rom-com fashion, but mildly engaging, especially when compared to what else the movie has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The bad news about \u201cOne Night Only\u201d is pretty much everything else about the movie. I can poke holes in the premise all day, but the real problem is that the film wants to be both raunchy and edgy, but it can only manage the former. Sex gags permeate the movie (let\u2019s just say it\u2019s really hard to procure protection at the last minute in this world), but they\u2019re oddly toothless. Director Will Gluck previously made \u201cAnyone But You,\u201d an R-rated romantic comedy that I thought would have worked better without its cruder elements. This movie doesn\u2019t work because it doesn\u2019t have much cruder elements. Even though I champion the film\u2019s cleaner moments, they would mean more if they were contrasted with dirty moments that were actually good at being dirty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Grade: C-<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOne Night Only\u201d is rated R for sexual material, language, and brief nudity. Its running time is 102 minutes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Bob Garver It takes a very generous suspension of disbelief to enjoy \u201cOne Night Only.\u201d The film is set in a not-too-distant future where premarital sex is outlawed,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76263,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNlwvMDhcL3VubmFtZWQtMS0yLndlYnA_Zml0PTE5MCUyQzI4MSZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6Ik1vdmllIFJldmlldyAmIzgyMTE7IE9uZSBOaWdodCBPbmx5IiwidGVtcGxhdGUiOiJkb2lzIiwiZm9udCI6IiIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.vhPNc38zrWmbU41WSRmjPr0qtDrAGSWBK3vACNbOa3YMQ"},"version":2,"media_source":"sig","attached_media":[{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/jetpack.com\/redirect\/?source=sigenerate&query=t%3DeyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvbGFrZWxhbmRnYXpldHRlLmluZm9cL25ld3NcL3dwLWNvbnRlbnRcL3VwbG9hZHNcLzIwMjZcLzA4XC91bm5hbWVkLTEtMi53ZWJwIiwidHh0IjoiTW92aWUgUmV2aWV3IC0gT25lIE5pZ2h0IE9ubHkiLCJ0ZW1wbGF0ZSI6ImRvaXMiLCJmb250IjoiIiwiYmxvZ19pZCI6MTYzMDQwNjYxfQ.9CxwaZaYz7smp1kOHjQoQbymT1f60Ajy2BcmPGduRjkMQ","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[13],"tags":[15248,15929,15933,15930,417,15928,15932,15931],"class_list":["post-76262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-bob-garver","tag-callum-turner","tag-film-review","tag-monica-barbaro","tag-movie-review","tag-one-night-only","tag-romantic-comedy","tag-will-gluck"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76262"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76262\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76264,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76262\/revisions\/76264"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}