One Night Only: Top Tier August Slop

August has long been the beginning of the end in terms of the summer movie season. It’s the time when studios start dumping the movies they weren’t confident enough to release in the prime blockbuster months, May-July, and have no hopes of getting any awards attention come October-December. For the average movie-goer, it’s often slim pickens at the cinema this time of year. The silver lining to this is that we often get some surprisingly whacky film offerings that want nothing more than just to distract and delight us for a couple hours before we have to trudge back out into the heat. This is the case with Will Gluck’s One Night Only. This is a movie that knows it’s a silly, trashy, and charming romantic-comedy starring two very game actors who are over qualified for this kind of thing and should probably have some serious talks with their agents. Sure, the movie does nothing super subversive with the fact that it takes place in a totalitarian universe which outlaws single people from having sex, but honestly, I don’t really need that right now. There’s a lot of fascist bullshit going on in this universe, and I am tired. I just want to watch hot, charming people fall for each other in The Big Apple, and One Night Only delivers just that. Social commentary be damned. 

Like I said, the film is built on a premise that sounds like something a stoned film student would come up with. “What if we made The Purge, but for sex?” One Night Only is set in an alternate reality where pre-marital sex is outlawed except for one night a year. Honestly, it’s a pretty clever conceit. The challenge is building a compelling movie around it. Fortunately, director Will Gluck (Easy A, Friends with Benefits, Anyone But You), is well versed in how to make a compelling rom-com and rises to the challenge of making this movie a very satisfying, if inessential, late summer flick. He keeps his film light and breezy without ever diving too much into the real implications of what living in a mostly sexless world would look like. That works because he understands how to build a fun romantic comedy and play to his actors strengths. Will Gluck is good at what he does and he’s good at delivering silly, highly watchable rom-coms. 

In addition to the genre bonafides of Gluck, the movie’s real super power is in its two leads, Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown) and Callum Turner (Dua Lipa’s husband). The film lives and dies on their chemistry and charm, and, thankfully, they both have plenty to spare. The entire film takes place in New York City on the titular “one night” when non-married people are allowed to go at it with any other consenting adult they can find. Every single character in this movie is clearly out of their mind ecstatic about this night—that is, everyone except our two lonely, lovelorn leads who long for something more meaningful than casual sex. Allie (Barbaro) is a commercial singer who is tired of playing dating games and wants to use this night to form a real connection with someone special. Across town, Owen (Turner) is a workaholic, pizza shop owner who is ready to settle down with his girlfriend (Maya Hawke). Owen’s hopes for marital bliss are shattered when his girlfriend tells him she wants a break so she can have a one night stand with someone else tonight. Owen is crushed and so he ventures out on the town, alone, in search of something real. He soon runs into our heroine, Allie. Thankfully, hijinks ensue. 

It makes sense that our two single, beautiful protagonists should find each other and bone, but alas, we need to hit all the beats of the genre before we can get to any semblance of a happy ending (pun intended). So, after a disastrous meet-cute where Owen throws up a bunch of sushi in front of Allie, our two leads decide that they are not meant for each other and head out into the city for a night full of sexual misadventures and even more celebrity cameos.

As long as you’re willing to go with the ridiculous premise that Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner would have any trouble finding love on the horniest night in America, then you’re in for a genuinely delightful ride as they fumble their way back to each other. It’s a hoot to watch Owen desperately scour the city for a condom, while simultaneously weighing the pros and cons of using a hospital glove instead. Monica Barbaro is a genuine star who shines even when she is saddled with a Coyote Ugly-esque subplot where she is too afraid to sing in front of other people, despite being a professional singer. It takes a gifted actor to sell corny writing and Barbaro does so with undeniable charm and wit. How she wound up in this movie, I’ll never understand. She literally has an Oscar nomination. 

The film is at its best when Barbaro and Turner are on screen together. Watching them banter and flirt is electric and makes you want to yell at the screen “Just do each other already!” I mean that as high praise. It’s unfortunate that the movie sets them off on their own solo quests so often. Whenever they reconvene the movie’s heat meter raises about 50 notches and you watch with bated breath to see what they’re going to do next. Turner is especially surprising, considering he’s best known for being married to a pop star, as a compelling rom-com lead. He holds his own next to Barbaro and you find yourself blushing when he calls her “cute”. Their chemistry is the real heart and soul of the film. As two characters that are genuinely searching for real connection, they bring a lot of depth to an otherwise silly premise. In these crazy, tyrannical times, fictional or not, aren’t we all just looking for something real? 

In the end, this is a breezy, fun, sexy movie that is far from perfect. It does a lot of things right; Barbaro and Turner, zany adventures around NYC, building sexual tension, as well as plenty wrong; over reliance on celebrity cameos, separating the lead actors too much, an obscene amount of product placement. But still, it’s full of a lot of heart and funny jokes and shouldn't be dismissed outright as a dumb, soulless, sex comedy. It has more to offer than that, even if only for one night.

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