‘One Night Only’ Skates by on Its Charm Without Digging Too Deep

August 6, 2026

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Tonight! Tonight! (CREDIT: Nicole Rivelli/Universal Pictures)

Starring: Monica Barbaro, Callum Turner, Maya Hawke, Julia Fox, Molly Ringwald, LeVar Burton, King Princess, Okieriete Onaodowan, Este Haim, Ziwe, Michelle Hurd

Director: Will Gluck

Running Time: 102 Minutes

Rating: R for Frank Pent-Up Sexuality

Release Date: August 7, 2026 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: It’s been three years since the United States outlawed premarital sex, save for a single annual 12-hour period of debauchery. Ergo, One Night Only is indeed the Carnal Version of The Purge. Pizzeria owner Owen (Callum Turner) is planning to use the occasion to propose to his girlfriend (Maya Hawke), but she actually thinks that they should sleep with other people. Meanwhile, daydreamer Allie (Monica Barbaro) is a singer of commercial jingles who plans to spend the evening hunting alongside her friend (King Princess), but she ditches her almost immediately. Left to wander the streets of NYC on their own, Owen and Allie keep bumping into each other throughout the night. It sure seems like the universe is trying to tell them to hook up, but their various hangups end up making that a rather roundabout journey.

What Made an Impression?: The Political Picture: Outlawing premarital sex sounds rather dystopian to me, but the society of One Night Only comes off as just plain frustrated and exhausted rather than oppressed. So you kind of just have to roll with the premise and not worry if it’s terribly realistic or not. Although, upon further consideration, I suppose there are real world examples of citizens continuing to have social lives despite the best efforts of governments taking their rights away. It would have been interesting to see ONO grapple more with the political implications of its premise (though it does a bit), but you kind of just have to accept that it has other things on its mind.
Worst-Laid Plans: Part of the One Night Only Mandate is that anyone partaking must use protection while having relations. This leads to a series of gags in which Owen and Allie desperately venture into any bodega and health clinic they can find in search of a condom, only for every location to inevitably be out of stock. Which begs the question: why wouldn’t these establishments increase their inventory tenfold or a hundredfold for the occasion? I understand the desire to create a desperate situation from a screenwriting perspective, but it’s hard not to be disappointed by such a lack of foresight.
They’re Dancing About It Too: A different running gag that I’m much more fond of takes its aim at an odd trend in the current media landscape. When we’re introduced to Allie, she’s singing Sara Bareilles’ inspirational anthem “Brave”, but it’s actually a reworked version for a psoriasis medication commercial. We’re also treated to revamped editions of “We’re Not Gonna Take It” and “A Thousand Miles”, the latter for a personal hygiene product. If this is the fate of all pop music in the 21st century, then that sounds more oppressive than the no-sex Mandate (but hilariously so).
Do They Win Us Over?: With One Night Only leaving me with multiple questions about its approach, its potential success ultimately comes down to how charming its leads are. And they’re pretty charming! Plus, director Will Gluck (Easy A, Anyone But You) is a reliable rom-com veteran with a knack for playing around with the tropes of the genre. Plus, I would be remiss not to mention the steady hands of Molly Ringwald as Owen’s mother and LeVar Burton as her boyfriend. Ultimately, I’m in the mood to root that it all works out for Allie and Owen, at least for the one night that I’m focused on them.

One Night Only is Recommended If You Like: Cheekiness over Profundity

Grade: 3 out of 5 Mandates

‘Anyone But You’ is a Silly, Sexy, and Self-Aware Riff on Shakespeare

December 21, 2023

jmunney Cinema, Movie Reviews , , , , , , , , , , , , , 3 Comments

Sydney (and Glen) in Sydney (CREDIT: Brook Rushton/Sony Pictures Entertainment)

Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Alexandra Shipp, GaTa, Hadley Robinson, Dermot Mulroney, Rachel Griffiths, Michelle Hurd, Darren Barnet, Bryan Brown, Charlee Fraser, Joe Davidson

Director: Will Gluck

Running Time: 103 Minutes

Rating: R for Naughty Bits and Cheeky Language

Release Date: December 22, 2023 (Theaters)

What’s It About?: After an improbably passionate meet-cute that ends as terribly as possible, Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell) find themselves inexplicably thrust back into each other’s lives several months later when her sister Halle (Hadley Robinson) and his good friend Claudia (Alexandra Shipp) are getting married at a destination wedding in Sydney, Australia. Their petty sniping threatens to ruin the nuptials, so the brides and a few other guests concoct a scheme to get them to reignite the spark. Bea and Ben quickly catch on to the ruse, but instead of getting upset, they decide that the best way to get everyone off their backs is to just play along. Plus, their respective exes (Darren Barnet, Charlee Fraser) are also both in attendance, so this charade could siphon away some of the awkwardness from those encounters, or maybe even spark some jealousy. Of course, this being a romantic comedy and all, Bea and Ben are probably on a path to discovering that the fake relationship should maybe become the real deal.

What Made an Impression?: Only in Rom-Coms: The typical rom-com formula requires plenty of suspension of disbelief, what with all the unlikely encounters and easily resolvable misunderstandings. Anyone But You kind of pushes the limits of cliché, perhaps even to the point of parody. Bea and Ben’s meet-cute is especially absurd, as she runs into a coffee shop just to find a place to pee, and he buys her a drink so that she can become a paying customer. And this proves to be chivalrous enough for them to spend the night together! Then their big initial misunderstanding is based on the thinnest of circumstances, as she leaves his apartment the morning after before he wakes up, only to turn around just in time to hear him masking his insecurity by lying to a friend that he meant nothing to her. They eventually have ample opportunity to clear the confusion up, but both of them are too petty to do so. But the ridiculousness is kind of the point. The setup had to be that infuriating to really establish Bea and Ben as the ultimate rom-com protagonists.
All the Romance is a Stage: While I was eager to be charmed by Anyone But You‘s friendly cast and sunny harborside exteriors, I found some of the dialogue to be stilted and unnatural. But then I eventually locked into the vibe that it was going for. The story is based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, so it’s all about trickery and subterfuge, and self-awareness about that trickery and subterfuge, and self-awareness about that self-awareness. It’s hard not to occasionally sound like a doofus while diving too deep into this silly game. Considering the source material, I wonder how Anyone But You would’ve worked as a stage production, especially if it had encouraged mass audience participation. As it stands now in its cinematic form, it wisely encourages silliness on the part of all of its cast members, and also smartly decides to have low stakes masquerade as high stakes.
Stripping Down: Romantic movies that feature a lot of skin tend to be of the “erotic” or “gross-out” variety, but Anyone But You bucks that trend by maintaining the sweetness while also dropping trou on more than a few occasions. Part of that is surely attributable to a more liberal attitude towards nudity among Australians compared to Americans. Whatever the full reasoning behind this cheekiness, it helps to bolster the theme of vulnerability being good for the heart. And here’s the thing: with a combination of goofball energy, sunny beaches, and horniness, certain parts are just going to pop out at some point. It’s enough to drive you wild, and help you come to an important epiphany.

Anyone But You is Recommended If You Like: Vicarious traveling, Dermot Mulroney’s Silver Fox Era, Awkward everyday acrobatics

Grade: 4 out of 5 Deceptions