Year of Release: 2017
Director: Lucia Aniello
Starring: Scarlett Johansson, Kate McKinnon, Zoe Kravitz, Jillian Bell, Ilana Glazer, Paul W. Downs, Ryan Cooper, Ty Burrell, Demi Moore, Enrique Murciano, Dean Winters, Colton Haynes, Eric Andre, Bo Burnham, Hasan Minhaj, Karan Soni, Laura Grey, Patrick Carlyle
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 3
Watch it on Tubi
Synopsis and Review
The creative team behind the well reviewed show "Hacks" created this feature before that show started. The narrative focuses on a group of college friends, all of whom went their separate ways upon completion of their degree and who have tried to stay in touch ever since with various degrees of success. Jess who is running for office, decides to get married to her longtime love Peter, and the group of friends, headed by Alice, decide to have a bachelorette party in Miami, Florida. The group is soon also joined by Jess' friend from Australia, Pippa. They go to a club in Miami, where they peer pressure each other to do drugs, and Frankie decides to hire a male stripper to entertain Jess. An attractive man shows up at the vacation house, and they assume he's the stripper. He plays along, getting Alice all fired up. She jumps on him, he slips, hits his head on the fireplace and dies instantly. They're all in a state of shock, not knowing what to do, but they eventually decide to get rid of the body. All their attempts fail. In the meantime, Jess had called Peter, but the call dropped, leading Peter to mistakenly perceive Jess' attitude as wanting to cancel the wedding. His friends pump him up to drive all the way to Florida to win Jess back.
When conceiving "Rough Night" I imagine if Paul W. Downs (who plays Peter) and his creative partner Lucia Aniello, pitched the concept as a hybrid of "The Hangover" and "Bridesmaids". If that is indeed the case, the addition of the concept of those two films into "Rough Night" doesn't necessarily come across as a sound strategy and particularly, a great execution. Unlike "Bridesmaids", this group of women who are supposed to be close friends, even if time has distanced themselves from each other, don't seem to have much in common, or for that matter, much desire to spend time together. While Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph genuinely felt like long time friends, in this case, this group seems like a random assortment of people jammed together, pretending to have chemistry or to even care for each other. There simply isn't much of a sense of connection, and some of the performers of the group even seem to be on very different films. Another big issue with the film lies with the overall tone: it oscillates between a quasi depraved and mean spirited scenario (a bunch of women killing a stranger and wanting to get rid of the body), but on the other, it wants to be a romantic comedy where everyone is just quirky, and the happy ending is just around the corner (featuring pratfalls, driving a packed smart cart, engaging in a threesome with an older couple). Ultimately it feels more like a film where story items were selected from a list, in the hopes of making a coherent storyline, more so than an actual narrative with characters who have to face some tough decisions. The cast is all over the place, with Scarlett Johansson clearly miscast, with the only one salvaging the situation being Kate McKinnon who is clearly savoring the role of a chilled Australian. Ty Burrell and Demi Moore (please get them together for another film soon), are cast as an horny version of The Ropers, and they steal every scene in which they show up, but sadly they have very little screen time. The production team is solid but by no means remarkable. This is a film that feels more like a calculated endeavor, sadly it just never gels and ultimately feels like a waste of talent and time for everyone involved. Avoid.
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