Sex laws get overshadowed by likable leads.
Just as all crime was legal for one night in “The Purge” and drugs and alcohol were legal for one night in “The Binge,” premarital sex has been outlawed except for one night in “One Night Only.” It’s called “The Mandate.” To tell, people are branded with bio sensors with different markings like a bat or lighthouse. The green mark means they’re married and the red mark means they’re not. And the red mark changes to green when it’s time for legal premarital sex. And if an unmarried man had sex with a woman, then the sensors would alert the police.
From some stand points, the Mandate has deuced teenage pregnancy, and as Bobby Cannavale and Pete Davidson deduce in their cameos: they can film movies without paparazzi and young TikTok users screwing around. But in most cases, you better believe people will be protesting: “F the Mandate!” At the very least, you’re allowed to romantically kiss, have gay relationships, and masturbate in your bedroom.
That’s the set-up for Will Gluck’s latest romcom “One Night Only,” and while the law would be exhausting in real life (in fact, any fascist laws of sorts are irritating in any universe), it still likes to express the idea in its own bubbly fashion. Now that I think about it, it’s like it wants to give “Brazil” and “Children of Men” a charming feel with very little “V for Vendetta” and more pleasure and energy.
The place is New York City and the main characters the film likes to make into a couple consist of a pizzeria owner named Owen (Callum Turner) and a singer named Allie (Monica Barbaro). They’re both photogenic, but can’t keep relationships in tact. His spouse (Maya Hawke) is planning to sleep with their apartment super, while she has given up on love and writes sad songs. And his mother (Molly Ringwald) and her partner (LeVar Burton) want him out of the house to find a new person to score with.
Owen and Allie both meet under unfortunate circumstances-one of them seems to be inspired by how “Bewitched” began with the bumping into each other gesture-and they find themselves in similar situations. He gets his stuff stolen by a sexy thief (Sydney Cole Alexander), while she nearly has sex with a parolee (Andrew Burnap). And condoms sell out to the point of them stealing the last expensive one in a case.
Now a law like the Mandate would be irritating, considering that people do get horny. And what this movie doesn’t seem to think about is that if a rapist attacked a woman on a different day of the year, then the sensors could alert the authorities. And you hope that victim will speak out against him. But I suppose the film doesn’t want to think about something as disgusting as rape, but rather two individuals who have relationship problems but find each other.
I think the best way to deal with the Mandate is for them to see Gregg Araki’s latest sex comedy “I Want Your Sex,” which doesn’t care about rules or cliches. “One Night Only” has rules and cliches, but it also has some likable leads as Turner and Barbaro provide some energy and some good humor, and it also has a nice soundtrack to level out the playing field. And there are times when you hope the Mandate will be eradicated or, at the very least, not be given the satisfaction.
When I enjoyed “The Forever Purge,” I wrote in my review: I’m being very generous by not only giving this final chapter a positive feedback, but also a fair warning to keep it that way.” At least, I hoped it was the final chapter. And when I panned the holiday sequel “It’s a Wonderful Binge,” I mentioned this: “Why are mean characters supposed to be funny? You can’t drop F-bombs because you’re in an R-rated movie; you’re supposed to say them with sincerity. I can never understand this part of the comedy genre. It just doesn’t make me feel good.”
“One Night Only” tries to sneak in some mean characters, but they get blown out of the way. It has a lot of people in the streets having sex and partying, but they aren’t hostile or mean-spirited. And it doesn’t choose to be violent or cynical in any genre. It just wants to try to find its own definition of romance, and it doesn’t act so cocky about it. Pun intended.
