The bachelorette party comedy "Rough Night" (R, 1:41) brings together an element that Movie Fans rarely find on both sides of the camera – women. Well, women in prominent roles anyway. In 1982's "Fast Times at Ridgemont High", female characters had what were (for that era) relatively empowered roles, but the movie was still mainly about guys who were either pursuing girls or hanging out with their buds. Still, "Fast Times" was a bawdy comedy directed by a woman (Amy Heckerling) who, in the spirit of equality, shot full frontal female AND male nudity
although the latter had to be edited out in order to avoid the box office-killing "X" rating (eight years before NC-17 became an option). The next big step forward for women in R-rated comedies came 17 years later with the first "American Pie" in which the female characters were as sexually savvy and empowered as the male characters on that big screen.
Since the 21st century began, more such movies have shown us women operating on more-or-less equal footing with the men, sexually, socially and intellectually. Examples include, "Wedding Crashers" (2005), "Knocked Up" (2007), "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (2008) (that one with more male than female nudity, thanks to Jason Segel's lack of inhibitions), "Adventureland" (2009) and, in 2011, "Horrible Bosses", "Bad Teacher" and, of course, "Bridesmaids", but all those movies were directed by men and written (mostly) by men, with the notable exception of that last one (thanks, Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo). However, despite the success of "Bridesmaids" at the box office and during the 2011-2012 awards season, the next six years only saw one R-rated comedy with women in vital roles both on screen and behind the scenes (2015's "Sisters", written by Paula Pell) until 2017. It has been a long wait for a "Rough Night".
Scarlett Johansson is getting married! Well, her character Jess is anyway, so she's getting together with her four best friends from college for a bachelorette weekend in Miami. But things have changed a lot for (almost) all of them since the beer-pong and estrogen-fueled best years of their lives. Jess is a concerned citizen who is running for the state senate (!), Blair (Zoe Kravitz) and Frankie (Ilana Glazer) were a couple in college, but have grown apart – with Blair as a successful career woman who married (a man!) and Frankie as an unemployed semi-professional liberal activist. The person who has changed the least is the one who organized this getaway weekend, Alice (Jillian Bell), a lonely (and horny) elementary school teacher whose only real joy in life comes from being part of Jess' life. Alice is sure that she's Jess' best friend, until Pippa (Kate McKinnon), a friend from Jess' semester in Australia, arrives for the party.
A night of drinking (which is somewhat awkward because of Alice's jealousy of Pippa) turns into a party at the ladies' borrowed glass house on the beach – and soon gets completely out of hand. The girls order a stripper and pizza. When a guy knocks on their door, the girls whisk him in and he starts dancing for them. The now-uptight Jess gets offended by his dirty talk, so the girls sit him in her chair and, after taking a running start, Alice jumps into the guy's lap. He falls backward, hits his head on the corner of the fireplace ledge – and dies! As the girls argue about what to do next, decide to move the body and then work on various ideas of how to get rid of it, they struggle to hide what has happened from their nosy, swinging neighbors (Demi Moore and Ty Burrell), someone walking their dog and several people who knock on the front door for various reasons. In the meantime, an upsetting interrupted phone call from Jess leads her fiancé (Paul W. Downs) to leave his (humorously lame) bachelor party and take, as one of his friends calls it, a "sad astronaut" road trip down to Miami to try and preserve his engagement.
"Rough Night" is creative, well-put together and, best of all, decadently and darkly diverting. The comparisons to movies like "Bachelor Party" (1984), "Weekend at Bernie's" (1989), "Very Bad Things" (1999), "The Hangover" (2009) and, of course, "Bridesmaids", are inevitable – and not unfair – but this one measures up well in their company. Its plot twists are its own and it's laugh-out-loud-funny, while speaking with a female voice. Director and co-writer, Lucia Aniello (making her first feature film), centers the action on the complicated and relatable relationships among these five women, while showing that they can be just as wild – and funny – as their male counterparts. Johannson herself isn't especially funny, but she plays uptight and (relatively) innocent very well, McKinnon effectively plays a down-under version of her typical loopy movie characters, Bell is as entertaining as ever, as she and Kravitz and Glazer give us a mix of drama and comedy that most of us haven't see from them before. Moore and Burrell are an unexpected treat as a randy and uninhibited couple and Downs is a revelation as the neurotic fiancé – and this film's co-writer! But even with all that, not to be written off as a "chick flick", the comedy ranges from scandalous situations to silly slapstick to salacious sight gags, all supporting a very good story. This movie is enjoyable enough to make anyone's rough night a little less rough. "B+"
Since the 21st century began, more such movies have shown us women operating on more-or-less equal footing with the men, sexually, socially and intellectually. Examples include, "Wedding Crashers" (2005), "Knocked Up" (2007), "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" (2008) (that one with more male than female nudity, thanks to Jason Segel's lack of inhibitions), "Adventureland" (2009) and, in 2011, "Horrible Bosses", "Bad Teacher" and, of course, "Bridesmaids", but all those movies were directed by men and written (mostly) by men, with the notable exception of that last one (thanks, Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo). However, despite the success of "Bridesmaids" at the box office and during the 2011-2012 awards season, the next six years only saw one R-rated comedy with women in vital roles both on screen and behind the scenes (2015's "Sisters", written by Paula Pell) until 2017. It has been a long wait for a "Rough Night".
Scarlett Johansson is getting married! Well, her character Jess is anyway, so she's getting together with her four best friends from college for a bachelorette weekend in Miami. But things have changed a lot for (almost) all of them since the beer-pong and estrogen-fueled best years of their lives. Jess is a concerned citizen who is running for the state senate (!), Blair (Zoe Kravitz) and Frankie (Ilana Glazer) were a couple in college, but have grown apart – with Blair as a successful career woman who married (a man!) and Frankie as an unemployed semi-professional liberal activist. The person who has changed the least is the one who organized this getaway weekend, Alice (Jillian Bell), a lonely (and horny) elementary school teacher whose only real joy in life comes from being part of Jess' life. Alice is sure that she's Jess' best friend, until Pippa (Kate McKinnon), a friend from Jess' semester in Australia, arrives for the party.
A night of drinking (which is somewhat awkward because of Alice's jealousy of Pippa) turns into a party at the ladies' borrowed glass house on the beach – and soon gets completely out of hand. The girls order a stripper and pizza. When a guy knocks on their door, the girls whisk him in and he starts dancing for them. The now-uptight Jess gets offended by his dirty talk, so the girls sit him in her chair and, after taking a running start, Alice jumps into the guy's lap. He falls backward, hits his head on the corner of the fireplace ledge – and dies! As the girls argue about what to do next, decide to move the body and then work on various ideas of how to get rid of it, they struggle to hide what has happened from their nosy, swinging neighbors (Demi Moore and Ty Burrell), someone walking their dog and several people who knock on the front door for various reasons. In the meantime, an upsetting interrupted phone call from Jess leads her fiancé (Paul W. Downs) to leave his (humorously lame) bachelor party and take, as one of his friends calls it, a "sad astronaut" road trip down to Miami to try and preserve his engagement.
"Rough Night" is creative, well-put together and, best of all, decadently and darkly diverting. The comparisons to movies like "Bachelor Party" (1984), "Weekend at Bernie's" (1989), "Very Bad Things" (1999), "The Hangover" (2009) and, of course, "Bridesmaids", are inevitable – and not unfair – but this one measures up well in their company. Its plot twists are its own and it's laugh-out-loud-funny, while speaking with a female voice. Director and co-writer, Lucia Aniello (making her first feature film), centers the action on the complicated and relatable relationships among these five women, while showing that they can be just as wild – and funny – as their male counterparts. Johannson herself isn't especially funny, but she plays uptight and (relatively) innocent very well, McKinnon effectively plays a down-under version of her typical loopy movie characters, Bell is as entertaining as ever, as she and Kravitz and Glazer give us a mix of drama and comedy that most of us haven't see from them before. Moore and Burrell are an unexpected treat as a randy and uninhibited couple and Downs is a revelation as the neurotic fiancé – and this film's co-writer! But even with all that, not to be written off as a "chick flick", the comedy ranges from scandalous situations to silly slapstick to salacious sight gags, all supporting a very good story. This movie is enjoyable enough to make anyone's rough night a little less rough. "B+"