The Overnight

This movie is horrendous. Just 90 minutes of unfunny, uncomfortably lame little d*** jokes. None of the characters are particularly likeable and the whole plot will make you want to jam an ice pick into your eyes. Actually, that sounds way more enjoyable than rewatching this movie.

Greetings again from the darkness. For kindergartners, making friends is as easy as a bag of gummy worms on the playground. For adults, it's a bit more complicated. According to writer/director Patrick Brice (Creep, 2015) making adult friends can involve rectum paintings and penis prosthetics … at least after a lot of wine and too many bong hits. While this is not my wheelhouse for humor, it's clearly a bold cinematic step and pushes the boundaries even further than other recent Duplass Brothers projects (they are Producers here).

Emily (Taylor Schilling) and Alex (Adam Scott) have recently moved to L.A. from Seattle with their young son. Emily and Alex are good parents, good people, and a solid couple – except for some sexual incompatibility. While at the park, their son (and his gummy worms) befriends the son of Kurt (Jason Schwartzman), one of the endless oddballs that populate L.A. Kurt charms Emily and Alex into visiting his home for an adult dinner party/kid playdate.

Greeted at the door of the mansion by Kurt's French wife Charlotte (Judith Godreche), Emily and Alex are clearly wooed by the worldliness and sophistication of their new friends. Kurt is a bit of a renaissance man and he and Charlotte also appear to be a solid couple … though as the evening unfolds, we soon enough discover their own sexual incompatibility. And therein lies the core and conflict of the film – relationship dynamics impacted by sexual tension explored through raunchy humor.

It's interesting to compare Brice's film with Paul Mazursky's 1969 "Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice", and analyze the cultural and cinematic differences brought on by the 46 year difference. What was shocking then, is nothing compared to what this film has us believe that most young adult couples are struggling with now. Emily and Alex spend the evening exploring their boundaries as individuals and as a couple, while being softly pushed by the more adventurous Kurt and Charlotte. Were it not so raunchy, the theme would be more interesting … though significantly less appealing at the box office.

All four lead actors are strong, but Schwartzman and Scott handle the more challenging roles with aplomb. Given my preferences, I could have used a safe word on a couple of occasions, but the real test will be whether audiences find the film a bold step forward, or whether it is judged to be shock for shock's sake.

I saw this ages ago but I decided to review it when I found out it was by the same guy who did the "Creep" movies. How about that. I like finding out things like that.

This movie is quite singular. It has this unassuming, disquieting power, like the first act of thriller where everyone thinks everything is fine until everything isn't. With limited characters, setting and time lapse (it is indeed the events of a night) the effect relies on making sure the characters are vivid and three dimensional and they all just pop of the screen.

It always has this sense of build up to something immense and never quite pays off so I'm tempted to say it's more like one of half or two thirds of a great movie without really being a great movie itself, though its a great two thirds.

it's on one level very simple; an innocent rendez-vous of an inhibited couple and an exhibitionist couple leads us to find that neither is exactly what they seem.

it's not really a profound or vivid narrative. It's more like those dinner parties you have in your life where the conversations plus the wine makes you think you've had an epiphany on how to unlock the potential of living until the next morning where you just get to work as usual.

it's definitely the journey not the destination and you get an agreeable amount of frankness about human sexuality. it's not always easy viewing but it shows an admirable amount of restraint in its script.

Memorable but I still feel a bit at a loss for what it was even trying to say.

As a comedy and as a gradually unfolding mystery, the film simply works. Mainly because all involved make it seem somehow plausible. A well crafted film that for me was quite surprising, as I had no idea what to expect going into it. It's not really the kind of story that I'm interested in exactly, but at the same time it's difficult to say that the film isn't worth watching. It is entertaining for the most part, and it definitely is somewhat original in my estimation, and even a little thought provoking.

6.5/10.

Short and sweet, Patrick Brice's foursome mumblecore The Overnight is disguised as a more accessible comedy, headlined by Adam Scott and Jason Schwartzman along with Taylor Schilling. Thriving on awkward humour at the expense of new age lifestyles and anxieties, it treads a fine line of endearingly goofy, unexpectedly incisive and plain weird. However, in its brief runtime, it spends sequences on the mundane, highlighting a couple relatable aspects such as Scott's believable inability to make real friends. Its theme of sexual desires outside of monogamy brings to light a harsh truth that many would quietly acknowledge and it's sparked by the idea of that freedom, though it's an energy that's swiftly interrupted. It's not very visually inspired, including two very dangly and infamous props, but Taylor Schilling is a bright spark of the cast while Adam Scott holds his own in a feature film. Meanwhile Schwartzman is less of a person than a caricature but that is surely the intention behind the pair to bring out the humanity in Schilling and Scott. The Overnight earns a few chuckles and a few insights but it's mostly held back by its brevity but it has a sincerity through all the slight wackiness that makes it work, if just a little bit.

7/10