The Night Before: Secret Party

I need to watch more holiday movies this month and this randomly popped up on my feed. I don't know why I didn't watch this in theaters because it was pretty funny. You can tell a lot of the jokes were improvised on the spot (which I love) and Michael Shannon might be my favorite thing about it.

This is one of those fun movies that you forget about for 11 months of the year and then when you are scrolling through looking for a movie over Christmas and sure enough, you watch it and love it all over again.

There are plot holes in this, but don't think too hard, just enjoy it. It is a sweet premise for a movie of friends helping friends and holding up a tradition. Seth Rogan high on every drug under the sun is always fun to watch.

But the highlight of this movie is Michael Shannon. His weird creepy intense vibe works so well in this and I can't stop laughing every time he is on screen.

This film tells the story of three friends who finally gets the tickets to go to the most epic Christmas party of all time.

"The Night Before" is a silly, drug fuelled journey that lasts for one evening. There are loads of eye rolling moments that are meant to be funny, but ends up frustrating me. It's tiring to see adults acting irresponsibly and recklessly as if consequences do not matter. The only redeeming part of the film is the extended cameo with James Franco. That part is funny and saves the film a bit. Overall, I think the film is not so entertaining, as it's too brainless and unfunny. Maybe I'll have to be in the right state of mind to enjoy it.

Good fun, this - it's a fairly uninspired premise overall, but the dialogue and performances are so strong it almost brings it to a realm of its own.

Not funny or clever enough to be an 8, but too entertaining & powerful and understated (particularly now, in 2024 when everything is heavy handed to the point of childish) to be a 6 - as Christmas films go, it's really good. As far As films in general, it's very average and probably not massively re watchable on its own cinematic merits.

That being said, I wish there were more Christmas movies of this ilk, properly for adults with heart without resorting to heavy-handed schmaltz, and a bit sweary - I guess the reviews here indicate the audience for them isn't as vast as I'd like to think (same for the brilliantly original Violent Night), but I for one would love to see a film made soon which leans into the adult energy as wholesale as this does. Too many 'adult' Christmas films lately are trying too hard to please everyone. The Night Before is refreshing and increasingly a festive staple for me, year on year.

Recommend.

Seth Rogen is a rather intelligent producer. He and his pals (including Evan Goldberg, James Franco, Mindy Kaling, Lizzy Caplan, Randall Park etc.) have created an unusual semi-surreal kind of weird comedies, like "The interview" and "This is the end".

In The Night Before (2015/II) (because there is another (2015/I) movie with the same name in 2015 starring David Faustino!)...3 friends spend every Xmas together in search for a great party and having a good time. The dramatic element here is that one of them lost his parents in a car accident and the other 2 are trying to be supportive.

The problem is that this movie seems like it is designed to provoke, even shock. Trying to extrude laughter through harsh and dramatic situations without actually entering the limits of a black comedy.

Drugs and "tripping" play a major part in the movie. A tone of supernatural. And of course sex and relationships and friendships, the "bro" kind. Yet there are a lot to be desired and a major part of the film, although uneven, takes the lead and makes lifelong friendship to seem like it is just an excuse for some crude jokes like blood from a dripping nose into someone's drink or vomiting into a church during Xmas mass.

Overall: You wont be missing much if you avoid to see this. In the end, the basic idea of bro-friendship seems like an excuse from some surreal gags.