June 19, 2017 · Watch the official trailer
More so than any other genre, comedy is entirely dependent on good writing to make a film work.
As its title may suggest, “Rough Night” delivers disjointed moments of genuine humor and follows up with lazy, uncreative sex jokes that wane over the course of the film.
Penned by “Broad City” writers Lucia Aniello and Paul W. Downs, “Rough Night” is a bland, thinly constructed script derivative of smart, raunchy comedies like “The Hangover” or “Bridesmaids.” In this case, the film also acts as a de facto reboot of the 1998 dark comedy “Very Bad Things,” which saw a bachelor party go bad when a prostitute is killed at the party.
Very bad things happen to Scarlett Johannson’s Jess and her group of friends in Miami for her bachelorette party when one of the bridesmaids accidentally kills the stripper they hired to perform for Jess. What ensues is a cavalcade of errors as the girls attempt to dispose of the dead body undetected.
“Rough Night” marks yet another pedestrian turn from former Academy Award nominee Johannson, as if the actress is just taking another paycheck before committing to the quality independent film projects she shines in like “Lost In Translation” or “Her.”
Playing the straight part to balance out the quirky characters with all the punchlines is a difficult task for any actor. With Johannson, she never really builds genuine chemistry with her co-stars in a performance that feels incredibly mailed-in.
Jillian Bell, on the other hand, rambles through every scene like a bull in a china shop as self proclaimed maid of honor Alice whether she’s aggressively brow-beating her friends into having fun or ferociously snorting drugs to hide them from the cops. It’s a classic try-too-hard performance that does the comedy a disservice at times as Bell grinds Alice into the film’s most grating character.
Once again, “Saturday Night Live” star Kate McKinnon steals the show in a comedy far beneath her talents with a hilarious, quirky performance as Pippa, Jess’s Australian friend. While accents on comedies often come across as poor gimmicks, McKinnon takes great care to make her Australian tone and phrasing feel authentic. Her performance, especially in her eyes, elevates the material to the next level and makes the comedy better than it should be based on the delivery alone.
Demi Moore and “Modern Family” star Ty Burrell make what amounts to an extended cameo as an adventurous, open couple looking to bring home one of Jess’s bridesmaids. It’s an unexpected change of pace for Moore and much less so for Burrell, but neither actor has any sustainable impact on the film itself.
“Rough Night” continues a trend in recent Hollywood comedies to pack in as much crude humor as they can reasonably get away with in a R-rating film. The punchlines are often hit or miss and the plot routinely takes a back seat in the screenwriting process as the writers ladle sex joke after drug joke after sex joke to little effect.
Despite that, moviegoers looking for a raunchy, moderately fun time at the theaters should give “Rough Night” a chance for McKinnon’s scene-stealing turn alone. If a middle-of-the-pack comedy doesn’t seem worth a trip to the movies, however, audiences could easily wait to have a “Rough Night” in the privacy of their own homes.
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