If traditional Christmas fare like Miracle on 34th
Street and It’s a Wonderful Life are, well, a bit
too traditional for your tastes—by that I mean there’s little to no hard drug
use, few if any curse words, and absolutely no close up images of genitals—then
2015 is your lucky year. This holiday season we have director Jonathan Levine’s
The Night Before, and it is crude, crass, sweeter than you
may expect, and, most importantly, really goddamn funny.
Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Anthony Mackie star as
Isaac, Ethan, and Chris. Ethan lost his parents right before Christmas 14 years
ago, and to cheer him up and get him out of the depression that followed, his
two lifelong bffs did what all great friends do, they took him out and got him
wasted. This Christmas Eve tradition has endured, but as they get older, real
life starts to intrude—Ethan is about to have his first child, and Chris, a
professional football player, is too famous to go out in public without being
mobbed. Only Ethan clings to this annual evening of debauchery, using it as a
crutch to avoid growing up and moving on, but they have mutually agreed that
this is the last year. If they’re going out, however, they’re going out with a
bang at the white whale of Christmas party they’ve been searching out for
years.
What follows is a drug and alcohol fueled evening as they
run through a best-of list of their previous years—they karaoke RUN DMC, bang
hipsters in bars, and get rowdy in every conceivable way. From this collection
of creative minds—Rogen’s writing and directing partner, Evan Goldberg
(Superbad, The Interview), collaborated
on the script—you get all the inventive use of blue language that you expect.
The script is gleefully profane in glorious, occasionally
even head-scratching ways, but there’s also a greater emotional depth to the
story than you may initially anticipate, though it does make sense. Last time
Levine collaborated with Gordon-Levitt and Rogen it was for
50/50, which you may remember is a comedy, a comedy about a
young man dealing with cancer that is as touching as it is funny. Though
The Night Before is far more raucous an affair, it also has
that softer side.
At its core, The Night Before is a sweet
story about friendship, especially the uphill battle these relationships face
as you get older and grow up, and how important they remain. Isaac and Chris
appear to have their lives together, and think they do, while Ethan flounders,
working dead end jobs, ruining romantic relationships with an inability to
mature. While that’s very true, Isaac and Chris aren’t quite as solid as they
think. Though he pretends to be a rock for his wife, Betsy (Jillian Bell),
Isaac is freaking out about being a father, and while Chris is experiencing a
late-career athletic resurgence, the reasons behind it aren’t entirely above
board.
Through all of the let’s-get-wild shenanigans and chaos, the
three also have to navigate the tricky waters of their friendship and
adulthood. The Night Before is a balance between these two
sides, and this sensitive center never negatively impacts the over-the-top
mayhem, and actually makes the coarse, vulgar humor even more affecting and endearing,
giving it unexpected layers.
There’s so much more to the story than just three friends
going out and getting nuts, and the stars are all at the top of their games.
Gordon-Levitt gives Ethan a complexity that belies the general approach of the
movie, and while he could have easily been just a guy who needs to grow up,
there’s an underlying psychological intricacy. Mackie is big and boisterous,
which hides Chris’ deeper fear and insecurities, which he gradually lets out
over the course of the movie. Rogen is essentially a more grown-up version of
the jovial, goofy stoner he plays in most movies, but it’s as fun as ever, and
that maturity that really sets this apart from his earlier roles.
In interviews leading up to The Night
Before, Rogen has said that he couldn’t and wouldn’t have written
Superbad today, that those things aren’t important enough to
him that he would devote that much time to them anymore. That evolution—one
that may have its origins in the likes of Neighbors— is
readily apparent in this movie, on all fronts, and reflects the changing
concerns of the creators as they themselves get older.
As you might expect from the folks behind the likes of
This is the End, The Night Before is
speckled with appearances from their celebrity friends. Bell (22 Jump Street) is a blast as the coolest wife ever, but also adds nice touches
to her and Isaac’s marriage; Lizzy Caplan (Masters of Sex)
is Ethan’s one-that-got-away; Mindy Kaling (The Mindy
Project) lends her particular style of humor to a few scenes; and
Ilana Glazer (Broad City) plays a human embodiment of the
Grinch. And that’s just a few of the famous faces you’ll see.
Outside of the main cast, however, Michael Shannon
(Boardwalk Empire, Man of Steel) is the
true MVP. He plays Mr. Green, a weed dealer slash pseudo spiritual guide,
punctuating the film with his special brand of intense menace, cut with an
awkward humor, steering our heroes more than they’ll ever know. I can’t say
enough about him, and as great as he is elsewhere, you’ve never seen him like
this—he is what truly elevates this movie and makes it something special.
Granted, The Night Before does have a bit
of a downturn in the middle where the pace starts to flag, and the emotional
side of the story does spin its wheels for a few scenes—it’s damn near
impossible to maintain the breakneck pace for an entire movie. And while there
are great jokes, a number miss their mark. Still, this is a relatively minor
concern, and The Night Before is funny and moving and
destined to become a new, left-of-center holiday classic.
[Grade: B+]
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