ROUGH NIGHT ■ A hen’s night with plenty of clucks
It’d be easy to relegate ROUGH NIGHT to THE HANGOVER with female leads, but that would be an oversimplification. Director Lucia Aniello (BROAD CITY) has collected a group of funny leading ladies to carry a story that mostly shouldn’t work. If you’ve seen the trailer, you’ll know what I’m talking about in terms of the big plot wrinkle that the girls have to deal with, but if you haven’t, it’s best experienced fresh for the first time, so avoid those trailers if you can.
It’s a twist that’s too dark for the kind of tone for which ROUGH NIGHT is gunning, and it sporadically forces the movie out of frequently hilarious territory into an odd thriller. The conflicting tones don’t play nice together, and you’re basically left waiting for the tone to forge back into full-fledged comedic territory, which is where the cast shines. Interestingly, two of the bigger names play second fiddle in terms of the laughs than the rest of the crew.
Scarlett Johansson and Zoë Kravitz are funny enough, but are often upstaged by the comedic mastery of Kate McKinnon (GHOSTBUSTERS), Ilana Glazer (BROAD CITY), and Jillian Bell (WORKAHOLICS). These respective TV comedians turned big-screen jokesters are clearly masters of ad lib and they consistently garner the biggest laughs. Props to Kate McKinnon for consistently nailing an Aussie accent, too.
The big dramatic sticking point wraps up a little too neatly, but it’s an easy oversight to forgive considering just how many laughs you’ll have between start and simplistic conclusion. There’s plenty of room here for a sequel, too, as you could throw this comedic crew into almost any situation and they’d turn it into laughs. But, if I’m being honest, that’s mostly because I’d love to see the comedic crew get back together for another chance at big laughs.
