Uneven raunchy romp better than many
“Rough Night” is good one minute, weak or stilted or wince-y the next, though even with its seriously uneven pacing and inventiveness it’s a somewhat better low comedy than “Snatched” or “Bad Moms” or (here’s where I part company with theworld) the “Hangover” pictures. Yes, even the first one.
The premise is “Bridesmaids” marries“Weekend at Bernie’s,” and the raunch level is persistent, verging on “skeevy enough for ya?” At their Miami bachelorette party weekend, five longtime college friends reunite for awee bacchanal. These are aspiring state senator Jess (Scarlett Johansson); schoolteacher Alice (Jillian Bell), Jess’ needy friend who has organized the weekend down to the last pair of penis-nose eyeglasses; borderline-homeless activist Frankie (Ilana Glazer), whose onetime lover, Blair (Zoe Kravitz), is in the middle of a custody battle; and Jess’ junior-year-abroad pal from Australia, Pippa (Kate Mc Kinnon), whom jealous Alice systematically undermines in a fairly tiresome running gag.
Pretty quickly, and purely by accident, Alice kills the male stripper hired for the occasion, which leads to a fair amount of panic about proper corpse disposal. (In its spec-script stage, the original title of “Rough Night” was “Move That Body.”) Meantime Jess’ straight-laced, distraught fiancee (Paul W. Downs), hopped up on expired Russian Adderall and Red Bull, drives like a maniac down from Charleston, S.C., desperate to see if his beloved is in trouble or really, really serious trouble. The script by director Lucia Aniello and Downs (partners in life aswell as in writing) escalates the adversity in orderly three-act form. Aniello’s work on “Broad City” is in a significantly higher and more sophisticated level of effrontery than “Rough Night.” Still, what’s happening in the margins here is often interesting.
There’s a strong subtext of anger to be found: Jess trails her political opponent in the polls, even though he’s been sexting up a storm and sending Anthony Weiner-type photos to his followers. At regular intervals, Jess and friends take time out for heartfelt expressions of regret and disappointment; then, with a jerk of the gears, it’s back to the randy pansexual beach house neighbors (Ty Burrell and Demi-Moore), who have their eye on Blair.
This reportedly is the first R-rated studio comedy directed by awoman in years. As such, there’s a completely stupid degree of
pressure on Aniello to deliver. She’s less attuned to the violent altercations and painful slapstick (not helped by some odd, stilted editing rhythms) and more successful with the verbal asides and comic detours. Theway McKinnon’s Aussie dialect lays into certain phrases (her long o’s on “no joke” are the longest o’s ever heard outside Minnesota), or the witty awkwardness of Jess’ campaign ad we see near the beginning— these and other details belong to one picture, while the cocaine- and alcoholfueled insanity is off on another mission altogether. As I say: It’s better than a lot of the hard-Rrated crud we’ve had lately, which says what it says. I hope “Rough Night” makes a profit, so Aniello can get to her second film and then her third.