ONE NIGHT ONLY

Let's tackle the insane plot; it's such a wild choice to make this plot contrivance. The film wants to use this "sex ban" to offer some social satire on the current state of the world, but it's never smart enough to fully develop a clear point of view and ultimately ends with a take that seems pro-mandate. The film also does and doesn't want to dive into the history of how we got here and why this restriction exists. We learn that the mandate has lowered teen pregnancy rates, but it only applies to those over 18, so this is just one of many contradictions the film presents in its explanation of the mandate. Everyone over 18 has to get a sensor "tattoo" that is red or green depending on whether they are allowed to have sex, an idea that is presented to us but never explained. How does the sex sensor know if you're having sex, does it alert the authorities straight away, how does it do that, do you have to get scan check in constantly, how was everyone okay with this, how was it enforced, they also state you must wear a condom but how does the sensor know? Like every other rule the film presents about the mandate, it just unleashes too many questions that film does not care, nor know, how to answer.

The film also has a "live, laugh, love" energy when it comes to people fighting the mandate. Most of the dialogue comes down to "this mandate sucks but, oh well, nothing we can do". To have this plot where the government has restricted intercourse could be an interesting satirical social commentary, or it could have gone down the route of not acknowledging it at all, and the focus is just the love story, but here it's a weird middle ground that just doesn't know what it wants to say.

The film also feels very "first take". Lines are spoken softly, jokes are passed weirdly, everything feels like it was a rehearsal, and the actors never got the chance to warm up and have fun. Pacing is important in a comedy, and there are funny jokes, but they are just delivered weirdly or performed underbaked, which makes them fall flat. The film also packs a lot of cameos - Julia Fox, Ben Marshall, Nicholas Braun, Pete Davidson, Bobby Cannavale, Este Haim and my queen Ziwe. All of them feel so wasted, like they are here just to make you go, "Oh, them!"

In the minimal run time that Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner are allowed to be romantic rather than just share the screen, they have great chemistry. If this were more focused on the romantic aspects of a rom-com, Barbaro and Turner would have been electric to watch, but here they just don't have much to do romantically. The film is 80% finding condoms (so much of the film's hijinks are over getting condoms; it's the whole first act), 10% attempted social comedy satire, 5% pop songs, 5% romance.

'One Night Only', like us, is too fixated on its odd premise but just doesn't know what to do with it. To the detriment of Barbaro and Turner's chemistry, it's a rom-com that attempts both, but the script needed more than 'One Night Only' to make it work.