Review By Mallory Moreno and Cristina Stevens
Rough Night depicts the story of 5 women who go from fun to fiasco in a matter of minutes. The main character Jess (Scarlette Johanson) is ready for her bachelorette weekend of shenanigans with her best friends from college – Alice (Jillian Bell), Blair (Zoe Kravitz), Frankie (Ilana Glazer), and Pippa (Kate McKinnon). Instead she gets a night of poor decision making that could lead to the end of her upcoming nuptials, her career, and – for lack of a better cliché – her life as she knows it.
While the story clearly understood the complexity and authentic bond of female friendship, it pigeonholed each character just as many other drama/rom-com films do. I found myself stereotyping the characters as we got a taste of their background story, and was disappointed at how accurate my assumptions were. The glue of the group, Jess (Johanson) is your standard type A female who is oblivious to the shortcomings of her friends due to her own successes. The “larger” friend, Alice (Bell) is your good hearted woman who uses the persona of “wild child” to mask her own insecurities. Blair (Kravitz) is your repressed black woman living the life of a privileged white female (gasp!). The quirky foreigner Pippa (McKinnon) added in for additional comedic effect and drama. Frankie (Glazer) seemed to me the most type-cast actress in the film playing an eerily familiar character one might have recognized in the show “Broad City.”
Along with the character predictability there were several plots that were easy to surmise due to redundant foreshadowing. However my movie buddy did say “It was not as predictable as I predicted it to be”. There were few plot trails that did not turn out exactly as I envisioned which was a refreshing surprise.
Despite the films shortcomings, there were several well-delivered crude jokes that evoked the special kind of discomfort that results in laughter. I was also impressed with the cameos from several actors and actresses who afforded small, yet hilarious pieces to the film. I highly recommend staying through the end credits to get more closure on what would otherwise be seen as a plot hole. Overall, this movie was no “Bridesmaids”, nevertheless it is good for a laugh and takes you on a wild cinematic adventure.
