One Night Only (dir. Will Gluck)
Certificate: 15
Running Time: 102 mins
UK Distributor: Universal Pictures
UK Release Date: 28 August 2026
WHO’S IN ONE NIGHT ONLY?
Monica Barbaro, Callum Turner, Maya Hawke, Julia Fox, Molly Ringwald, LeVar Burton, Okieriete Onaodowan, Este Haim, Ziwe, King Princess, Ben Marshall, Nicholas Braun, Quintessa Swindell, Michelle Hurd
WHO’S BEHIND THE CAMERA?
Will Gluck (director, producer), Travis Braun (writer), Jacqueline Monetta (producer), Yaron Orbach (cinematographer), Robert Nassau and Tia Nolan (editors)
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Two strangers (Barbaro and Turner) find each other on the one day of the year when single people are legally allowed to have sex…
WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON ONE NIGHT ONLY?
I’m not going to lie to you, folks: One Night Only was incredibly difficult for me to watch. I’ve seen movies this year that are overall much worse in their overall craft, from Balls Up to Ice Cream Man to Animal Farm, but there’s something about director Will Gluck’s deeply misguided dystopian rom-com that made it physically harder to sit through than all of those other ones combined. And a large chunk of that comes from the fact that it is dystopian.
Ever since the film was first announced with a premise that made it sound like The Purge but for people who just want to go out and have sex, it’s inspired so many worrying conversations about the kind of universe it was depicting, namely one where Christofascism – essentially the enforcement of religious doctrine upon society – has become so powerful that it’s successfully passed a nationwide mandate that robs a large chunk of the unmarried population of their most basic human rights. Yes, it’s all meant to be treated as fantasy (for now, at least), but given the current state of US politics and the continued assault against women’s bodily autonomy among other right-wing enforcements, it’s disturbing to think that something like a ban on pre-marital sex would not only be a very real possibility but widely accepted among the masses, even in a fictional universe like the one that Gluck and screenwriter Travis Braun have created.
(Although, as a side-note, if Trump and his administration did actually try introducing such a mandate in real life, I’d love to see exactly how far they get with support for it, especially among their own political party who, let’s be perfectly honest, would have much more of a problem with it than anyone else.)
But having now sat quite uncomfortably through the film itself, what’s most concerning is how nonchalant One Night Only is about its own frightening subtext. Instead of addressing the issues head-on, it opts for a typical and rather safe rom-com structure that applies a hefty dollop of Christofascism onto pretty much every trope of the genre imaginable, while effectively ignoring its graver talking points. It’s hard to determine whether the filmmakers are too cowardly to tackle them, or if it’s actively promoting the very fascist ideals within its own story – but either way, this is a film that is ultimately made for nobody in particular.
As mentioned, One Night Only is set in an alternative United States where a national mandate preventing non-married people from having sex has been in full effect for three years – except, in true Purge fashion, for one night of the year where single people are allowed to get as freaky as they want with other partners. Needless to say, the film takes place on that one night in New York City – which for whatever reason is totally okay with this new inhumane rule, despite the fact that it’s one of the most outspokenly liberal states in the entire country – where every single person is keen to get laid however they see fit. Except, of course, for two singletons: Owen (Callum Turner), a pizza restaurant owner who’s just been informed by his girlfriend (Maya Hawke, one of many wasted supporting cast members) that he’s been given free rein to sleep about since she has also requested a temporary break to get with another person; and Allie (Monica Barbaro), a singer who’s stuck recording commercial jingles who wants to use the night to find the right person instead of meaningless hook-ups.
Of course, it’s not long before the two of them cross paths, and a few times after as the night unfolds, which leads to the usual rom-com shenanigans. But their overly predictable journey towards each other barely matters, since all you’ll be thinking about is how much One Night Only misses the mark as both a sociopolitical satire and as a straightforward romantic-comedy.
It clearly wants to be this more comedic and raunchier version of The Purge, complete with fascist subtext, but it doesn’t work because the way that this mandate operates in this universe, which includes every single person getting bioluminescent tattoos marking their single or non-single status for law enforcement purposes, ends up making less sense than in the actual Purge movie series. For example, if said tattoos are meant to track a person’s dopamine levels, does that mean they’ll be arrested if they’re simply masturbating, or is that out of bounds in this authoritarian world as well? Also, surely there still have to be restrictions on public indecency, since people are getting naked, doing it in front of windows, and running out into the streets completely stark-naked without a hint of self-awareness? It barely adds up, making the frightening subtext not even plausible in the very universe it’s trying to establish.
Crucially, it also doesn’t work as the kind of straightforward hijinks-filled rom-com that Gluck has been more successful with in past films like Friends with Benefits and Anyone But You (the stars of the latter even show up in brief photo-only cameos, further reminding you of how you could be watching that Gluck-directed movie instead of this one). Beyond the fact that the storyline is overly traditional and hits every single trope imaginable, as well as the fact that the jokes and big set-pieces aren’t really all that funny, the chemistry between the two leads is rather off, as though they’re more annoyed with each other than charmed, even when it reaches a point where they’re supposedly growing closer. In fairness, this could all come down to mere miscasting, because while Barbaro is perfectly fine for this kind of role, Turner – a pretty good actor in other things – doesn’t really suit this kind of sardonic and world-weary character, with his thick New York accent coming on a bit too thick and therefore not quite as believable as those acting circles around him, including other wasted supporting actors like Molly Ringwald, Julia Fox, LaVar Burton, Nicholas Braun and way too many others.
A couple of times, the movie manages to pull itself together to come off as reasonably charming, particularly in some of the few rare moments of quiet where nobody is screaming or shouting for exaggerated comedic effect. But there simply aren’t enough of them to ignore or even forgive the alarming morals that One Night Only promotes, unwittingly or otherwise. I know that it’s just a movie, one that’s not meant to be taken so seriously, but the fact is that people in this movie have such a chilled reaction to the world around them becoming The Handmaid’s Tale at an alarming rate that their blissful ignorance hardly seems satirical after a point. It even adopts a strangely chaste stance against the very thing it’s trying to advocate for, resulting in this seemingly sex-positive film barely featuring anything of the sort, and what little we do get is so tame that they might as well be doing it with all of their clothes on.
The implications appear to be that this film is happy to just lie down and let the Christofascism take hold of everything around them, when in reality it’s something that we should all be striving to fight against to ensure that we have a free, autonomous society that isn’t ruled by conniving, hypocritical autocrats. And that alone is what makes One Night Only such a discomforting movie to sit through.
SO, TO SUM UP…
One Night Only is a dystopian rom-com that creates such a morally heinous world for itself that it’s hard to think about anything else, especially when the humour, romance and almost everything else about it is too flimsy or unengaging to distract us.
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