Next up is a film with more focus on the comedy than on the heavy stuff, director Jonathan Levine’s 2015 rowdy Christmas comedy The Night Before. This is a great one for fans of the Judd Apatow brand of ‘bromantic’ comedies (which I most certainly am) with lots of debauched fun but with an emotional edge. This one follows best buds Isaac (Seth Rogen), Chris (Anthony Mackie) and Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who for the last 14 years have gathered on Christmas Eve to celebrate the season with a big, boozy bang. This yuletide, with Isaac on the verge of becoming a father, the trio decide to bring their pact to an end by sneaking into the holy grail of Christmas parties – the legendary ‘Nutcracker Ball.’ Things get messy.
This is a film about thirty-somethings doing their best to resist adulthood, with hilarious results. Isaac seems to be the most mature of the gang, but is totally freaking out at impending fatherhood and his anxiety will all come gushing out on this long, crazy night.
Ethan is drifting through his life in a stream of crappy part-time jobs, having been unable to commit to the girl (Lizzie Caplan) who he’s pretty sure was ‘the one.’ He never really got over the death of his parents when he was a teen and really clings on to this annual yuletide tradition, while his pals are pretty eager to bin it. Chris, meanwhile, is a pro NFL footballer whose career is finally taking off at an age when most of his peers are thinking of retirement. His secret is that he’s started taking steroids and isn’t too sure how to handle his newfound fame.
It's a refreshingly honest take on adulthood that acknowledges that most of us have no clue what we’re doing. Mostly, though, it’s just a wild film about boys old enough to know better having a wild night in NYC, with enjoyable nods to films like Big, Home Alone and Die Hard. The spark that lights the plot is Isaac’s loving, understanding wife (Jillian Bell) gifting him a little box of “all the drugs in the world,” with her blessing to go and enjoy one last night of what we Scots refer to as ‘getting mad with it.’ Problem is, she doesn’t know drugs, so gets all the amounts way off, allowing Rogen to throw himself into playing this guy who is essentially mashed for the whole film, while wrestling with his inner fears. Rogen has a gift for picking projects that let him perfectly balance weed and willy jokes with genuine heart and warmth. A standout, laugh out loud moment sees coked-up Isaac record a video message for his unborn child, where he calls the kid a “c**t.” It's also pretty novel to watch a druggy Isaac, a Jew, navigate the Christmas experience, at one point lurching around a packed church, before vomiting and screaming at the cross that “we didn’t do that!”
There are some winning set-pieces with the boys performing a fantastic Run DMC karaoke/dance routine, getting in a fist fight with some unruly ‘Santas’ and later attempting to pinch Santa’s sleigh with predictably painful results. But, it’s some of the smaller moments that are most effective, like the three lads sitting round playing Goldeneye on the N64, shooting the shit, reminiscing about Christmases past. Their enduring friendship is the core of the film, making me realise how lucky I’ve been to hang on to some of the same idiotic dumbass buddies since childhood and we still meet up every Christmas (Covid restrictions allowing).
The buddy chemistry between the three leads is fantastic and the film also manages to find strong supporting roles for Caplan as Ethan’s take-no-nonsense ex and Mindy Kalling as her sassy best pal. The women are allowed to be hilarious here too, especially Bell who portrays a cool, realistic, grounded wife who Isaac is really grateful to have. It’s sweet.
This may not be to everyone’s tastes - there are a lot of crude jokes about balls and stuff – but I find this to be a fantastic film that tackles the difficulty of maintaining adult friendships. It also really captures the awkwardness of reconnecting with pals when you seem to meet up less and less, while still finding ways to effortlessly slip back into the old friendly piss-taking magic. Maybe it’s because I’m the same age as these guys and going through some of the same stuff, but this will always be a classic in my house.
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