The Sunday Mail
IN as far as feel good movies are concerned, it does not get any warmer and fuzzier than “The Night Before”; my pick for festive movie of the year 2015.
Starring a star-studded line-up, comprising Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Anthony Mackie, Seth Rogen and an array of cameos, the film is a warm and neatly packaged ode to friendship.
I know it is too late to be talking about festive films, but after the disappointing spectacle that was the just-ended awards season, what harm can a little more madness do?
Ethan Miller (Levitt) loses his parents in a horrific car accident the night before Christmas of 2001 and to cheer him up his two closest friends Isaac Greenberg (Rogen) and Chris Roberts (Mackie) take him on a night out of unadulterated fun and tomfoolery.
As the festive season is generally perceived as a family orientated holiday, something Miller no longer has, the three make-a-pact to spend each Christmas in very much the same manner and search for the greatest holiday party known as the Nutcracker Ball.
However, as time passes, life intervenes and as such each of them begins to settle into adulthood with Roberts becoming a famous football star while Greenberg prepares for his first child. The three then decide to end the tradition and go out one last time.
While the film is a comedy at heart, with long running drug-fuelled jokes and crude humour, the themes it explores are deep. For all the types of families we all have — intermediate, distant or extended — the best type of family is found in the friendship we develop as we grow.
Roberts and Greenberg choose to be there for a friend during his darkest hour, sacrificing their holidays to spend the day with him. The film is also a coming of age exploration as these three man-children face the trials and tribulations of growing up whether it be facing fame and its upheavals (Roberts) or the fears of starting a family (Greenberg).
Themes aside, the numerous performances are another bright spot of the film. Next to Leonardo DiCaprio, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of my favourite actors. While I would not call him a method actor, I do admire how he commits to a role.
In “The Night Before”, he is at his best as the man-child haunted by grief. Seth Rogen is the master of drug-fuelled humour and almost steals the show with one particular funny gag in which he hallucinates while attending a midnight mass with his wife.
His childbirth outbursts are a thing to marvel throughout the film. Mackie, on the other hand, is the perennial sidekick; the one who always makes his co-stars look better without actually standing-out himself.
Director Jonathan Levine did a stand-out job in casting these three together as they complement each other well and demonstrate the kind of chemistry that makes comedies work.
There are a lot cameo appearances throughout the film but only three stand-out namely James Franco, Miley Cyrus and Michael Shannon. Franco does what only he does best and shows up in the third act of the film to scream and shout a couple of lines.
I think at this point in his career and most importantly his weird social media presence, Franco has reached that level where his presence alone is something memorable.
In the United States, I would equate Franco to the Abominable Snowman or Bigfoot; you cannot really put your finger on what is real and what is an act.
Miley Cyrus does a rendition of her hit song “Wrecking Ball”, and I am now convinced that the girl just cannot act.
Shannon is the personification of cool as Mr Green, the three’s former drug dealer from their high school days.
The film has done well at the box office, grossing US$52 million from a budget of US$25 million; not too shabby for a film comprising B-list actors and actresses.
