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Film review: Rough Night

Film & TV

Rough Night provokes enough belly laughs to qualify as an addition to the list of low-brow comedies worth visiting and revisiting.

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It’s not too often that a group of women get to have a riotous, boisterous and reckless adventure in the vein of Bachelor Party or The Hangover. Yet with the success of films such as Bridesmaids, Bachelorette and Bad Moms, female comedians are now getting their chance to shine on the big screen.  Rough Night is arguably the next step in the genus and possibly the best bad-and-racy bachelorette party to date.

The film is reliable. It delivers on formulaic promise, with a script that is humorous, simple, predictable and lots of fun.

Despite the slender plot (based almost entirely on crudity), it strikes a nice balance between wit and charm and also serves as a reminder why we keep coming back to these types of movies, even though we know the good-girls-gone-bad will make good; it’s simple, and it’s wildly funny.

Director Lucia Aniello has assembled a terrific cast in this all-female comedy. Scarlett Johansson is uncontainable as Jess, a straight-laced politician; Kate McKinnon is suitably larrikin as outrageous Pippa; Ilana Glazer is wonderful as the weird and dubious Frankie; Jillian Bell is far from subtle as the tough-hitting Alice, and Zoe Kravitz is immaculate as the go-getting Blair.

The chemistry between the women turns what could have been just another women-behaving-badly rip-off into comedy gold.

They play five best friends who are obliged to attend a bachelorette weekend in Miami 10 years after college. During a crazy party, they accidently kill a male stripper and attempt to conceal his death.

As the grown women go wild, the humour fizzes like dynamite fuse and it is funnier because the action is female-centric. The result is something akin to women on the edge of a nervous breakdown.

Rough Night might not be movie art, but the film epitomises the finest virtues that comedy can provides – genuine, unadulterated, hilarious entertainment. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Warning: Trailer content may offend (Rough Night is rated MA 15+)

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