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Review: The Overnight (2015), a Cringe Comedy Movie

The Overnight (2015)

&NewLine;<p>Though cringe comedy is nothing new&comma; it’s certainly making a comeback in both television and film&period; Comedians like Larry David have made an entire career out of the concept&comma; while media historians like Noël Carroll have analyzed cringe comedy in relation to incongruity theory and its place in modern society&period; In any case&comma; it is a very specific kind of humor that appeals to those who delight in the uncomfortable feeling of social mishaps&period; Though Patrick Brice’s <em>The Overnight<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar; was primarily marketed as a sex comedy&comma; it derives most of its humor from social awkwardness and bizarre caricatures&comma; making it one of the best examples of cinematic cringe comedy in years&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In <em>The Overnight<&sol;em>&comma; Alex &lpar;Adam Scott&rpar; and Emily &lpar;Taylor Schilling&rpar; have recently moved to Los Angeles&period; Though Emily feels relatively confident with the move&comma; Alex is worried that he hasn’t made any adult friends&period; Moreover&comma; he’s unsure how an adult can even make new friends with other adults&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While taking their young son to the park&comma; they meet Kurt &lpar;Jason Schwartzman&rpar;&comma; an eccentric and overly friendly father of one&period; Since their sons have quickly formed a bond at the park&comma; Kurt invites the couple to his house for a playdate&period; Happy to have found a potential friend in Kurt&comma; they accept the invitation&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Once the couple arrives&comma; they meet Kurt’s wife&comma; Charlotte &lpar;Judith Godrèche&comma; <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;2020&sol;07&sol;31&sol;review-the-disenchanted-1990&sol;"><em>The Disenchanted<&sol;em><&sol;a>&rpar;&comma; who gives them a warm welcome&period; However&comma; the couple’s reservations about Kurt and Charlotte’s eccentricity only grows as the night goes on&period; Once they put the children to bed&comma; Kurt informs everyone that Charlotte is an actress&period; He then proceeds to show one of her &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;films&comma;” which is actually an infomercial in which Charlotte reveals her breasts to demonstrate how to use a breast pump&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>As the alcohol and marijuana put everyone in a stupor&comma; Emily begins to worry about Kurt and Charlotte’s intentions&period; Though Alex feels like he’s finally finding his true sense of self&comma; Emily fears that they’ve inadvertently gotten involved with a pair of swingers&period; With time&comma; Alex also shares Emily’s fears and the couple decides to confront Kurt and Charlotte on their bizarre behavior&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>It’s difficult to explain what makes <em>The Overnight<&sol;em> work so well&period; Jason Schwartzman’s performance as the eccentric husband creates much of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;social awkwardness&comma;” while Judith Godrèche’s portrayal of the hyper-sexual French wife helps drive the plot toward its uncomfortable climax&period; Meanwhile&comma; Adam Scott does what Adam Scott does best&semi; he plays the slightly awkward straight man who serves as a necessary antithesis to his hosts&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;overnight&lowbar;web&lowbar;2-1024x579&period;jpg" alt&equals;"The Overnight &lpar;2015&rpar; Adam Scott" class&equals;"wp-image-2115"&sol;><figcaption><em>The Overnight<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Though I’m not a fan of Taylor Schilling as an actress&comma; she works well as the slightly uptight and paranoid half of the &&num;8220&semi;normal&&num;8221&semi; couple&period; Her quiet look of panic whenever Charlotte flaunts her sexuality only adds to the tension&period; All the while&comma; she can’t seem to figure out which fire to put out first&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This is part of what makes <em>The Overnight<&sol;em> so much funnier than it should be&period; On the surface&comma; it appears like any other generic sex comedy about quirky characters and awkward situations&period; However&comma; <em>The Overnight<&sol;em> takes things a step further by presenting so many uncomfortable&comma; yet believable events&period; Since much of the film’s appeal lies in the surprise of each subsequent social indiscretion&comma; I won’t give too much away with spoilers&period; All that I will say is that viewers should expect the unexpected&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Many sex or cringe comedies fail because of poor writing or limited talent&period; Most truly talented actors shy away from these kinds of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;low brow” comedies&period; It’s refreshing to see genuinely talented players like Jason Schwartzman and Judith Godrèche take on such a hilarious&comma; yet unpretentious script&period; Fortunately&comma; director Patrick Brice didn’t get in the way of his actors&period; Though it may or may not have been tightly scripted&comma; the dialogue often feels as if it were made up on the spot&period; This naturalism is vital to elevate a cringe comedy film and make it feel genuine&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Stylistically&comma; Patrick Brice keeps things quiet and simple&period; Ultimately&comma; this isn’t a film that takes any risks in its visual or narrative style&period; Instead&comma; it rests on the talent of its actors and the quality of its script&period; Usually&comma; I would be more critical of a film that takes a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;by-the-books” approach to cinematography and mise-en-scène&comma; but <em>The Overnight<&sol;em> doesn’t need any special tricks or visual stylization&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>With certain stories&comma; artistic license can be more of a distraction than anything else&period; With a cringe comedy like <em>The Overnight<&sol;em>&comma; the emphasis has to be on realism amplified to the point of absurdity&period; We’ve all been put in awkward situations&semi; <em>The Overnight<&sol;em> takes the experiences of many and turns up the heat to an uncomfortable degree&period; Thus&comma; its genius lies in its simplicity&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<div class&equals;"wp-block-image"><figure class&equals;"aligncenter size-large"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2020&sol;09&sol;The-Overnight-Featured-1024x582&period;jpg" alt&equals;"cringe comedy movie" class&equals;"wp-image-2116"&sol;><figcaption><em>The Overnight<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure><&sol;div>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>For those who study the underlying theories and philosophy of comedy&comma; cringe comedy is a particularly interesting subject&period; Much like horror&comma; it takes something that should be repulsive &lpar;or at least unpleasant&rpar; and makes it enjoyable&period; In horror&comma; the monster is often a combination of the natural and the unnatural&semi; a juxtaposition of incongruous parts&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In cringe comedy&comma; incongruous elements are put together and&comma; once the audience realizes or recognizes this juxtaposition&comma; it becomes humorous&period; In <em>The Overnight<&sol;em>&comma; there are almost too many examples to give&comma; but the primary juxtaposition is between the laid-back&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;normal” couple &lpar;Alex and Emily&rpar; and the bizarre&comma; eccentric&comma; hyper-sexual couple &lpar;Kurt and Charlotte&rpar;&period; Theorists argue whether the incongruity truly lies in the objects being perceived or if it lies in the shift in our perception of the objects&comma; but that’s a discussion for another day&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>In short&comma; there’s very little I can say that will prepare you for <em>The Overnight<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;&period; The film flew under the radar and received a mediocre critical response&period; Nonetheless&comma; it is one of the best cringe comedy movies to come out in a long time&period; Patrick Brice took a simplistic script and turned it into something truly cringe-worthy&comma; and it’s absolutely brilliant&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<h3 class&equals;"wp-block-heading">The Overnight &lpar;2015&rpar; Movie Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;h3>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>If you’d like to watch <em>The Overnight<&sol;em> &lpar;2015&rpar;&comma; it is currently available to stream via <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;hulu&period;com&sol;">Hulu<&sol;a> or purchase via <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B07LGCQ3Q4&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B07LGCQ3Q4&amp&semi;linkId&equals;2597027af665eaf88f4c4d359ca29e62">Amazon<&sol;a>&period; For more film reviews like this one&comma; check out the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;">Philosophy in Film Homepage<&sol;a>&excl;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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