One Night Only
August 4th, 2026
MOVIE: ONE NIGHT ONLY
STARRING: CALLUM TURNER, MONICA BARBARO, MAYA HAWKE, MOLLY RINGWALD
DIRECTED BY: WILL GLUCK
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 2 STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 102 MINUTES
Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the most frustrating, head-scratching, and divisive film of 2026. One Night Only, directed by Will Gluck, is a rom-com with a fifty-fifty split between the romance and the comedy, set in a universe that leaves us asking more questions than it answers. If it were just a comedy, it would be sharper and have a deeper impact on the social commentary of the current state of the world. If it were just a romance, the plot devices would be pointless, and it would work better as a story of two lovers passing one another in the night. The final result is a mixed bag: a movie about sex that feels sexless, a comedy with great jokes and not enough of them, and a pair of romantic leads who would be better suited to a movie about their own romance. One Night Only has to be the strangest movie of 2026.
The concept is that, in this universe, on one day each year, people who are not married are allowed to engage in premarital sex. Think The Purge, but sex instead of murder. It exists because the current fascist government prides itself on keeping teen pregnancies and STIs down. Each single or unmarried person is fashioned with a barcode on their wrist that lights up if they engage in illegal sexual activity outside of the designated date, subjecting them to arrest. For pizza shop owner Owen (Callum Turner), he is hoping to propose to his girlfriend (Maya Hawke), but she hopes to sleep with someone else this year. Allie (Monica Barbaro) works as a singer of pop-themed prescription drug jingles and hopes to truly find someone who means something more. As a story like this goes, the two lost lovers wander through the night searching for their sex partners, encountering hilarious circumstances and, hopefully, finding true love in the process. Many of the parts work. Many others do not.
For most of Hollywood today, we often lament the decline of romantic films and comedies. One Night Only unfortunately suffers from not picking a lane on the rom-com road. Written by Travis Braun, I truly think that if this were just a laugh-out-loud raunchy comedy, à la The Hangover or Superbad, you would appreciate it for making a comedy that dissects what it means to be single in this day and age. If it were just a romance, you might be encouraged by the chemistry between Barbaro and Turner. Their night of unfortunate events includes fighting over “the last condom in the city” and the embarrassment of attempting to hook up with other people, only to find out it wasn’t meant to be. There are laughs, and these are two beautiful people, but they would be better suited to a movie that didn’t need an instruction guide.
The final result is a mixed bag. Jokes about pop songs being turned into advertisements for psoriasis medication made me laugh, while, for a movie about sex, One Night Only is painfully sexless. There is also an odd hint of messaging that tells the audience to simply give in to our new world of fascism and government overreach, instead of actually being pissed off about living in a world with a sex mandate. Overall, One Night Only fails at both the romantic and comedic aspects of its story. Besides, at the end, you don’t leave happy for love; instead, you’re left with a whole lot of questions.
2 STARS
ONE NIGHT ONLY IS CURRENTLY PLAYING IN THEATERS EVERYWHERE.
Written by: Leo Brady
