The Overnight

Short and sweet, Patrick Brice's foursome mumblecore The Overnight is disguised as a more accessible comedy, headlined by Adam Scott and Jason Schwartzman along with Taylor Schilling. Thriving on awkward humour at the expense of new age lifestyles and anxieties, it treads a fine line of endearingly goofy, unexpectedly incisive and plain weird. However, in its brief runtime, it spends sequences on the mundane, highlighting a couple relatable aspects such as Scott's believable inability to make real friends. Its theme of sexual desires outside of monogamy brings to light a harsh truth that many would quietly acknowledge and it's sparked by the idea of that freedom, though it's an energy that's swiftly interrupted. It's not very visually inspired, including two very dangly and infamous props, but Taylor Schilling is a bright spark of the cast while Adam Scott holds his own in a feature film. Meanwhile Schwartzman is less of a person than a caricature but that is surely the intention behind the pair to bring out the humanity in Schilling and Scott. The Overnight earns a few chuckles and a few insights but it's mostly held back by its brevity but it has a sincerity through all the slight wackiness that makes it work, if just a little bit.

7/10