The Night Before (2015)
Directed & co-written by Jonathan Levine. Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen, Anthony Mackie, Jillian Bell, Michael Shannon, Mindy Kaling, Ilana Glazer, Tracey Morgan, Jason Mantzoukas, James Franco and Miley Cyrus.
Back in December 2001 Ethan loses his parents in a car accident, and so he isn’t alone at Christmas is best friends Chris and Isaac take him out on Christmas Eve to show him night he won’t forget. Flashforward to 2015 and the trio’s Christmas Eve outing has become a tradition, but this year will be the last one. While Chris & Isaac have bigger things going on in their lives now, they also think Ethan needs to let go of the tradition so he can properly move on.
The three friends for a night of hilarity and debauchery, a greatest hits of the nights that came before it. But when Ethan manages to get three tickets to an exclusive Christmas party, things escalate quickly. Now the trio just need to stick together and remain friends until the night is over.
Director Jonathan Levine has stated that a lot of the comedy was improvised and the dramatic sequences appear according to the script, which acted as more of a guideline for production. The script, for what it was, was co-written by Seth Rogan’s long-time writing partner Evan Goldberg, and marks only second time he’s written without Rogen, the first being The Goon (2011).
Have you seen The Night Before? How does rank against other Christmas comedies? Let me know in the comments below.