The Night Before (2015) REVIEW

Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon Levitt and Anthony Mackie star in this comedy about 3 best friends who have a tradition to get absolutely messed up at Christmas time.
This tradition began when Ethan (JGL) lost his parents at in Christmas Eve almost a decade ago, his best friends Issac (Rogen) and Chris (Mackie) have been parting with him every year since then to comfort him. They have been trying for all this time to get tickets to an elusive party called the Nutcracker Ball. This year is different - Ethan miraculously gets hold of 3 tickets, so their night of madness begins. Things are even more complicated as Issac is about to have a baby, and his wife decides to gift him with a cocktail of drugs, for one last time. Chris is getting suspiciously better at Football and has some very arrogant team players he will do anything to impress. And Ethan has just been in a break up and is struggling to get over his ex.
Directed by the Jonathan Levine, who also directed 50/50 this film relies on an excellent cast. I laughed consistently throughout the film and it had a lot more heartfelt moments then I expected. The chemistry between the 3 leads is electric. Their relationships are fully believable, all 3 have full character arcs that allow them to evolve. However, some of the plot points are slightly baffling. I have to say I was pretty bored of the 'Grinch' woman messing with Chris, it felt tacked on and out of place. 

Lizzy Caplan is great at Ethan's ex Diana, she is refreshingly strong female and what could have been a painfully cheesy moment near the end feels like a realistic, dramatic moment with her reaction. Rogen is as usual, perfect playing the bafoon, he plays the loveable stoner so well. Michael Shannon has a brilliant small part, his intense acting is facilitied well as 'Mr.Green'.

All in all, this is a great bromance film, with loveable characters and a mostly fast pace. If it had been slightly more focused it would have been even better, but it is still very funny and I will definitely watch this again at Christmas! 7/10