One Night Only (2026) is a film with a logline so bizarre that it has achieved instant meme status: On the one night a year when single people are legally allowed to have sex, a man and a woman fall in love. Akin to Old (2021) and “the beach that makes you old,” it’s a premise that raises endless questions. Hence, it’s all the more hilarious that One Night Only confidently starts on a crawl of text that declares its The Purge-like concept over the New York City skyline — immediately showing its disinterest in giving you those answers. Director Will Gluck (Easy A, Anyone But You) mainly builds the movie’s world through sprinkled expositional dialogue and plot contrivances.
In the world of One Night Only, all Americans are implanted with pleasure-detecting microchips, New York is littered with video game-esque graffiti that protests against legally enforced chastity, and a live countdown to the 12 hours of legalized fornication is all over the news. It’s a delightfully manic tone setter for what is undoubtedly one of the wackiest movies to release in theaters this summer: a crowd-pleasing romantic comedy that just so happens to be set in the middle of a soft sci-fi dystopia. Despite the oddity of its trailer, One Night Only is pleasantly aware of its own absurdity. Plus, it serves rom-com fans well, understanding the satisfaction of watching two attractive people fall in love.
A Feel Good Rom-Com Set in a Soft Sci-Fi Dystopia
Set in an alternate United States, where three years before the events of One Night Only, “the mandate” was passed, premarital sex was banned except for one night of the year on August 7th. Audiences follows Allie (Monica Barbaro), a hopeless romantic searching for a genuine connection on a night of carnal impulses, as well as Owen (Callum Turner), the owner of a local pizzeria who is looking to rebound after his girlfriend (Maya Hawke) decides to sleep with another man. Despite their separate goals, Allie and Owen find themselves gravitationally pulled to each other, their night unfolding into a series of antics and hijinks, and perhaps even the promise of something even deeper than sex.
Easing into a film with such a heightened sense of reality and tone is hard enough as it is. However, there are moments in One Night Only where the energy is so chaotically surreal that I started to suspect I was watching a hidden Wet Hot American Summer-esque anti-comedy in disguise. Specific bits, like the potty-mouthed child that Allie’s roommate finds herself babysitting, the constant celebrity cameos, or the distracting lore dumps that are casually thrown into the background, evoke a certain irony that clashes with the needed amount of sincerity to make the rom-com genre work.
It’s initially difficult to grasp the level of self-awareness One Night Only is operating at (the fact that screenwriter Travis Braun’s previous credits are primarily for children’s programming only adds to the whiplash). As the two leads start to become more romantically involved with one another, the movie finally commits to being a crowd-pleasing rom-com. While the idea of an unhinged, hidden anti-comedy version of this story seems hilarious and compelling on its own, there is an undeniable charm to the unyielding sincerity that One Night Only eventually revels in.
Monica Barbaro and Callum Turner Are a Refreshing Duo
Thankfully, the film has the benefit of two leads that successfully harness the kind of strong chemistry needed for this shift to work. Monica Barbaro (A Complete Unknown, Top Gun: Maverick) and Callum Turner (Eternity, Masters of the Air) are wonderful together. Barbaro’s awkward and heartfelt quality is certainly more dynamic, but Turner holds his weight — their fictional personas manage to push and pull into each other in compelling ways. Many modern rom-coms, such as Gluck’s previous effort, Anyone But You, often suffer from lead actors who just don’t seem to mesh with each other, both aesthetically and dramatically. Barbaro and Turner are not only easy on the eyes, but their romance is also grounded and believable.
Courtesy of Universal
The art and production design department’s efforts are undoubtedly a highlight of One Night Only. You will find yourself constantly peering into the background of shots, having hearty laughs at the numerous anti-sex government signs, fictional advertisements, and worldbuilding details that baffle as much as they spark joy. The score by Este Haim (one third of the alt-rock sister band Haim) is appropriately bubbly and saccharine to fit the unapologetic cheese. While the cinematography is standard and otherwise unremarkable, there is a meta-joke about medication commercials that is funny enough to almost count as an in-universe justification.
A Delightfully Weird Rom-Com Novelty in a Packed Summer
In a time when most modern rom-coms are doomed to go straight to streaming services and fade into irrelevance, there is also something so admirable about the fact that a movie as high-concept as One Night Only was made and sent to theaters. Moreover, it was sent to theaters in the middle of a summer movie season dominated by Christopher Nolan’s auteur epic The Odyssey and an instant billion-dollar superhero success story, Spider-Man: Brand New Day. No, this is not the best the genre has to offer, but it’s a solid one that will definitely win over skeptical viewers and add a sense of variety to the current theatrical landscape.
Courtesy of Universal
One Night Only is an easy recommendation because, whether or not you find yourself on its wavelength, you would be hard-pressed to find a crazier mainstream theatrical release this whole summer. It’s a film designed to watch with a group of friends, followed by an in-depth discussion of the logistical problems, politics, and hypothetical scenarios that “the mandate” universe sparks to mind in the theater lobby. Will Gluck’s One Night Only is the kind of novelty movie that is good-natured, fun, and worth celebrating in its unique flavor of unseriousness
★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
‘One Night Only’ hits theaters on August 7!
Release Date: August 7, 2026.
Directed by Will Gluck.
Written by Travis Braun.
Produced by Will Gluck & Jacqueline Monetta.
Main Cast: Monica Barbaro, Callum Turner, Maya Hawke, Julia Fox, Molly Ringwald, LeVar Burton, Okieriete Onaodowan, Este Haim, Ziwe, King Princess, Ben Marshall, Nicholas Braun, Quintessa Swindell, & Michelle Hurd.
Cinematography: Yaron Orbach.
Composers: Este Haim & Christopher Stracey.
Editor: Tia Nolan.
Production Company: Olive Bridge Entertainment.
Distributor: Universal Pictures.
Runtime: 102 minutes.
Rated R.
