SXSW is a film festival replete with romantic comedies. Many wash over you and leave little impression; some manage to catch your attention with a clever conceit or notable performances. Night Owls manages to hit the mark in both categories.
Opening with drunken fumbling between the newly acquainted Kevin (Adam Pally) and Madeline (Rosa Salazar) on the latter’s doorstep, a seemingly random encounter at a party spirals into something far more. After their physical encounter, he becomes aware that the house actually belongs to his boss Will (Peter Krause), a beloved local football coach. Shortly after he finds Madeline passed out on the bathroom floor having taken an overdose of Xanax.
A call to his immediate supervisor (Rob Huebel) for advice leads to the reveal that Madeline is Will’s mistress. Under the advice of a team Doctor (Tony Hale), Kevin is tasked with keeping Madeline conscious throughout the night until the pair can return to handle the fallout of this woman scorned, one with insight into the recruitment practices and illicit personal behavior of Kevin’s boss. As the night continues, the bickering between Kevin and Madeline begins to take on a different slant as they get to know each other.
Some of the best moments in cinema come from scenes involving two people talking. It’s a simple thing but so easy to get wrong, when it works, it can be great. Night Owls essentially tasks the leads with keeping our attention for practically the entire running time, no easy feat but one which is accomplished with aplomb here. What starts as a slapstick affair with physical comedy drawn from Kevin’s handling of a drugged up Madeline transitions through a confrontational phase as she begins to regain control and eventually ends with a blossoming intimacy between the pair.
The conceit of the film is that each of them admire and love the same person but their shared insights lead to his deconstruction and in turn their own. Two vulnerable, flawed people stripping layers away from each other and in between macings and being thrown in a pool, come to reveal truths, to each other and themselves. In retrospect the film is intricately plotted but while watching it seems anything but. There is a natural flow between the leads and genuine charm that makes their development both entertaining and rather sweet. Writer/director Charles Hood makes innovative use out of the single location used and allows a flow to imbue the film to good effect.
Of course any film that revolves almost entirely around two people talking had better have some decent performances to hang the film. Thankfully, Night Owls delivers. Pally, who is forever etched into my heart along the rest of his co-stars for the magnificent Happy Endings (stop reading, go watch), gives an frenetic and affable performance that deepens as the movie progresses. Likeable is an understatement but incredibly apt. He seems somewhat of a pushover but shows emotional steel when required. Rosa Salazar, an actress I was sadly not familiar with, is an absolute firecracker: sassy, sarcastic and wait till you get a load of her promiscuous starfish. The banter and acerbic interplay between the pair is superb. The script drips you information about the pair as it goes on and is handled by both actors with a natural ease. Information comes from their conversation at a pace enough to satiate you but also keep you wanting more.
It’s good to see a comedy that doesn’t wheel out the traditional tropes or get overly cutesy. A lack of frills and gimmicks allows a focus on the intimacy and chemistry between two people and an exploration of themselves, all relationships force us to hold a mirror up to ourselves at times and it is an aspect of romance that is often ignored in film.
Night Owls is cleverly constructed but never feels contrived. Thanks to a polished and well executed script married to a genuine and flowing execution, the pairing of Pally and Salazar are allowed to shine. Once it’s over, you miss their company — surely the sign of a romantic comedy worth staying up all night for.