Similarly to how I remember exactly where I was when I first heard murmurs that two of Hollywood’s hottest people—Sydney Sweeney and Glenn Powell—were going to star opposite one another in the comedy event of 2023, I also remember the first time I heard about 2026’s newest rom-com social experiment, One Night Only. I mean, a sex plot set in a dystopian New York City that makes premarital sex illegal except for “one night only” is pretty difficult not to be intrigued by. I swear my eyes even did a little pop out of my head just to make sure I read that right.
But after my latest trip to the theater to check out this wacky yet devilishly attractive premise—boy, do I have some questions. Mainly, my dear sex dystopia, what exactly are you trying to tell us here? Dressed up with a super-hot cast, fun celebrity cameos, and some genuinely great chemistry on screen, One Night Only seems well set to serve up a cute, fateful romance story between two strangers in one of the biggest cities in the world.
But beneath all that sex appeal, there’s also an unsexy, politically fascist troll lurking about this movie’s themes. You might miss it at first, but really let that hour and forty-two minutes simmer for a second, and it’s hard to ignore. Read on for my full breakdown of One Night Only and whether or not the movie’s “sex purge” plot has enough juice to make for a night of fun, or a complete catastrophe.
What is One Night Only about?
The most fascinating part of One Night Only still rests in its premise, which—through a superficial lens—I give a 5/5. Taking place in a thematically nearsighted dystopia where premarital sex is outlawed in the United States except for one night a year, the movie follows the one night the sex gates are open to an otherwise sexually dehydrated population of singles. Aka the “sex Purge” movie.
Everyone is getting it on, but two love-starved strangers (Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro) in New York City are looking for something a little different. Allie is a hopeless romantic, quietly hoping that this night of consequence-free sex might open the door to something real. And Owen is navigating a complicated hiccup in his relationship and seems equally uninterested in treating the evening like one giant all-you-can-eat hookup buffet. Fatefully, of course, New York City keeps pulling these two together for a night of running through the city, stumbling into a few messes, and other not-so-romantic complications along the way. But maybe they’re exactly what the other person has been looking for.
My review of One Night Only
It needed to go deeper
Coming from the creator behind some of my favorite romantic comedies growing up—like Easy A and Friends With Benefits—I was so interested to see what a movie like One Night Only would have to say about one of our society’s most cunning devils: The Pursuit of Love. The one most responsible for a string of bad dates, Emily Henry book obsessions, and a crippling optimism that can drive you mad. But if I’ve learned anything from other emotional home runs lately like Obsession, it’s that loving the superficial idea of something isn’t always enough ground for a deep, meaningful connection. A good plot that doesn’t get deep or personal just makes everything else around it feel dull. Which is, unfortunately, what happened when watching One Night Only.
As much as I wanted to fall head-over-heels for One Night Only’s quirky premise, the more I looked beneath its cute, sexy surface, the more I found myself wondering whether there was actually anything substantive beneath it all to fall for. The unique setting, truly amazing casting, funny bits—it’s all there. But where One Night Only trips is that it doesn’t give any of these points enough roots. It neglects to lean fully into its weird. Instead, the movie remains pretty superficially unexposed, and thus, uninteresting overall.
If it were produced by A24, they could have played with One Night Only’s provocative premise more fearlessly. The movie has all the bones to be that kind of boundary-pushing movie on its own, but in the arms of a company like Universal—which has more of a wider audience reach to appeal to—the movie just ends up a good idea that’s too afraid to be anything more.
It ignores the most interesting part of the whole damn thing
For a movie built around such an inherently provocative premise like this one, One Night Only seems almost too afraid to actually confront the only interesting part of its own damn universe: the mandate. Instead, it dresses its sex problem up in date-night clothes and sends it out for an evening of quirky romance without any fight. As if a few meet-cutes and glittery outfits can distract us from the much darker implications guiding this world.
“I was so expecting the movie to position love as that rebellious force inside its anti-casual-sex dystopia, but it never really gave this rebellion any action.”
The film seems to have very little interest in interrogating the rules of the world it created. It feels like One Night Only’s message is that it wants us to coexist with the authoritarian logic laid out before us when it comes to sex and relationships, without a whiff of anything to challenge it. A world with this kind of lack of agency surely would have some sort of sex-positive message to reveal? But if it’s there, it’s pretty difficult to find (read: dormant), and it is going to piss a lot of people off.
Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro’s chemistry still makes it a fun watch
If we stay on the surface level of this movie though, the one guiding force in this otherwise passively fascist date night is that it is, still, a pretty adorable meet-cute story. Which gives me hope that those kinds of tender moments can still exist in our own dystopian United States—which might be the point it actually wants to drive home.
Callum Turner and Monica Barbaro are incredibly sweet together, so you do still root for them amid a lot of the problems this movie faces. If you’re an avid rom-com watcher, I would suggest watching this movie just for the amazing on-screen chemistry. It might be enough to throw on with friends. Unless your internal dialogue is turned on, then be locked and loaded to really think about this movie after.
It stays shockingly conservative
When a movie has a political point as sharp as this one, there is a very delicate line it has to walk in order to really pull it off. Most importantly, it needs to make you think about our own realities while visiting this one. What I personally don’t want, though, is a movie that wants to tell me there’s nothing I can do about the issues within it. That fighting back is impossible. That the best we can do is shrug, accept the corruption around us, and trot along.
Isn’t the whole point of a romance movie’s teachings that there’s nothing more rebellious than love? Love defies logic, rules, expectations, political structures, and watching people choose each other in spite of these things has always been one of the biggest flexes in the human experience. The magic of a rom-com is that a system can’t tell you how you’re supposed to love. Which is also probably why One Night Only feels so strangely deflating.
“It neglects to lean fully into its weird. Instead, the movie remains pretty superficially unexposed, and thus, uninteresting overall.”
I was so expecting the movie to position love as that rebellious force inside its anti-casual-sex dystopia, but it never really gave this rebellion any action. Allie and Owen may be able to find something genuine amid a society that has essentially criminalized intimacy, but their love ultimately seems more interested in coexisting with the plot than in really moving it.
So, should you watch One Night Only?
Yes, you should watch it in the name of culturally-interesting cinema, but don’t expect to love it. On one hand, you have two ridiculously hot people with STUNNING on-screen chemistry, and a genuinely fun premise. On the other, you have a strangely deflated fascist center that I just can’t, in good conscience, ignore to call this a good movie.
If you’re a rom-com gal, I still think One Night Only is worth a watch—if only for the superficial elements like outfit inspo and celebrity cameos that barely manage to hold the movie above water as something halfway decent. The world of One Night Only is nonetheless fascinating, so here’s to hoping for an A24 prequel.
Madigan Will, Contributing Writer
As a contributing writer and former Assistant Editor for The Everygirl, Madigan has written and edited content across every topic under the digital media sun. As the oldest of four siblings, she brings a big-sister perspective to her work, helping readers discover new ways to maximize their everyday.
