''Rough Night'' (alternately titled ''Rock That Body'') is a 2017 American

black comedy film Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

directed by

Lucia Aniello Lucia Aniello (born 1983) is an Italian-born American director, writer, and producer best known for her work on '' Hacks'', for which she won multiple Emmy Awards, and ''Broad City.'' She has directed and written episodes of both shows, as well a ...

(in her feature debut) and written by Aniello and Paul W. Downs. It stars

Scarlett Johansson Scarlett Ingrid Johansson (; born November 22, 1984) is an American actress and singer. The List of highest-paid film actors, world's highest-paid actress in 2018 and 2019, she has been featured multiple times on the Forbes Celebrity 100, ''F ...

Kate McKinnon Kate McKinnon Berthold (born January 6, 1984) is an American actress and comedian. She was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 2012 to 2022, where she became known for her character work and celebrity im ...

Jillian Bell Jillian Leigh Bell (born April 25, 1984) is an American actress, comedian, and screenwriter. She was a writer for the 35th season of the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' between 2009 and 2010. Since her departure from ''SNL'', s ...

Ilana Glazer Ilana Glazer (born April 12, 1987) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, producer, director, and activist. They have received various accolades including a Daytime Emmy Award and a Tony Award as well as nominations for four Primetime ...

and

Zoë Kravitz Zoë Kravitz (born December 1, 1988) is an American actress and filmmaker. She made her acting debut in the romantic comedy film ''No Reservations (film), No Reservations'' (2007). Her breakthrough came with portraying Angel Salvadore (Tempest) ...

in lead roles, as well as Paul Downs,

Ty Burrell Tyler Gerald Burrell (born August 22, 1967) is an American actor. Burrell is best known for playing Phil Dunphy on the ABC sitcom '' Modern Family'' (2009–2020), for which he won two Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Supporting Actor in ...

and

Demi Moore Demi Gene Moore ( ; née Guynes; born November 11, 1962) is an American actress. After rising to prominence in the early 1980s, she became the world's highest-paid actress by 1995. List of awards and nominations received by Demi Moore, Her acc ...

in supporting roles. The story follows a

bachelorette party A bachelorette party (United States and Canada) or hen night (United Kingdom, UK, Republic of Ireland, Ireland and Australia) is a party held for a woman (the bride or bride-to-be) who will soon be Marriage, married. While Beth Montemurro conclud ...

that goes wrong after a

male stripper A stripper or exotic dancer is a person whose occupation involves performing striptease in a public adult entertainment venue such as a strip club. At times, a stripper may be hired to perform at private events. Modern forms of stripping m ...

dies. The film was released in the United States on June 16, 2017, by

Sony Pictures Releasing Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group (formerly known as the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group until 2013, and abbreviated as SPMPG) is a division of Sony Pictures, Sony Pictures Entertainment to manage its motion picture operatio ...

through

Columbia Pictures Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc., Trade name, doing business as Columbia Pictures, is an American film Production company, production and Film distributor, distribution company that is the flagship unit of the Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group ...

, received mixed reviews and grossed $47 million worldwide against a production budget of about $26 million.

Plot

In 2006, Jess, Alice, Frankie and Blair bond during their first year of college. A decade later they reunite as Jess, now an aspiring politician, is about to marry her boyfriend Peter. Alice decides that the four should spend the weekend in Miami partying. They are also joined by Pippa, Jess's friend from her semester abroad in Australia. Alice, who considers herself to be Jess's best friend, is immediately jealous of Pippa. The friends get high on

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

and party at a club before deciding to hire a male stripper. At the vacation house, he makes Jess uncomfortable with his rough talk. Alice becomes aroused and jumps on him; the stripper is knocked to the floor and dies after striking his head on the fireplace. Before they decide what to do, Jess takes a call from Peter and mentions that her friends hired a stripper, and she is confused. Peter thinks that she is leaving him and becomes distraught. His friends tell him that he should drive down to Miami to win her back. The friends purchase a burner phone to call Blair's lawyer uncle. After telling them they moved the body, he tells them they could face up to fifteen years in prison unless the body is never found. Pippa volunteers to pilot a jet ski out to the ocean and dump the body. After doing so, they think the neighbors' security camera caught them on tape, and send Blair to seduce them for the footage, only to discover the cameras don't work after she has slept with them. By this point, the body has washed up back on the shore and they must come up with a new plan to dispose of it. A uniformed police officer knocks on their door and Frankie knocks him out after he gropes her, only for them to realize he was the stripper they had hired, leaving them to wonder who was killed. They try to dispose of the body again after stealing the stripper's car, only to return defeated after a car crash. Then, when Alice finds out Jess invited Frankie and Blair to a bridal shower over her, Jess berates her for her obsessive clinginess and storms off to prepare for the consequences. At this point, two plainclothes police officers arrive and tell the women they are not in trouble as the man they killed was a violent criminal who had been on the run from the police. As they interrogate the women Pippa realizes that the "police" are actually accomplices of the dead man, who had double-crossed them during a heist of valuable diamonds. The thieves realize that they have been caught and tie their captives up, threatening to shoot them. Jess meanwhile has missed most of the drama due to being upstairs taking a shower in preparation for her mugshot. Realizing what has happened, she subdues one of the captors using hairspray and handcuffs and fights off the other one as he prepares to kill Blair. After Alice shoots the second captor, the first escapes but is run over and killed by Peter, high on the drugs he took to keep him awake on his road trip to Miami. Jess reaffirms that she wants to marry Peter and they do it that weekend at a foam party with their friends. The girls have been pardoned for their act in ridding the thieves. Jess wins her campaign. Frankie and Blair reunite as a couple and Alice hooks up with Scotty, the police officer stripper from the bachelorette party. In a mid-credits scene, Pippa sings lyrics that allude to the evening, and after the credits Alice finds the thief's stolen diamonds that had been stashed in a box of naughty pasta from the bachelorette party.

Cast

as Jessica "Jess" Thayer *

as Alice *

as Pippa/Kiwi *

as Frankie *

as Blair * Paul W. Downs as Peter *

as Lea *

as Pietro * Ryan Cooper as Jay ("Scotty"), the fake stripper *

Colton Haynes Colton Lee Haynes (born July 13, 1988) is an American actor and model. He is known for his starring role as Jackson Whittemore in the MTV supernatural drama series ''Teen Wolf (2011 TV series), Teen Wolf'' and as Roy Harper (Arrowverse), Roy Har ...

as Scotty McBody, the real stripper *

Dean Winters Dean Gerard Winters (born July 20, 1964) is an American actor. He is known for his role as Ryan O'Reily on the HBO prison drama '' Oz'' and his roles in the TV series ''Millennium'','' Rescue Me'', ''30 Rock'', ''Sex and the City'', and '' Law & ...

as Detective Frazier *

Enrique Murciano Enrique Ricardo Murciano (born July 9, 1973) is an American actor. He is known for his role as FBI agent Danny Taylor in the CBS mystery drama series ''Without a Trace'' from 2002 to 2009. Early life and education Born and raised in Miami, Flo ...

as Detective Ruiz *

Bo Burnham Robert Pickering Burnham (born August 21, 1990) is an American stand-up comedian, musician, actor, filmmaker, and YouTuber. Burnham's work combines elements of filmmaking with Comedy music, music, Sketch comedy, sketch, and stand-up comedy, co ...

as Tobey *

Eric André Eric Samuel André (born April 4, 1983) is an American comedian, actor, television host, writer, producer, and musician. He is best known as the creator, host, and co-writer of the Adult Swim surreal comedy series '' The Eric Andre Show'' (2012� ...

as Jake *

Hasan Minhaj Hasan Minhaj ( ; born September 23, 1985) is an American comedian, writer, producer, actor, and television host. Much of his comedy involves Culture of India, Indian culture and the modern American political landscape through the use of satire, ...

as Joe * Patrick Carlyle as Patrick *

Karan Soni Karan Soni (born January 8, 1989) is an Indian-American actor and comedian. Often appearing in comedic roles, he came to prominence for playing Dopinder in the films '' Deadpool'' (2016) and its sequels '' Deadpool 2'' (2018) and '' Deadpool & ...

as Raviv *

Peter Francis James Peter Francis James (born September 16, 1956) is an American actor and voice-over artist, distinguished by his strong baritone. Early life James was born September 16, 1956, in Chicago, Illinois, to David James and Mary Galloway James. He has f ...

as Uncle Jack *

Caldwell Tidicue Christopher Delmar Caldwell (born June 22, 1986), also known by his stage name Caldwell Tidicue and better known by his drag name Bob the Drag Queen, is an American drag queen, comedian, actor, activist, musician, author, and reality television ...

as DJ (Club Liv) *

Jaboukie Young-White Jaboukie Young-White (born July 24, 1994) is an American comedian, actor, writer and musician. Early life Young-White was born to Jamaican immigrants and raised in Harvey, Illinois. He later attended Marian Catholic High School followed by DePa ...

as Borat

Production

On the strength of Aniello's success with ''

Broad City ''Broad City'' is an American television sitcom created by and starring Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson. It was developed from their independent web series of the same name, which was produced between 2009 and 2011. The sitcom, like the web serie ...

'', the film was the subject of an intense bidding war, of which Sony Pictures Entertainment was announced as the winner in June 2015. The script was among the 2015

Black List Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

of unproduced scripts. Aniello has referred to the movie as "a comedic version of '' The Big Chill''". In December 2015,

joined the film to play the lead role. In April 2016,

joined the film, with the rest of the main cast announced the next month.

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

began in August 2016 in

Saddle Rock, New York Saddle Rock is a village on the Great Neck Peninsula in the Town of North Hempstead, in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. The population was 989 at the time of the 2020 census. History The area n ...

. In late September 2016, filming was taking place in

Mount Vernon, New York Mount Vernon is a city in Westchester County, New York, United States. It is an inner suburb of New York City, immediately to the north of the Borough (New York City), borough of the Bronx. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, Moun ...

. The film spent $26 million in New York State and received $6 million in tax rebates. The film was originally titled ''Rock That Body'' but was renamed to ''Rough Night'', possibly due to copyright issues as "

Rock Your Body "Rock Your Body" is a song by American singer Justin Timberlake from his debut studio album, '' Justified'' (2002). The Neptunes (consisting of Chad Hugo and Pharrell Williams) wrote and produced the song. The song features background vocals by ...

" had already been used as a song title by Justin Timberlake.

Music

Dominic Lewis Dominic Alexander Charles Lewis (born January 29, 1985) is a British film and television composer and singer. He first worked on various music departments for film projects before transitioning into more solo work starting with ''Free Birds''. H ...

composed the film's musical score.

Release

Theatrical

''Rough Night'' was scheduled to be released on June 23, 2017. It was then moved up a week to June 16.

Marketing

The studio spent about $35 million on promotion and advertisements.

Reception

Box office

''Rough Night'' grossed $22.1 million in the United States and Canada and $25.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $47.3 million, against a production budget of $20 million. In North America, the film was released alongside '' All Eyez on Me'', ''

47 Meters Down ''47 Meters Down'' is a 2017 survival horror film directed by Johannes Roberts, written by Roberts and Ernest Riera, and starring Claire Holt and Mandy Moore. The plot follows two sisters who are invited to cage dive while on holiday in Mexico ...

'' and ''

Cars 3 ''Cars 3'' is a 2017 American animated sports comedy-adventure film produced by Pixar Animation Studios for Walt Disney Pictures. It is a sequel to '' Cars 2'' (2011) and the third film in the ''Cars'' franchise. It was directed by Brian Fe ...

'', and was initially projected to gross $10–14 million from 3,162 theaters in its opening weekend. After making just $3.4 million on its first day (including $700,000 from Thursday night previews ), weekend projections were revised to $9 million. It ended up debuting to $8 million, finishing 7th at the box office. In its second weekend the film grossed $4.7 million (a drop of just over 41%), finishing 8th at the box office.

Critical response

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the film has an approval rating of 45% based on 173 reviews, with an average rating of 5.20/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "''Rough Night''s gifted stars are certainly good for some laughs, but their talents aren't properly utilized in a scattered comedy that suffers from too many missed opportunities." On

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 51 out of 100, based on reviews from 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by

CinemaScore CinemaScore is an American market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts from the data. Background Ed Mintz, who ...

gave the film an average grade of "C+" on an A+ to F scale, while

PostTrak PostTrak is a U.S.-based service that surveys film audiences for film studios. History The service conducts surveys in the top 20 markets in the U.S. and Canada with the use of polling cards and electronic kiosks. A PostTrak report for a fil ...

reported filmgoers gave it a 66% overall positive score. Owen Gleiberman of

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

wrote: "Rough Night, a bachelorette-party-from-hell thriller comedy that's got some push and some laughs, despite its essentially formulaic nature, is a perfect example of why Hollywood needs (many) more women filmmakers." The cast received positive notices, even though the film as a whole did not. Peter Travers of

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

wrote "The women in Rough Night are terrific company. They never wear out their welcome. You can't say the same for the movie." Manohla Dargis of

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

said "It's all blithely formulaic and would be more irritating if the performers — who include Zoë Kravitz and Illana Glazer — weren't generally so appealing." David Rooney of

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

wrote: "All the talented women here are stuck playing types rather than characters, in a strained frolic in which both the verbal humor and the physical gags too often fall flat." Critics have pointed out strong similarities between ''Rough Night'' and the 1998

Peter Berg Peter Berg (born March 11, 1964) is an American director, producer, writer, and actor. His directorial film works include the black comedy '' Very Bad Things'' (1998), the action comedy '' The Rundown'' (2003), the sports drama '' Friday Night ...

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

Very Bad Things ''Very Bad Things'' is a 1998 American black comedy film written and directed by Peter Berg in his feature film directorial debut and starring Cameron Diaz, Jon Favreau, Daniel Stern, Jeremy Piven, Christian Slater, Leland Orser, Kobe Tai ...

''.

Adaptation

The film was later adapted in

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

Telugu language Telugu (; , ) is a Dravidian languages, Dravidian language native to the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, where it is also the official language. Spoken by about 96 million people (2022), Telugu is the most widely spoken member of ...

as '' Anukunnadi Okkati Ayyandhi Okati'' () which released on 6 March 2020 through

Amazon Prime Video Amazon Prime Video, known simply as Prime Video, is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming television service owned by Amazon. The service primarily distributes films and television series produced or co-produced by ...

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 2017 films 2017 black comedy films 2017 directorial debut films 2017 LGBTQ-related films 2010s American films 2010s buddy comedy films 2010s English-language films 2010s female buddy films American black comedy films American buddy comedy films American female buddy films American LGBTQ-related films Columbia Pictures films English-language black comedy films English-language buddy comedy films Films about death Films about female bisexuality Films about parties Films about striptease Films about vacationing Films produced by Matt Tolmach Films scored by Dominic Lewis Films set in 2006 Films set in 2016 Films set in Miami Films shot in New York (state) Lesbian-related films LGBTQ-related black comedy films LGBTQ-related buddy comedy films