“One Night Only”: The Worst Movie of 2026

I thought the wannabe blockbusters of 2026 were bad, but I was unprepared for the eye-rolling experience that was One Night Only. 

I know: This month I’ve been all about romantic comedies. In my defense, I have a great reason for that: I’m currently working on a long essay about the fall of romantic comedies. With that purpose, I’m rewatching a lot of old films (some of them really amazing), which makes it all the more painful to go back to current-day romcoms. 

I was pretty curious about One Night Only, mainly because it was directed by Will Gluck, the same man behind the successful Anyone But You from 2024. No matter how terrible I think that movie was, it made a lot of money. Would he manage to repeat that success, or would it have the same box-office destiny as most of the romcoms released in theaters this year? Would it be an improvement on the director’s previous movie?

Let’s find out. 

What Is One Night Only About?

In a universe where premarital sex has been outlawed, everybody is looking forward to the exemption night, that one night a year when everything is allowed. 

Allie, a commercial singer, and Owen, the owner of a pizza shop, both with frustrated expectations for that night, keep bumping into each other all through New York City. Could that be the beginning of something?

Modern High-Concept (a.k.a. We Don’t Know How To Write Humans)

Hollywood’s blatant inability to write good characters is a problem I mention in almost every review. This time, however, we should tackle it from a slightly different perspective. 

The term “high concept” refers to a premise that is simple but unique and works as the center of the story. This core idea is attractive and can be explained in a few sentences, making it very marketable. In other words, the plot is not driven by the characters but by the unusual premise. When talking about romantic comedies in particular, the crazy circumstances are used to create romantic tension and comedic situations between characters. 

If we consider great examples of high concepts such as Groundhog Day or Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, or even much simpler ones like 13 Going on 30, though their respective crazy scenarios drive the plot, their concepts are used to explore human themes and develop the characters’ relationships. That is, a high concept does not necessarily equal shallow storytelling.

It Could Have Worked

In the case of One Night Only, while the concept is quite strange for a romcom, they could have taken it somewhere more interesting. Just think about it; we live in a time period where everything seems to be directly tied to sex: music, films, books, and social media. You can consume or sell sex in a million different ways. However, people are unable to form long-term commitments and to find romantic partners that go beyond a one-night stand or a “situationship.” 

With that in mind, a universe where sex out of wedlock is out of the question could have forced the characters to have other bases for their relationships. How does each character feel about sex? Do they think the laws have improved the dating market or made it more difficult? What would the dating period look like? Would people get married sooner, desperate to have sex? Or would they wait longer to find the perfect person? 

But the film does not care about that. The premise is wasted on setting up random situations like:

• The protagonists steal the last condom from a store, and then they fight over it;
• The female protagonist runs from the police half-naked, for the man she was about to sleep with is arrested for having sex out of the exemption period; 
• The male protagonist arranges a meeting with a woman through a dating app and ends up being stripped naked and robbed. 

One Night Only tries to play with physical comedy, but the results are pitiful. The focus on those scenes is not on building camaraderie between the protagonists; it just goes for a cheap laugh. And sometimes, the focus is shamelessly on the actors’ bodies. So of course we get to see Callum Turner’s abs and Monica Barbaro in lacy underwear. 

Apparently, This Is Right-Wing Propaganda…

As soon as I finished the film, I did something I shouldn’t have: I opened Letterboxd and read some short reviews to see if anyone was as appalled with the experience as me. What I found were plenty of users claiming the film is a right-wing attempt to normalize people not fighting for their “body autonomy”. 

Why someone would have that take after watching One Night Only is beyond me. 

This was made for the kind of people who believe The Handmaid’s Tale is a close depiction of women’s lives in the West because laws do not allow them to have an abortion until the ninth month of pregnancy. Something that is catchy to say on TikTok but that has no substance in reality. Wherever you stand politically, I think you should realize that making that comparison is stupid. And you should also be capable of identifying when a film is taking a clear political position to the left. 

What did they expect? Did they want the characters to start a riot against the Mandate? A ten-minute scene where the female protagonist had a Barbie-style monologue against the patriarchy taking away her right to sleep around? It’s a romcom! 

The script even refers to the people who promoted the Mandate as “the fascists.” Where have I heard that before? As I see it, the film tried to suggest that the Mandate is what evil conservatives will do if we let them. But they made it cutesy because they wanted the girlies to pay for a ticket. The project was pandering to people who have that ideological position, and even they didn’t like it!

So this is where we are now: the poorly made romcoms also want to lecture you. 

Romance, Are You There?

The characters are as superficial as they come. We are told some scraps of “personal” information about them (what they do for a living, their relationship status, introduction of a few friends), and that’s about it. 

Previous to One Night Only, I had only seen Monica Barbaro once, and I liked her performance, but whatever charisma she possesses is lost in the nonsense that is this script. Her character is an aspiring singer because in A Complete Unknown, Hollywood discovered Barbaro can sing, so now she has to sing in everything. The most Disney Channel move possible. 

And Mr. Dua Lipa is just boring to watch. His character is in a long-term relationship and has a plan to propose to his girlfriend on the exemption night. However, that very same day, the girlfriend communicates to him that she has already arranged to sleep with someone else that night. So now he is heartbroken. The film tries to make him the typical romcom good guy, but he has no presence for this genre. It was like Sydney Sweeney in Anyone But You; there are actors who just don’t have a knack for comedy. They don’t have the charisma or the comedic timing to pull it off. 

The film wants to convince us that our two protagonists are not like everyone else; they are different; they want to have a connection that goes beyond sex. However, we are shown exactly the opposite: the only reason Owen and Allie do not have sex with anyone that night is because badly written shenanigans prevent them. They are more than willing to forget about the human connection part of the affair as soon as the opportunity to sleep with someone arises. 

But anyway, the script says that Allie and Owen end up together, so they do. It doesn’t matter that they have nothing in common; it doesn’t matter that they developed no emotional bond (or fell in love) during the runtime. This is modern love, guys; we don’t have time for that. 

Critical Response & Box Office

With four weekends in theaters, One Night Only managed to gross barely $20,204,000 worldwide, against a production budget of $25,000,000. Some countries had a later release date (in mine, it was this very weekend), so the number may go up slightly in the next couple of days, but I doubt the change will be significant. 

And I’m glad. Regardless of where you stand politically (or your interpretation on the film), we should all agree on one thing: this failed because it’s bad. Even Anyone But You has more entertainment value than this, and that is saying a lot.

The most revolutionary thing a romcom could do right now is leave sex aside and focus on people having feelings again. It can’t be that hard.