Comedies aren't really my thing, unless they are dark and edgy or the blackest of black, and as such I rarely see many of them at MIFF. However, I do like to make sure that I check out a couple of new Aussie films each year at the festival, and I must admit that I am a sucker for the “Groundhog Day” type scenario, and with Emily Browning as its lead actor, I felt that all of the stars had aligned meaning I had to book a ticket to see “One More Shot”. As unfair and as snobby as it sounds, because it is a comedy, I really wasn't expecting too much from “One More Shot”, but I ended up having such a great time with it.
What is so great about “One More Shot” (despite it's clever and double-meaning title) is that it has a ridiculous concept but does something really great with it, while also being incredibly funny and poignant at the same time. The idea of being able to do-over parts of your life in an attempt to make it better is something we all understand and I am sure have fantasised about, but part of the fun of this film is watching Minnie (yep, like the mouse) compounding her troubles more or creating new problems entirely, each time she goes back to fix things, which then causes her to go back to the beginning to try and fix it all over again. It is also amusing seeing Minnie's frustration of having to go through the whole night again just to get to the part she is trying to fix, and her attempts to speed up this process. The way the whole thing works is that each time Minnie has a shot of the time-travelling tequila, she is brought back to the time and place where she took the very first shot, which turns out to be, just outside the front door of her friend's house, before she enters the party. It is important to note that she does not have unlimited goes at going back in time, as once the bottle is finished (it does not refill each time she goes back in time), her time-travelling abilities are over.
A huge part of the fun of these time-travelling comedies is the repetition of certain events and how doing one small thing differently can create a huge butterfly effect on other things entirely. In “One More Shot”, Minnie is convinced that she has been given this magic tequila to stop her ex, Joe, from proposing to his new girlfriend (which Minnie is witness to in the very first timeline in the film), as she is convinced that Joe is “the one” for her. Hilarity ensues as Minnie realises just how hard it is to recreate certain events exactly and at the precise time, so the night goes perfectly as she remembered it. I was actually surprised by how incredibly funny I found “One More Shot” and how much I laughed out loud during it. Along with the repetition of events, another fun aspect of these films is watching the different line deliveries the actors give to the same line during each do-over. We must get at least ten different (subtle) versions of “what time is it?” which is the first thing Minnie hears each time she comes back, and it is equally great watching Emily Browning's reactions to the line each time, with my favourite being “Oh, fuck off!” when she is well and truly over it.
With the film taking place on New Years Eve 1999, we get the chance to revisit the whole embarrassing “Y2K” situation that took place then, where some people truly thought the world would end, while others assumed it was a total hoax. The idea that planes would fall from the sky and the world would shut down at midnight of the year 2000 is played for laughs (and meanly so, in regards to one character) in “One More Shot” with a long-running gag, but it was an uncomfortable reminder of how embarrassingly naïve we all were back then in regards to the internet and computers. It was one element of the film that made me cringe and I did not need to revisit as I am sure future generations will think we were pathetic over that moment in time.....but I digress.
For a comedy to truly work well, there are a number of things the film must do well, and the first is have a great group of characters that are fun to hang out with, and “One More Shot” has this in spades. All eight of them are well defined, and so different from one another, but importantly are believable as a group of old friends, have a natural chemistry together and are a lot of fun too. None of them are overly obnoxious or total dickheads that can rub you the wrong way; sure most of them do stupid things, particularly Minnie, but these things happen when friends catch up, drink and reminisce about old times. Another thing a comedy must do is both move quickly and not overstay its welcome, and again “One More Shot” succeeds in this, as the films zips by at a nice clip, quickly telling its amusing tale and then gets the hell out of there, all within ninety minutes. Too often these days comedies are far too long, running close to two hours, but by then the jokes are running thin and the film itself on the fumes of the laughter that ended thirty minutes ago. It is so great to see a comedy wrap things up whilst it is still on top, with the audience still roaring with laughter. The final thing that a comedy must do well to truly work is actually be funny, and trust me, “One More Shot” totally nails this aspect.
The main reason I initially was interested in seeing “One More Shot” was because Emily Browning was the lead actor in the film, and she is so outstanding in it and also incredibly game for anything. Her comic timing was surprisingly superb, and I was also not expecting to see so much physical comedy from Browning, as there is a very funny repeated gag involving a glass door and Minnie's attempts to walk through it, as well as a hilarious fail in an attempted one-upmanship during a dance that sees the girl crawling in agony towards her tequila bottle to give it one more shot. Browning is also excellent from an acting perspective because in the wrong hands Minnie could have come across as very obnoxious and self serving, thus turning off the audience, but Browning makes us care for poor Minnie, and actually gives her a number of “real” moments, particularly towards the end of the film. I also have to say that I almost died when her character mentions that she is 37 (!); it appears that Emily Browning hasn't aged a day in eighteen years! The other actor who I loved in “One More Shot” was Aisha Dee, who plays Joe's new girlfriend Jenny. I fell in love with Dee in 2022 when she played the title role in the fantastic Australian horror film “Sissy”. Her smile and voice is just so infectious that I adored her in that movie, and I had no idea that she was actually in “One More Shot” prior to seeing it, so I started beaming when she finally appeared onscreen with that smile and voice so prominent once again. She doesn't have heaps to do in the film, to be fair, but she is such a delightful screen presence that it was enough that she just featured in the film at all.
I mentioned at the beginning that “One More Shot” is more thoughtful and poignant than you may think, as it's main message is to be content in where your life is at now, there is no point wasting any time trying to fix mistakes from your past or to try and re-live moments from your past, put that focus on your present and future. Too many people attempt to rekindle past loves because they thought they were perfect back when, but there is a reason that they are a “past” relationship, accept that, appreciate it for what it was, and move on looking forward to the future. While it is only mentioned briefly in the film, I was actually impressed with the way “One More Shot” handled the alcoholism of one of its main characters. It is done very maturely and honestly, and I actually felt really badly when the guy's friend immediately offers him a shot after he has opened up and explained that he is in fact an alcoholic. The hurt in his eyes is very real in this moment, and again I was impressed that this silly comedy actually went to such a place, if only briefly. I will say though I did find it odd that an alcoholic would be dating a bartender (sorry, a “mixologist”).
The final thing that I want to mention about “One More Shot” was about the weird digital look the film had on a lot of the characters faces. I have no idea if I was seeing things or not, but it almost appeared like the characters had additional “digital” make-up done on them, where facial details (like skin pores) were totally missing, giving them a waxy appearance. This is something you see happen on blu rays from time to time when companies overuse the DNR program to try and rid digital noise from an image, but in doing so too aggressively, end up losing actual detail in the image. I can never remember seeing this on a brand new film on the big screen before, and if I had to swear my life away to the fact that this is what I really saw, I am not sure that I could, but I must say that I found myself quite distracted by it at times, even though I couldn't work out what it was, my brain was telling me something was off.
Overall, I had a fantastic time with director Nicholas Clifford's “One More Shot”. It was fast paced, colourful, ridiculous, had a entertaining cast of characters and most importantly, it was incredibly funny! I also appreciated that it did not overstay it's welcome, running around ninety minutes which I think is the perfect length for a comedy. Sure, its not going to save the world, but not all films need to. Just sit back, get comfy and get ready to laugh: “One More Shot” is a very funny Aussie comedy that I had a blast with.
3.5 Stars.
No comments:
Post a Comment