For a movie about single people trying to have sex during the one night a year when it’s legal, One Night Only doesn’t contain a lot of sex. In fact, it contains very little. Most of the early reviews pointed out how zipped up and chaste the film felt, given its premise, and once randoms started seeing it, social media was flooded with similar comments from people who roasted it for being really prudish. Director Will Gluck has since explained why he kept the characters so covered up, but his explanation has only made the outcry worse.
In an interview with Variety, Gluck said during the editing process for his last film, Anyone But You, he came across “long pages of empirical data” that show people these days get “uncomfortable” when they see adult situations or nudity in a theater with other people. He said people now prefer consuming that type of material in “private.” He said he still shot a lot of nudity for One Night Only thinking he might show it, but ultimately, he felt it took viewers “out of the movie.” Here’s a portion of his quote…
