As a person who only watches girls’ night out movies with friends, and cringes all the way through them, I was delightfully surprised by Netflix’s Someone Great.
Someone Great is about Jenny, played by Gina Rodriguez, who, right before moving to her dream job, is dumped by her boyfriend of six years. To work through her feelings she recruits her two best friends to make their last night the best as she deals with all the changes in her life. The plot isn’t anything groundbreaking, but it tends to transcend its stereotypes to create a heartwarming movie.
A girls’ night out movie tends to consist of a group of friends, who are all women, usually going through a life crisis and experience emotional growth or change through their journey. The group, such as in Bridesmaids, Girl’s Trip or Rough Night tend to consist of a crazy group of women who get into trouble that only those with no common sense could get into along with constant sex references.
These movies aren’t meant to be highbrow stories, but I could never tell why girls’ night out movies could never speak to reality without undercutting their message with how idiotic their characters were. The trend of trying to create a female version of Hangover seems trivial when so many great plots could be generated from an original girls’ night out movie. Someone Great managed to do this though and the difference between it and every other movie in its genre is tone.
Someone Great is a comedy, its characters are meant to be silly – but silly in a very real way, like when you’re with your friends and your filter tends to leave. In moments like this, we are able to bash one another freely and give loving criticism to friends.
With a diverse cast that works through their own personal relationships while still never giving up on one another, this movie is great because it doesn’t use stick in the mud characters. The characters included are the fat funny friend, the friend who is a hot mess or the one who is pitied for being a loser. All three of the main characters are fleshed out so their story arcs are meaningful. The tone is that of a comedy, but the comedy allows for the serious moments to hit home when they happen. No character steps on anyone else’s serious moment, they let each character feel without cutting in and only relieving the pressure of the moment once the moment is over.
Sure there’s silly moments. And at times, you wonder how much money the characters have. But all that doesn’t matter… it’s a fun movie to watch because of the fun the characters have, and there is heart behind it. There is enough of a takeaway that it’ll allow you to follow the characters through everything, and feel what they feel.
I hope that girl’s night out movies will follow Someone Great’s lead and make more grounded, real, and relatable characters like these. Such authenticity adds so much to a compelling storyline, and I hope to see more of this.