Nightlife

Nightlife is a comedy for viewers who want a light evening watch rather than something built to linger. By our assessment, its job is to keep things moving with jokes and social friction, and that kind of comedy lives or dies on timing. The limit is that broad comic pieces can feel thin once the premise has done its work, especially if the gags do not keep changing shape. In practice it is the sort of film you put on for pace, not depth, and it usually asks for little beyond attention to the rhythm of the scenes. It sits in the ordinary middle of contemporary comedy, neither especially risky nor especially rich.