'The Overnight': Sex-Positive, Smart, & Super NSFW

The team behind the Sundance hit The Overnight released a first seven minute video from the movie on the film's Facebook page, and it looks like this movie is going to be a good one. The beginning of the film appears to set up what will be a smart comedy that does not present sex gratuitously or for shock value, but rather to service a deeper theme. In just the first couple of minutes, we see two themes that are not explored much on screen: Firstly, the intimate struggles of maintaining a sex life when one has kids, and more prominently, the anxiety and difficulty of making friends as an adult. So yeah, you could say I'm pretty excited about The Overnight and its sex-positive outlook.

Adam Scott and Taylor Schilling are Alex and Emily, a couple that just moved from Seattle to Los Angeles with their son. The film opens with them in bed, trying to sneak in a quickie before their son wakes up. Ultimately they are interrupted by their kid, adorably dressed in Superman pajamas, who remarks, "It smells funny in here." Awkward.

Alex is anxious about moving to a new city and building a community. "I'm a grown up person," he says to Emily, "Am I supposed to ask other grown ups if they want to be friends?"

Emily and Alex soon meet Kurt (played by Jason Schwartzman) at the park, who invites them over to him and his wife's "regular pizza night." And if the also NSFW Red Band trailer is any indication, things get raunchy and weird. It isn't just in middle school and high school where we do strange things to try to make friends. The film explores how the desire to connect — and even peer pressure — extend into adult life.

As we grow up, it appears we have less and less opportunities to meet new people, and the people we meet are already set in their ways. The Overnight is being primarily advertised as a sex comedy, but we can imagine that the risky sexual behavior is all rooted back to the theme, the universal anxiety of being a fish out of water and the desire to connect. It was a huge hit on the film festival circuit and has received fantastic reviews, which show that it treats the sex scenes intelligently and isn't just nudity for nudity's sake.

Image: The Orchard