THE NIGHT BEFORE
**1/2 (out of four)
DIRECTED BY Jonathan Levine
STARS Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Seth Rogen
For over a dozen years, best buds Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie) have spent Christmas Eve in frantic search of the legendary Nutcracka Ball, a wild party whose location is even more guarded than that of the masked orgy in Stanley Kubrick's Eyes Wide Shut. Finally obtaining (actually, stealing) three tickets to the exclusive bash, the three putz around NYC waiting for the magic hour — during that time, Ethan gets beaten up by a pair of street Santas, Isaac trips hard on shrooms, coke and other drugs, and Chris gets ripped off by a self-professed Grinch (Ilana Glazer).
The Night Before is the sort of BFF (Bro Friends Forever) flick that now invades our multiplexes with clockwork regularity, all cut from a similar template: an amusing premise, appealing actors, a handful of large laughs in the early going ("I haven't done cocaine in 11 years!" "No one has, I don't think."), some tedious soul-searching moments in the late innings, and a couple of cameos from big stars playing themselves (the ones here are wholly underwhelming). What provides the picture with most of its unexpected spark is the deft turn by Michael Shannon, hilarious as a rambling pot dealer who operates out of his car. Even his radical character gets neutered by some dopey plotting toward the end, but until then, he's the performer who most earns his wings.
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