The mismatched buddy comedy is one of the enduring subgenres of cinema because it plays right to the heart of much filmed comedy — one character is straightforward and the other is woefully inept. That’s the basic premise behind All Nighter, the upcoming comedy from director Gavin Wiesen that stars J.K. Simmons and Emile Hirsch as they scour the streets of Los Angeles one evening in search of Simmons’ missing daughter, played by Analeigh Tipton.
Of course, the story of All Nighter is a little more complicated than a sentence summary. Martin (Hirsch) is a musician that has yet to make his breakthrough in the highly competitive world of banjo. He shares a tense dinner with his girlfiend Ginnie (Tipton) and her stern father Mr. Gallo (Simmons). But six months later, Ginnie goes missing and Mr. Gallo teams with the hapless musicians to track down the elusive Ginnie. You can see within the trailer below that there’s plenty of room for some solid comedic hijinks within All Nighter.
All Nighter comes from the Black List script by Seth W. Owen, who was behind last year’s sci-fi thriller Morgan. Co-starring in the film is SNL alum Taran Killam and the versatile comedic actress Kristen Schaal. All Nighter opens in Los Angeles on March 17th, 2017 and expands to other cities as well as VOD platforms on March 24th, 2017.
The official synopsis for All Nighter:
Martin is a struggling LA musician nervously meeting his girlfriend Ginnie’s intimidating father, Mr. Gallo, for the first time. Gallo is a tough-minded, no-nonsense international businessman who never has enough time for Ginnie. At dinner together, Gallo is resolutely unimpressed by Martin, Martin grows increasingly uncomfortable, and the meal is a disaster.
Six months later, Martin’s broken-hearted over being dumped by Ginnie, who has “moved on”, when Gallo shows up at his door looking for his daughter. Her cellphone is off and she has not responded to any texts or emails. Although it’s the last thing he wants to do, Martin is “persuaded” by Gallo to take him to where Martin believes Ginnie is living. Ginnie isn’t there either, and Martin and Mr. Gallo are forced to spend the rest of the day and night together, searching for her all over town. As they attempt to solve the puzzle of what is going on in Ginnie’s life, they encounter her crazy friends and get into increasingly desperate jams of their own making. Some property is destroyed, some laws are broken, but an uneasy friendship between Martin and Gallo is born…. as they discover that they, rather than Ginnie, are the ones who are truly lost.