Review: 'The Night Before' is an instant Christmas classic: naughty, but nice

Directed by Jonathan Levine, “The Night Before” proves the stoner comedy and the holiday movie are a surprisingly wonderful combination. An instant classic, the film features plenty of nice characters doing very naughty things to celebrate the season. But fortunately for audiences, this updated twist on seasonal cheer isn't a lump of coal.

For 10 years, Ethan (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has celebrated Christmas with his best friends Isaac (Seth Rogen) and Chris (Anthony Mackie), getting drunk and stoned, eating Chinese food, and singing karaoke.

But while his friends have grown up and moved on, Ethan hasn't. With a baby on the way for Isaac and newfound football fame for Chris, this is their “last Christmas,” and Ethan's got designs on a mythic party, The Nutcracker Ball.

What ensues is one wild night on the town, where the friends try to commemorate their party-hardy past while confronting demons of their own. Rogen's Isaac has, by far, the funniest arc of the film. Gifted with a stash of drugs by his uber-cool pregnant wife, Betsy (Jillian Bell), Isaac goes on the trip of his life and ends up exchanging sexy texts with a mystery suitor, chatting with a friendly Nativity scene, and memorably, freaking out at midnight Mass while wearing a Star of David sweater. Rogen makes the most of his gifts for physical comedy and nonsensical wordplay.

Mackie is unleashed in the role of the newly famous, nearly manic baller, and the actor is reveling in the freedom of the role.

That leaves Gordon-Levitt stuck playing the straight man, and his Ethan is rather bland. His pining over ex Diana (an under-utilized Lizzy Caplan) is fairly standard-issue movie romance stuff. Surrounded by scores of character actors and celebrity cameos, his performance fades to the background.

The references to canonical holiday classics is what cements “The Night Before” in the legion of Christmas fare. There's almost not a holiday classic that goes untouched.

For all the drinking, drugging, sexing, swearing and sucker-punching, “The Night Before” works because its heart is in the right place. It's a story about how friends are your family, and even the most imperfect of Christmases can be great when you're with the ones you love.

Katie Walsh is a staff writer for Tribune News Service.