Time loop movies like Groundhog Day or Palm Springs sometimes have a requisite part of the looper having some enjoyable, however in One Extra Shot, the Australian Y2K-set comedy, Minnie (Emily Browning) principally simply self-destructs. Although the movie’s loop is an intimate get together between finest associates and former lovers, every part is fairly miserable, even the so-called jokes. Time-traveling tequila (properly, actually mezcal, as everybody factors out, as a result of there is a worm within the bottle) seems like a enjoyable thought, however the movie is actually quick on doling it out.
Good factor Browning is such an endlessly charming performer. She’s roughly the one particular person elevating the proceedings, which total appears like a sanctimonious anti-alcohol marketing campaign. A part of the explanation Invoice Murray’s foray into inadvertent time journey was so profitable is as a result of Harold Ramis’s movie is, famously, advanced in regard to its “that means.” One Extra Shot feels so wanting to put on its coronary heart and its classes on its sleeves that it would not enable us to attract our personal conclusions.
Too A lot Nostalgia, Not Sufficient Substance
Minnie is, like previous loop-film protagonists, a bit egocentric. She’s been crashing on Flick and Max’s sofa for too lengthy (Anna McGahan and Contessa Treffone, respectively); she willingly “forgets” to deliver ice to the get together; she’s missed the birthday for Rodney and Pia’s new child (Ashley Zukerman and Pallavi Sharda, respectively); and, she cheated on ex-fiancée Cam (Oliver Coleman) whom she runs into on the hospital, the place she works as an anesthetist, proper as his spouse is giving delivery.
She’s a multitude, in different phrases, and it appears clear she can be an alcoholic. Although she would not actually really feel like going to Rodney and Pia’s New 12 months’s Eve get together, she is well persuaded as soon as she hears that ex-boyfriend Joe (Sean Keenan) has returned to Australia after a while away in New York. It is a costume get together, however Minnie desires to look scorching — she’s decided to make Joe know what he is lacking — however everybody else is clad in plenty of Nineties signifiers. Rodney is dressed as Ace Ventura; Flick and Max are dressed as John Travolta and Uma Thurman in Pulp Fiction; Joe is Kurt Cobain, whereas his new girlfriend, Jenny (Aisha Dee) is Courtney Love, and schlumpy creep C-Phrase (Hamish Michael) has come as George Clooney in E.R.
Whereas tearing by way of her stuff to search out the proper sultry gown, she stumbles throughout an unopened bottle of mezcal that Flick gifted her ten years in the past from a bunch journey to Mexico that Minnie wasn’t on. It seems to be like a principally regular bottle of booze besides that it is referred to as “The Satan’s Piss” and its wax high is within the form of Lucifer. Earlier than coming into the get together, she takes a swig to metal her nerves, thus planting the primary bookend. After face-planting a window and breaking her nostril, she takes one other shot — and is transported to the second she took the primary one.
So, time journey works a bit otherwise than in previous movies of the same ilk, which additionally signifies that if she chooses to, she will be able to simply let time proceed as usually by refusing to drink extra. However Minnie convinces herself the time-traveling liquor is an indication she is meant to interrupt up Joe and Jenny and so begins a montage of determined makes an attempt to take action.
As a result of a lot of the humor relies on how a lot of a idiot Minnie may be, it exhausts itself fairly quick. The movie has a number of the requisite moments of determining simply what is occurring to herself, however skips previous what needs to be an amusing part of indulging in hedonism. Minnie simply is not having time, and so neither can we.
Most complicated is the movie’s setting in 1999. The false risk of Y2K and the very actual powers of the liquor appears like a hat on a hat, and the previous will not be significantly properly served besides as a dose of nostalgia. In any other case, the time interval barely justifies itself. It additionally feels low cost to have Minnie be so firmly in charge of her future. She’s not pressured to do that, not actually, and so even when she learns some semblance of a lesson, she continues to be appearing selfishly.
The movie has some authentic issues to say about how substances can so typically paper over errors however by no means to such a level that these errors get erased; taking accountability is vital, nevertheless it is not very enjoyable to look at except we have loved the experience to get there.
- Launch Date
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March 7, 2025
- Runtime
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95 Minutes
- Director
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Nicholas Clifford
- Writers
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Alice Foulcher, Gregory Erdstein
- Producers
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Nick Batzias, Virginia Whitwell
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Emily Browning
Minnie Vernon
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