Rating: R | Runtime: 100 minutes
Release Date: February 10th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Paramount+
Director(s): Jonah Feingold
Writer(s): Giovanni M. Porta, Maria Hinojos & Jonah Feingold / Giovanni M. Porta (story)

I wish we could go somewhere we didn’t have to hide.

Sometimes a rom-com can surprise you and transcend convention. Most times, however, they deliver exactly what you expected. Jonah Feingold’s At Midnight is the latter—something its streaming-only status should have prepared you to learn sight unseen.

You could say it fulfills its purpose to perfection as a result: familiar, non-controversial content to satisfy those late-night cravings of romance in the moonlight between gorgeous movie stars inhabiting low-self esteem characters who are destined to finally find the courage and confidence they need to take that next step in life and love because of the unconditional support of the other. Throw in quirky supporting roles and an overblown fight reminding them of their penchant for self-sabotage and voila! Forgettably enjoyable fluff.

This iteration of the formula concerns Sophie Wilder (Monica Barbaro) and “I’m just a regular Mexican guy and therefore don’t need a last name” Alejandro (Diego Boneta). It’s truly hilarious that everyone in Sophie’s Hollywood has a surname because they’re the type of people with the ego to demand it be used and the anxiety to make sure others know they know theirs too while the “help” is cool with just being casual.

She’s part of the world’s current “It” couple with co-star and boyfriend Adam Clark (Anders Holm). He’s the junior manager of a palatial hotel that Sophie’s latest film is using to board its A-listers. Cue the meet-cute of him bringing towels and her being naked, the context wherein Adam cheated and she’s now privately single if publicly attached, and the Cinderella-esque midnight sojourns together that risk both their careers.

You can probably write the rest yourself and not be too far off. Whitney Cummings shows up as Sophie’s patriarchy’s-right-hand agent. Casey Thomas Brown plays her sassily high-strung manager. And Catherine Cohen earns more screen-time than Holm as her BFF (while making me wonder when someone is going to cast her and Rachel Sennott as sisters).

Alejandro has a less pronounced posse because the idea is that Sophie is using his quiet life to escape her own. Not that he isn’t using her to escape that quiet’s underlying fear-driven monotony too. Will they get out of their own way to see what the other sees in them? That’s the big question as jobs, society, the media, and family poison their bliss to test their resolve. It’s broad strokes from start to finish—so exactly what those swooning at the trailer desire and what those rolling their eyes should avoid.

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Diego Boneta as Alejandro and Monica Barbaro as Sophie in AT MIDNIGHT streaming on Paramount +. Produced by Paramount’s International Studios, Three Amigos, Automatik, and Teorama, the film will stream exclusively on Paramount + in time for Valentine’s Day on Friday, February 10th, 2023. CREDIT: Camila Jurado/Paramount + © 2022 Viacom International Inc. All Rights Reserved.