Manila (CNN Philippines Life) — In the New York City-set “Nerve,” out now in cinemas, a high school senior named Vee (Emma Roberts), frustrated with her best friend’s accusation that she’s too afraid to leave her comfort zone, signs up for an app in which people are divided into Players and Watchers. As a Player, she is given dares by her Watchers for cash prizes and points, and the higher the stakes are, the bigger the prizes get.
Vee’s first dare, “Kiss a stranger,” leads her to cross paths with Ian (Dave Franco), another Player who, it seems, will stop at nothing to get to the top spot in the game. When their Watchers dare them to go into the city together, they accept and literally speed into an evening of good-natured mayhem. But as the dares consume their hours, the risk escalates to a point where it just might be getting out of hand. And cliché as it may sound, by sunrise, it will have turned into a night neither Vee nor Ian will ever forget.
The appeal of all-nighter stories comes from the combination of danger and possibility that comes with them — how much can happen, and how much can a life change in just one night, when the world is darker and much quieter? Arguably codified by Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” and its sequels, the overnight film has practically become a genre of its own, characterized by conversational dialogue and ensuing citywide twists and turns.
Here are 10 other movies that unfold over the course of the late hours.
“After Hours”
A word processor loses a $20 bill out a cab window on his way to see a woman he thinks is the girl of his dreams, leaving him with with only spare change that can’t even afford him a subway ticket because the fare has increased past midnight. When he tries to leave the girl’s apartment, he finds himself stranded in New York’s SoHo neighborhood — not to mention framed for a series of robberies and at the mercy of punks and an angry mob.
“Anino sa Likod ng Buwan”
Set in 1993 in the midst of conflict between Philippine soldiers and the communist resistance, this film focuses on only three characters and unfolds in one continuous take, resembling the staging of a play. In it, a civilian couple forced to vacate their home by the military and a soldier with whom they’re on friendly terms engage in mind games both literal and figurative. Conversation makes way for politically and sexually charged discussions and tensions rise as more emotional and personal revelations are made.
“Attack the Block”
The attempted mugging of a woman by teenage ne’er-do-wells is interrupted by the crashing of a meteorite — and “Attack the Block” only gets more intense from there. Set in a residential tower in London, the film finds the young misfits (a group that includes John Boyega pre-bloody Stormtrooper helmet) battling a drug kingpin for survival. Oh, and some nightmarishly dark alien monsters with probably hundreds of glowing green teeth may be in the mix, too.
“Cloverfield”
With “Cloverfied,” the director Matt Reeves served as an able and willing proxy for J.J. Abrams in destroying Central Park, ruining the Brooklyn Bridge, decapitating the Statue of Liberty, and breaking the internet with a successful viral marketing campaign. The found-footage feature opens with a farewell party that is cut short by an earthquake and a subsequent power outage. It soon becomes apparent that what’s causing these troubles is something much, much bigger, and five friends now have to traverse city streets, teetering buildings, and subway tunnels to live through the night.
“Dogfight”
In 1963, a group of marines stop by San Francisco for a night of debauchery, their last hurrah before shipping out to Vietnam. They set up a cruel game called a dogfight, wherein the person who brings the ugliest date to their party gets a prize. The brash Eddie Birdlace meets Rose, a plain and shy waitress, and decides to bring her. She discovers his true intentions and lashes out — but when she leaves, he finds that he might just care enough about her to follow her all around the city and fall in raw, endearing, stilted love. “Dogfight” features strong performances from the leads Lili Taylor and River Phoenix.
“In Search of a Midnight Kiss”
A man at the tail end of his twenties, who’s recently moved to Los Angeles after a mostly bad year, finds himself alone and willing to just forget all about New Year’s Eve. After being persuaded to put up an ad on Craigslist, however, he meets a woman who is, of course, in search of a midnight kiss — rather, the “right” person to share it with. They proceed to spend the rest of Dec. 31 visiting abandoned cinemas and old apartments while conversing about love and loss, because of course they do.
“Go”
Told through intertwining plotlines and shifting perspectives, “Go” is set in motion when a supermarket clerk desperate for rent money decides to feign being a drug dealer after a pair of soap opera actors, who are actually working undercover, show up to buy ecstasy from her seedy coworker. These four characters then get caught in a tangle of drugs, lies, and life-threatening mischief on Christmas Eve.
“Kinatay”
With the gritty underbelly of Manila as its backdrop, this Cannes-feted film stars Coco Martin as a young police academy student who, looking for a quick buck that may help with his other half and his child, meets with a friend in Luneta long after the sun has set and accepts a job to assist in carrying out an operation. It soon turns out that he’s gotten in way over his head and has involved himself with a syndicate headed by the ruthless “Kap” — and that the job involves a merciless killing.
“Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist”
At a music club, the reportedly frigid Norah asks Nick, a heartbroken bassist, to pretend to be her boyfriend and kisses him when she sees a particularly loathsome classmate, who just so happens to be Nick’s ex-girlfriend (not to mention someone he hasn’t quite gotten over). This brief encounter becomes a catalyst that takes them all over Manhattan with Nick’s band and his ridiculous car, in pursuit of Norah’s missing hot mess of a best friend and Nick and Norah’s enigmatic favorite band, Where’s Fluffy?, who are said to be planning a secret show.
“Sarong Banggi”
An aging prostitute named Melba (Jaclyn Jose), recently hired for the birthday of a young man, imagines the lives of the people around her as she sits by Manila Bay. She is deeply lonely, still reeling from a personal loss. When the teens who came to her decide that she’s too old and they will no longer be needing her services, the young man in question approaches her anyway. They forge a connection that soon grows intimate in more ways than one. But by daybreak, it proves to be far more than just a one-night stand: Melba’s past and future collide in a revelation bound to punch a hole in one’s chest.
