There Are No Next-Morning Regrets After Watching One More Shot

New Year’s Eve is, for better or worse, prime crash-out territory. It’s the one night of the year that insists on meaning, on reflection, on loudly accounting for where you are and who you’re with. For some people, it’s a warm, champagne-soaked celebration  with partners, friends, and family. For others, it is night best to sleep through to avoid any bad decision making. Then there is a group of people who crash out. A night of bad decisions in order to fix a year or years of “could have beens”. With alcohol running through their bloodstream, the next morning, regret is already setting in. However, for Minnie in One More Shot, a magical bottle of tequila allows her to relive the night over and over again, allowing her the chance to fix one questionable decision after another.

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In 1999, just mere hours away from the new millennium, Minnie Vernon, played by Emily Browning, is at a New Year’s Eve party she didn’t entirely want to go to in the first place, surrounded by her drunk friends, all of whom seem to be gliding effortlessly into adulthood, their lives falling into place with their relationships and careers. Yet, Minnie is there, a thirty-something who feels stuck and is forced to see everyone have it all together. The real reason she shows up at all is Joe, played by Sean Keenan. An old flame, freshly back from overseas, he’s supposed to be there, and that knowledge alone is enough to push Minnie into action. She has put on a red dress, grabs a bottle of tequila someone once brought her back from Mexico, and convinces herself that this could be the night things finally shift. Standing on the doorstep before heading inside, Minnie takes a long swig for courage, unaware that she’s just triggered something much bigger than liquid confidence.

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However, once there, Minnie realizes that Joe is now spoken for, arriving with a new girlfriend and plans to propose, which immediately complicates Minnie’s expectations for the night. At first, the goal is straightforward: find Joe, talk to him, see if there’s anything left between them. But when Minnie clocks the chemistry between Joe and his girlfriend, desperation sets in. She reaches again for the tequila, only to discover that each sip sends her back to the beginning of the night. Every drink resets the clock, forcing Minnie to relive the same party again and again.

One More Shot doesn’t exactly reinvent the time-loop wheel, but it doesn’t need to. f\From Groundhog Day to Palm Springs, One More Shot is another welcomed edition to the time-loop genre. Minnie’s magical tequila time loop allows the film to explore endless variations of a New Year’s Eve party, letting her try, fail, and retry her way through the night. Minnie isn’t especially interested in the cosmic implications of resetting time, nor does she pause to consider whether manipulating events is ethical like most time-travelling flicks. First-time feature director Nicholas Clifford, working from a script by Gregory Erdstein and Alice Foulcher, understands that over-explaining the rules would only weigh down what is. At its core, One More Shot relies heavily on its being a character driven comedy overall.

That said, the film struggles with pacing. The time-loop structure becomes repetitive in a way that doesn’t always feel purposeful. Some scenes replay with minimal variation, and while repetition is the point, it makes the pacing feel a little out of kilter. What One More Shot does well is capture the feeling of wanting one last chance to fix something you already know can’t be perfect. It’s a movie about emotional bargaining: if I say this instead of that, if I leave earlier, if I stay longer, maybe I’ll land in a version of myself that feels easier to live with. That can be attributed to Browning’s performance.

The real strength of One More Shot is Browning herself. Minnie’s charm isn’t in her cleverness but in her visible exhaustion. Each reset brings a flicker of hope followed by a deeper awareness that knowing the future doesn’t necessarily make it easier to change. Browning plays this beautifully, letting the character grow subtly sadder, sharper, and more self-aware with each loop. The ensemble cast adds texture and momentum to the film, reacting in subtly different ways as Minnie’s behavior shifts from loop to loop. Keenan, in particular, brings nuance to Joe, whose reactions range from warmth to discomfort as Minnie increasingly monopolizes his attention.

One More Shot isn’t flawless and the time-loop gimmick has been done before. But it earns its final act with a well-timed twist and a sobering moment that cuts through the comedy. It’s charming and thoughtful and great film to watch on New Year’s Eve instead of calling your ex.