New York City is so often described as its own distinct character in rom-coms, which lean incessantly on the city's all-hours open-endedness and aspirational glitz, that the concept has become a cliché to the point of parody. But when Julie Sage, location manager for "One Night Only," told Hell Gate that the city is a character in the rom-com, I detected no irony in her voice—even as the movie, directed by rom-com specialist Will Gluck ("Anyone But You"), compresses the genre's customary enemies-to-lovers arc into a knowingly absurd premise. It's set in a New York City that's familiar to us all—but also somehow off.
You may know the plot of "One Night Only" from its ubiquitous trailer, or perhaps one of the many incredulous reviews. In an alternate, near-future America, premarital sex has been outlawed, except for one night a year. This scenario raises so, so many questions (OK, so what about foot stuff? And is Zohran still mayor?), but its plot mirrors the stakes of every rom-com—the terror of loneliness, the pressure to Find Someone—this time operating under the logic of "The Purge," but for sex.
Over the course of 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. on the night of "the Exemption," Allie (Monica Barbaro) and Owen (Callum Turner) meet repeatedly as they criss-cross the city in search of Mr. and Ms. Right Now. They are perfect opposites with Hallmark-movie jobs—he's a blue-collar boy from Upper Manhattan who saved up to open his own pizzeria; she's an advertising-jingle singer who lives with her queer roommate on the Lower East Side—and their initial mutual dislike portends that they will, eventually, thaw to each other.
Sage has worked as a location manager on several made-in-New York television shows, including "Search Party," "And Just Like That…," and "Master of None;" we spoke as she was on her way back from a scouting trip for the second season of the HBO series "The Chair Company." But she told Hell Gate that her work on "High Maintenance" was a "crash course" in her career, with makers who were "very specific…They would not shoot something outside of a neighborhood if they scripted as, [for instance], Bed-Stuy."