Players, 2024.
Directed by Trish Sie.
Starring Gina Rodriguez, Damon Wayans Jr., Tom Ellis, Augustus Prew, Joel Courtney, Liza Koshy, Jerry Kernion, Ego Nwodim, Marin Hinkle, Brock O’Hurn, and Sarah Dacey Charles.
SYNOPSIS:
New York sportswriter Mack has spent years devising successful hook-up “plays” with her friends, but when she unexpectedly falls for one of her targets, she must learn what it takes to go from simply scoring to playing for keeps.
It is psychotic thinking to depict the friend group’s “games” in director Trish Sie’s Players (from a screenplay by Whit Anderson) and decide that cutesy, all-fun-and-games is the right approach to presenting these unlikable, morally vacuous jackasses.
Comprised of Mack (Gina Rodriguez), Adam (Damon Wayans Jr.), Bran (Augustus Prew), and Little (Joel Courtney), these friends work different beats for a local New York newspaper, but at night, they hit up different bars and socializing joints where they devise manipulative gameplans that involve copious amounts of lies to get one of them laid in a hookup. They rotate turns while the opening sequence tries hard to pretend that this is normal and harmless and that no one would ever get seriously hurt or emotionally damaged from such psychological mind games that, once again, boil down to a series of lies to get in someone’s pants.
It is so unfathomably tone-deaf that even when sportswriter Mack decides she wants to have a stable relationship with someone mature who has a good head on his shoulders, which turns out to be Pulitzer Prize finalist and war correspondent journalist Nick Russel (Tom Ellis), that also becomes a long-con play carried out like a normal thing to do. I would never dare say any character here is wise, but there is a moment where Adam suggests not running a play and simply telling Nick how she feels, but of course, that advice is disregarded. The entire plot feels like a riff on one of those Netflix Red Notice films, except the group where everyone has a special talent isn’t hunting down an artifact but rather someone to fuck at the expense of any moral decency.
Soon after, Adam also shows signs of wanting to give up these games, privately asking a woman, Ego Nwodim’s Claire, for her number and seeing her away from the group. In between running a series of manipulative ploys to get Nick more interested in Mack, which essentially comes down to stalking every aspect of his life, making for another horrifying element here that is presented as lighthearted, goofy fun, the four of them eventually find themselves going on double dates. It also immediately becomes clear to everyone but Mack that none of them have the right partner for each other. She is also so obsessed with the games that she isn’t allowing her or Nick to organically get to know and take an interest in one another.
As much as there is a tiny bit to appreciate that the second half of Players is mildly concerned with real people and relationship dynamics, it doesn’t change everyone involved in the slimy friend group is worthy of hatred no matter how silly the film is presented, and that the message (that it’s better to get to know people and potentially face rejection than play mind games and play pretend to win their hearts without realizing any of this is wrong) is so painfully obvious that if one actually needs a movie with this plot to spell it out, it should probably be illegal for them to pursue dating in the first place. These are bottom-of-the-barrel idiotic human beings that one hopes to a higher power don’t exist in real life.
If Players had even the slightest bit of honesty in admitting that this premise is inherently messed up, that the group’s actions have likely scarred some people, and that they need more growing to do than simply leaving behind the games, aspects of the narrative might have been able to work. There is nothing wrong with the performances (Gina Rodriguez is always a delight, and it’s nice anytime a Wayans brother is dialing back the comedic bombast for something a little more grounded), but they are trapped in a shockingly ill-advised romantic comedy. It’s a con even to begin pretending there is anything to like about these people, even if some of them do change.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
