Players

Players: In the romantic comedy realm, one can find how people end up in all sorts of messes assuming roles they otherwise would not. They alsofool around with new personas. They suck at their craft and even fake accents! Machinations upon machinations on top of schemes are execute. Sometimes these tropes work. Take for example Tony Curtis in “Some Like It Hot,” where he played a ‘wild hot’ millionaire trying to get Marilyn Monroe’s attention. Click bait.

These tropes are so common that they are overuse for a reason. They deliver. But when its hollow, or when casted characters do not resonate with the viewers, these tropes crumble. “Players”, written by Whit Anderson and directed by Trish Sie, doesn’t do that well in general because of its own faulty premise. Life shows in their tropes so much that it leaves little room for emergency.

“Players” focuses on a group of friends with an increasing average of residence in New York City, which throws all its members who are single into the troubles of looking out for potential hook-up targets and ‘running plays’ on them during their off work hours. They have each named the individual plays such as (“The Betsy Ross,” “Drip Drop”) and would use them to slay a lone target one after the other. These plays are sometimes very elaborate, but they usually work. This is far superior to simply swiping right.

Mack (Gina Rodriguez) thinks she’s a charmer; really she’s just the queen of the players. This sportswriter (yes a sportswriter who works for a newspaper that… who are we kidding, right?!), Mack’s life is naturally colors by her work. Her friends include Adam (Damon Wayans Jr.) Sam (Augustus Prew), and Little (Joel Courtney) who happens to be Sam’s younger sibling.

They meet after work in bars and “run plays”, but it’s getting a touch tedious. Mack believes that it is now appropriate for her to have a proper grown-up relationship and she has someone in mind. Unfortunately, she has already slept with him: Nick (Tom Ellis), a renowned war correspondent.

The dilemma is: how to get from being a hook up girl to being in a relationship? In order to do this, Mack and her friends decide to devise the most intricate play ever played, something that the older and more mature Adam frowns upon. For example, even the name of this article incites explosions inside Adam’s head. For adam it is clear that “You cannot make a relationship out of a play!”

The main issue with “Players” is that it is quite evident that Nick is hardly “the one” for Mack. No, it is Adam who is “the one”. The remaining of the film is the audience waiting for Mack to figure out that. Nick is okay. He might be a tad self-interested but then again one of his life’s priorities is completing a book. Why wouldn’t he be busy? The warning signs are not alarming.

But still, it’s easy to be confused as to what exactly Mack is drawn in about him or even what she hopes to find in him. While Lion is definitely not her type, she is not particularly concerned about her social standing. Mack remembers how passionately her parents loved each other and wants to experience the same. But does she really? And is it possible for Mack to experience what her parents had with Nick? One can argue about the possibility.

Some clues are purposely left in the storyline which will definitely be developed later on. Mack has kept a huge feature pending. (What newspaper is this that lets anyone defer writing tasks for months?) Mack admires Nick’s writing: he has been to Syria, he was nominated for a Pulitzer! She is worried about how her writing will measure up to his. A much shallower set of subplots, including Mack’s feature, Nick’s involvement with it and where Nick and it will end up, are all too predictable.

The plot may be a little rusty, but the actors create a realistic bond between one another, and there are some absurd sequences, whereby they work incognito, talking through headsets like agents and even wearing masks as they chase Nick around, trying to implement their strategy for Mack. Rodriguez is a quite different aura and she gives reason to Mack. Mack is tough but imperfect, self-sufficient but self-doubting.

It is common for people in real life to possess such contrasting traits, however such duality is rarely ever seen in the rom-coms especially with a rom-com lead, a heroine. Its a breath of fresh air. Liza Koshy plays Ashley, a secretary at the newspaper who is recruite to “run the play” and soon turns out to be one of the most active and enthusiastic actors of the whole thing. Koshy possesses the potential of being a real comedienne.

For instance, just look how she emotes while watching something outside the main action. All that she goes through is hilarious. Wayans comes across as a very relatable underdog hero. There is also a strong performance from Ego Nwodim as Claire, who becomes Adam’s girlfriend at one point causing great panic in the interdependent gang of con artists.

There are aspects to the film ‘Players’ that border on the ridiculous. All four friends went to the same high school and here they are in their late 20s and early 30s working for a newspaper in New York City. How is this possible? When one considers the state of the media today, ‘Players’ depicts working conditions in a newspaper office in the 21st century as downright tragic, to say the least.

The entire office is reminiscent of the late nineties boom of internet startups – a cavernous place with large glass panes. Mack works for a newspaper as a local sports reporter, but in the context of “Players”. It means she is employed and gets paid for covering exactly one event – ping pong tournaments. There is a distant threat of job cuts, but otherwise, the way everyone carries themselves and goes about business seems so surreal.

Romantic comedies used to be a widespread genre, now there is only a handful of them available, none of them with the ability to entertain. How can a romantic comedy exist without any kind of charm? People still require love stories. They long for them.

What has made us timid to narrate them? “Players” does not function as a romance which is a disappointment since it is a central feature of the narrative. Where “Players” is rather enjoyable is in the slapstick antics of the gang: Ashley’s over-enthusiasm, Sam & Little’s squabble, and Adam’s straight sarcastic comments. But the whole thing does not come together. “Players” is a little too much for most fans.

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