Elliot Hilden, managing editor

“Players” provides humor and heart in its portrayal of dating in the modern day, as it follows the story of Mackenzie Cannon, a New York sportswriter. Mackenzie, nicknamed Mack, works at a newspaper based in New York with her friends, Adam and Bran. The three of them, along with Bran’s younger brother Ryan, aka “Little,” spend their nights scoring hookups through their use of “plays,” a list of ritualistic plans they have accumulated to seduce their targets. 

Trouble falls when Mack decides that she wants to date one of her targets, Nick, due to him being an “adult man,” a phrase she uses to mean he is more mature than the other partners she has had. The quartet of friends, having never pursued someone for more than a one-night stand, decide to design a new “play.” Along the way they adopt Ashley, the receptionist at their newspaper, into their group. Over the course of the movie, the crew have to learn what it means to go from simply scoring to playing for keeps. The main cast includes Gina Rodriguez as Mack, Damon Wayans Jr. as Adam, Tom Ellis as Nick, Augustus Prew as Bran, Joel Courtney as Little and Liza Koshy as Ashley. 

I really enjoyed this movie. While there were parts that I was disappointed with, it was an overall fun experience. On the negative side, I felt as though there were a few parts that felt over-rehearsed. Scenes that were clearly meant to read as emotional heart-to-hearts didn’t feel as authentic as I would have liked, especially when those scenes were pretty relevant to the plot. This felt particularly true with Nick. Overall, his dialogue sometimes felt forced, which made his scenes kind of difficult to watch. I also wasn’t a big fan of the character Carl. I get that they were intending to have him be a recurring bit, but I didn’t find his sub-five-minute screen time funny. I think they could have easily used that time in other places. 

Now on to the positives. I loved the opening scenes. Within the first five minutes, I felt like I knew every character. Specifically, I loved the way Bran was introduced. In the opening of the movie, he is shown to be openly bisexual, and as a queer person, I appreciated the nonchalance with which his sexuality was treated. Movies like “Players” tend to be incredibly heteronormative, so I found it refreshing that the queer character wasn’t tokenized or stereotyped, while still being included. Furthermore, I was shocked by how much I liked Liza Koshy’s character. Having only known her from her YouTube career, I honestly didn’t expect her to be that good of an actress, but I was pleasantly surprised by her performance. As for my favorite character, that would have to be Little. His humorous, himbo-esque personality was delightful to watch. 

Overall, I had a great time watching this. While most of it was relatively comical, there was still plenty of drama and emotion. It was fairly predictable, but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I definitely wouldn’t recommend watching this with family or children, but it could definitely be a good option for a movie night with friends!