Rom-coms come in all shapes and sizes.  In the case of Players, this is an odd way to do a rom-com. This story focuses on a group of friends who work for an online newspaper. They went to college together and developed a system of how to get dates for men or women to go out with them. It’s like a playback if you will. Hence, the title Players. This playback is more or less how they run their lives. It makes for an interesting premise. 

MacKenzie “Mack” for short (Gina Rodriguez) is one of the members of this group. She’s a writer and hangs out at bars and nightclubs with her friends. One of them, Adam (Damon Wayans Jr.) Is a little closer to her than she realizes.  Along with two brothers, Brannigan and Little (Augustus Prew, Joel Courtney), they enjoy hanging out together. When Mack sees a British author, she likes Nick (Tom Ellis). they have to set up the ultimate play to get her into a long-term relationship.

Gina Rodriguez has had a mediocre rise to fame. She hit it big with The CW Show Jane the Virgin and won an Emmy Award, and then her career took a step backward. She’s been a few projects here or there, but nothing as big as Jane the Virgin. Her role in this film is a huge step forward for her. Even though in an ensemble piece, she is more or less the main character in the story.  Her work in this movie is exceptional.  She has to do a lot of heavy lifting regarding the story moving forward. She is pretty good opposite Tom Ellis as well.

Tom Ellis rose to fame as the character Lucifer Morningstar in Lucifer. It lasted 6 seasons on Fox & Netflix. He is used to playing a suave debonair leading man, but his role as this Brish author changes up his persona a little bit but not much. He is playing a version of Lucifer to some extent. He gets money and goes to expensive restaurants and bars, he wines and dines a lot of women. He just doesn’t have superhuman abilities like Lucifer does. That’s evident by the way he ends up treating the Rodriguez character.

One aspect of the film that struck me as the writer uses New York City and shows the glamor of the big apple. I’m not a fan of the New York Yankees. I’m a huge Boston Red Sox fan, but the way the movie shows the love of this team and stadium in the film is quite nice. The main character is an avid Yankees fan, and he has great memories of the times she spent Watcher on her team, and it is mainly her wanting to become a sports writer. Past Lives and now this movie show there is a good side to the Big Apple the average person sees. 

Players take an interesting premise of this group of friends who play dating, pick up games, and take them to another level. It is fun to see them in full gear schemin  and conning their way to a successful relationship. Within the context of that story, though,  there are a couple of subplots that are very effective in showing that this film is more than just a reimagineing of the rom-come genre. One particular subplot hit me pretty hard. It’s about an editor who over-edits and ruins the piece that one of the characters writes. Taking their voice totally out of the piece. That was a big moment in this movie. It hit me pretty hard.

Netflix regurgitates a lot of content. series, documentaries, comedies, and in the case of Playerss, films. It’s hard to navigate what to watch sometimes. Players written by Whit Anderson and directed by Trish Sie should not be one of those films that gets lost in the shuffle. It should be one people of all ages should watch. It’s that good of a film. It’s smart when it needs to be smart, funny when it needs to be funny, and touching when it calls for that. This has everything a good rom-com needs. Including engaging characters and a subplot that hit me a little close to home. This is an exceptional film no matter how you slice it.

Streaming on Netflix

4 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen