New York sportswriter Mack (Gina Rodriguez) is about to make the most unlikely catch of all — feelings. Alongside her best friend, Adam (Damon Wayans Jr.), Mack has spent years running trademark hookup plays that keep their friend group drowning in one-night stands. All of that changes when she meets Nick (Tom Ellis), and soon she’ll have to make a game-time decision between playing the game and… love? Directed by Trish Sie from a screenplay by Whit Anderson, Players is a sporty love story with a hilarious curveball — it’s really more of a com-rom. You can check out the trailer for the film above, and find out more below.
Mack has spent years devising successful hookup “plays” with best friend Adam and their crew. While it has led to countless one-night stands over the years, following their playbook comes with a strict set of ground rules — chief among them: You can’t build a relationship from a play. When Mack unexpectedly falls for her latest target, charming war correspondent Nick, she begins to rethink the game entirely. As the lines between work, fun, friendship, and romance begin to blur, Mack must learn what it takes to go from simply scoring to playing for keeps.
Mack is a sports journalist who knows how to read people. She’s fun and a little nerdy, and skilled at coming up with “plays” to help her friends land hookups. Still, she’s a romantic at heart. When she meets the seemingly perfect Nick, a war correspondent, and starts to develop feelings, she needs help coming up with a play that will score her that elusive relationship goal: a drawer in his apartment.
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Adam is the visuals guy at the newspaper, and Mack’s sweet and supportive best friend. He’s reliable and thoughtful, and knows that her comfort food is “sad falafel.” As Mack draws up a play to land Nick, it’s Adam who suggests going back to basics with the no-play play — just ask him out.
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War correspondent Nick seems almost too good to be true: a man who speaks seven different languages and has saved an orphan from an actual burning building? Talk about accomplished — and just the kind of guy that might make Mack finally want to settle down.
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Sam Brannagan writes obituaries, so he isn’t one to mince words. Even though he comes off as aloof, he’s also affectionate and caring when his friends need him most.
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Ryan — or “Little,” as his friends call him — is Brannagan’s little brother, and has a bright sense of style. He instantly hits it off with Ashley when they cross paths in the newspaper office — where he spends all his time despite not actually working there.
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Ashley is the newspaper’s sharp-eyed secretary. A bit quirky, she’s also confident in who she is and develops an organic romance of her own. Though they aren’t very close, Ashley shows up for Mack when she needs it and seamlessly fits into the friend group.
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Claire is Adam’s girlfriend, a dental hygienist he starts dating after simply asking for her number (that’s right, no plays!), which causes some tension with his friends.
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Kirk is the paper’s tough as nails editor-in-chief. She wants her staff to be direct and ask for what they want, and she gives Mack her big break.
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Players is now streaming on Netflix — just in time for Valentine’s Day.
