Film of the Week: Game Night

Game Night doesn’t go over the top. It gives you exactly what you’d expect from a dark comedy about a group of friends who frequently meet each weekend for game night and accidentally get roped up in an actual criminal events – but not before mistaking what happened as part of the game.

Its enjoyment came from the predictability being thrown back at me. When the game night first started, after he had explained what was going to happen, only for it to escalate suddenly – of course there was the avenue that it could all be part of the brother’s plan to prove he really is awesome and better than Max (Jason Bateman). As the story moves on, you discover along with the characters that it’s real, only for it to switch again and say it’s all fake, only to switch once more and the final revelation is that it was really all real. The way it interweaved the fake game with the real activities abolished all predictions, and therefore kept it entertaining.

The simplicity allowed the film to remain grounded, which allowed the comedic aspect of the dark comedy equally remain funny and also pinpoint the seriousness of the situation the characters are in – and with the two elements artistically weaved in such a way, the atmosphere could and does stay positively flatline.

It isn’t a massive, two and a half-hour to three-hour blockbuster that had hundreds of millions thrown at it, it’s an hour and a half, which keeps the premise tight to keep the exposition minimal, and whilst there isn’t much character development either except for the two main protagonists, I was delighted to have followed them from beginning to end. Keeping it quick witted, with the many avenues it could have gone down at any moment, I was happy to have played along and equally have been duped.

I don’t really have anything negative to say. As mentioned, it doesn’t have much character development, but there really needn’t have been, as all they want to do is get the game over and done with so they can go home.

If you’re into dark comedy, then I do recommend Game Night. Dark Comedy as a genre is niche, and not many films are made tackling certain topics such as the one in the film – you do have to be careful not to go over the top, and so does have to be perfected to make sure the film grabs as many people as possible. Game Night has certainly been perfected, but it can only be enjoyed by those who knows what to expect from a film which genre is dark comedy.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)