A Great Comedy
When I write reviews, I try to come up with something clever or succinct to put in the little title below the trailer. A play on words, a blunt assessment, or even a quote from the film. In the case of John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein's Game Night, I can't think of anything other than to label it a great comedy, because that's what it is. The story, which finds three couples caught up in a criminal plot that they think is all a part of an elaborate game, is simple, but filled with fun twists; the characters are hilarious, yet are grounded enough to still feel real. Basically, it's a movie that knows how to be really funny without sacrificing the most important parts of any movie, regardless of genre.
Really good comedies seem few and far between these days, at least at the movies. That's not to say that hilarious movies don't get released often, as Thor: Ragnarok, Lady Bird, and even Phantom Thread are quite funny in their own ways. However, each of those films are a comedy second, and a superhero action film, coming of age drama, or period relationship drama, first, respectively. Too often, modern comedies lean so hard on being about the laughs that the human, emotional elements and stylistic film making choices feel purely tacked on.
Follow me down this rabbit hole for a paragraph (I promise it's relevant to Game Night): Ivan Reitman's original Ghostbusters is a comedic masterpiece. It has a tremendous cast of funny people and is filled with sharp humor throughout. However, what I think made it such a smash wasn't just the comedy, but its truly unique premise, and the filmmakers' dedication to that premise. It's a movie about guys hunting ghosts, and though we have Bill Murray's wry character mocking his fellow Ghostbusters, we as the audience understand that in this world, ghosts are real, and they're actually kind of scary. Despite that Ghostbusters is first and foremost a comedy, its brilliance is in giving weight to everything that's not funny about it. The 2016 reboot, which I actually think is an okay movie, fumbled in this respect, as its comedy too often felt like an excuse to insert humor into a ghost hunting story, instead of telling a ghost hunting story populated with funny characters.
And this is what Game Night nails. It's a riff on thriller/mystery films (I've seen it aptly compared to David Fincher's The Game), and never once does it feel like the story and characters are being put on hold for the funny actors to do a funny bit. A pet peeve of mine in modern comedies is when it feels like a movie stops dead in its tracks to showcase some improvisation, not because improv is bad, but because too often these days it feels like the two actors are having an exchange rather than their characters having one. It's a delicate act of threading a needle where, as a comedy, Game Night needs to put the funny first without feeling like it's jumping through hoops to do so. Daley and Goldstein do that with style to spare.
A terrific thing about Game Night that is totally separate from its ability to make you laugh, is that it's evident the directors put a lot of thought into how their movie should look. They use tilt-shift photography* in establishing shots to make the people, cars, and buildings look like pieces on a game board, and the lighting in the film gives the whole thing a cold thriller vibe, though not to the point of parody. The cast does an excellent job of keeping the film from tipping too far in that direction, as the actors portraying the three couples all feel authentic to who they're playing. Rachel McAdams, Lamorne Morris, and Sharon Horgan are particular scene-stealers who can be hilarious and completely honest in their performances at the same time. Even Jesse Plemons, who plays arguably the most cartoonish character in the form of a very stiff and socially awkward neighbor, plays his role with restrained aplomb in a way that is constantly funny, yet fully appropriate for the story.
It's a funny thing to proofread this review (fingers crossed I caught any and all typos), because it really reads like a rave. I suppose it is, though on a scale of 1 to 10 I'd probably rate Game Night as an 8.5. It doesn't really do anything wrong, but it also doesn't do anything amazing. I'm just so fully enthused by how well-crafted a comedy it is, that I can't help but sing its praises. I left the theater thinking I'd definitely revisit the film somewhere down the line, and that's always a good sign. I don't think Game Night is necessarily the next Ghostbusters, but it's still a helluva lot of fun.
*For those interested, tilt-shift is the technique that makes everything look like a miniature. It was very notably used in the first version of Stephen Colbert's Late Show opening titles, making famous New York City locales look like they were meticulously reconstructed and filmed at a tiny scale.