The Players (2020)

• 48%
• 2020
• Comedy
• Stefano Mordini
• Riccardo Scamarcio
• Valerio Mastandrea
• Laura Chiatti

Bickering spouses make their way from taxi to airport to plane to the sky on their way to the Maldives for vacation. She's full of accusations, he's (Massimiliano Gallo) full of excuses, and it's not until he's asleep during the flight that she looks at his phone and screams, right over the beginning of the credits sequence. The next mini-film is relatively heavy drama, and plays out during one late night, with Mastandrea playing a husband whose wife (Valentina Cervi) pries and pries and pries until he spills every detail about an affair he had. In another short, Scamarcio is a salesman on the road, in a hotel for a conference; he thinks he's suave, tells jokes that make the listeners feel as if they're in prison, and hits on anything that moves. He eventually ends up in a co-worker's room, desperately cajoling her to sleep with him. He's very grabby which is very "funny" (read: not funny) and a laughingstock among the other salespeople - Mastandrea is one of them, who actually succeeds with the ladies - but he either isn't aware or doesn't care. The next short stars Mastandrea as a sad bald man who routinely visits the glory hole at a local brothel - yes, until his wife (Marina Fois) begins to suspect something's up. I think that one's supposed to be funny, because it has a punchline. Another finds Mastandrea playing a cad-and-three-quarters who gaslights the living shit out of his poor wife (Laura Chiatti) when she tries to nail him down. Like, he has her committed. Comedy. And finally, in the last bit, Mastandrea, Scamarcio and Gallo play three pals at a fancy restaurant talking about which women in the room they'd sleep with.