From director Marco Petry and writers Claudius Pläging and Andrej Sorin comes Blame the Game, a Netflix Europe film about a newcomer joining a friend group’s weekly game night.
The Gist: Bike shop owner Jan (Dennis Mojen) and pet photographer Pia (Janina Uhse) quickly start dating after a meet-cute between their dogs in the park. Things are going well until Pia invites Jan to a game night with her friends, during which everything that could go wrong does. Her eclectic (and rich) friends aren’t the most welcoming and to make matters worse, her ex-fiance arrives and tries to sabotage their budding relationship every chance that he gets.
What Will It Remind You Of?: An obvious comparison is the great Game Night, though the Hollywood film goes off the rails (in a good way) in a much more extreme way than Blame the Game.
Performance Worth Watching: Stephan Luca is having tons of fun as Pia’s ex Matthias, playing up his arrogance and obsession perfectly.
Memorable Dialogue: “Everyone here won Monopoly in their life. And there are no bike shops in Monopoly,” Jan says to Pia, noting the obvious class differences between them.
Sex and Skin: There are some light hook-up scenes, but nothing too racy.
Our Take: What happens when you first start dating someone new and you’re invited to your first group hang? Hijinks ensue, of course. The premise of Blame the Game is simple and familiar but intriguing, and winds up ultimately being a love triangle story at its core.
When Jan arrives at the mansion where Pia’s weekly game night is held, he immediately feels out of place. Her friends don’t make him feel welcome, either—they comment on his lower class status, are openly snippy with him, and it doesn’t help that the gift he brought along backfires on him. When Pia’s ex arrives, things go from bad to worse. They battle for Pia’s attention, culminating in a naked game of ping pong where the loser has to drink a bottle of hot sauce. I won’t spoil who wins, but the rest of the movie involves drunk driving to the zoo and escaping from the tiger den.
My biggest note on this film: game night could’ve been weirder! The games that they play don’t escalate as expected, and the weirdest moment of the night comes when one of Pia’s disgruntled friends storms off and reemerges in cosplay costumes. The log line of the film promises an “unusual game night,” but really it’s just an “uncomfortable” one because of the presence of her ex.
But the film is extremely watchable, with fun performances and an upbeat script. There’s a side plot about a missing cockatoo that could’ve been cut, but we’ll let that slide. The dick-measuring contest between Jan and Matthias is entertaining enough to warrant a watch.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The German language film is a funny, laid back weekend watch.
Radhika Menon (@menonrad) is a TV-obsessed writer based in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared on Vulture, ELLE, Teen Vogue, and more. At any given moment, she can ruminate at length over Friday Night Lights, the University of Michigan, and the perfect slice of pizza. You may call her Rad.