Game Day

October 15, 2019 · Watch the trailer

Within the first 15 minutes of the new independent dramedy “Game Day,” it’s easy to tell that the film’s writer/director is a man.

It isn’t just that the main character, Ricki, is an independent minded tech entrepreneur who can’t relate to other people or that the entire premise relies on her having to join the company basketball team to break into the stereotypical boys’ club.

How filmmaker John Susman pushes this distinctly 1990s-era film into the modern world and makes nearly every character unlikeable is sadly more evocative of the out of touch

Romeo Miller

Where “Game Day” truly falls flat is in the screenplay, which probably needed several additional rewrites to home in on quality scenes over quantity and eliminate unnecessary secondary characters that push audiences away from the unlikely relationship Ricki builds with Lucas.

Strangely, Ricki befriends both an elderly neighbor and the scantily clad woman downstairs he ogles over a cigar while pontificating about life. Neither relationship adds much to the overall story and just leaves large fragments of “Game Day” a meandering mess.

There are likely some audiences who will resonate with one or more of the characters strongly enough to enjoy this movie on a streaming platform.

However, the positives about “Game Day” simply aren’t strong enough to hold together as a film worth seeking out in theaters.