The Players

A depiction of what great lengths philandering husbands will go to satisfy their unbridled libido. Some vignettes are funny but one particular story may hurt the sensibilities of women because of its offensive message and a subtle nod to the husband's machinations.

One of the characters poses a question towards the film's end: when we screw others, are we screwing ourselves? Another emphatically responds: no, we screw those of us who're screwing her. Profound or absurd? Take your pick.

For whatever its worth, the duo Riccardo Scamarcio and Valerio Mastandrea make the viewer laugh at the nutty situations they find themselves in and, perhaps, at himself.

Don't mistake this for the 2021 French film of the same title.

*" 'Gli Infedeli' is a 2020 Italian anthology film that weaves stories of infidelity and male fragility, with moments of sharp wit but frequently falling into predictable patterns. It does well in some genres, notably in being very quick-witted with an odd streak of dark humor, though it falters on uneven pacing and character development.". The cast in ensemble-Riccardo Scamarcio, Valerio Mastandrea-are energetic performers, but the film banks a lot on stereotypes regarding love and relationships without contributing anything new to the genre. *Gli Infedeli* is, after all, watchable but basically uneven: there's laughter here, but it doesn't finally affect the viewer.

An Italian black comedy. It tells several stories of infidelities, mainly of men but also of some women. Filled with sarcasm, awkward sexual jokes and situations that can think about how difficult fidelity is. What is interesting about the film is the macho justifications that are used for the acts that are committed and how persistent women are to describe the deception. The first two stories are the best in the plot. In fact, it handles each of the stories separately and some are not related only until the end. Do you remember "Wild Stories"? That he told different stories in the same movie, because this is the same. It's actually based on the French movie of the same name, only the French ending is better and leaves you with a bittersweet and hilarious taste.

I haven't seen the French originals, so will just cover this one with no comparisons to source material.

The upside is that, the stories differ enough from each other to keep us interested. The downside: Said interest remaining kind of unrewarded.

The opening act was okay and what followed it had the mosty dynamic and convincing acting. I liked how smoothly of the story of the "glory hole guy" unfolded. The hallucination plot was refreshing despite the cover-up coming with flaws.

The photography has character, and the rhytm is just fine.

Overall, not a bad movie. But comes short of being "cinema" is structured more like a Twilight Zone anthology with "sexual betrayal" replacing "supernatural mystery".

Among the reviews there's one "2" justified by the fact that's hard to follow the film with subtitles...Probably shouldn't give a film a bad review if you couldn't grasp nuances due to not understanding its language?

All in all, if you do speak the language, it is a quirky and irreverent film that -I believe- won't bore you. It could have been better in many ways but saying more would trigger spoilers :)