New Zealand Listener – March 02, 2018

58 LISTENER MARCH 10 2018

BOOKSBOOKS&&CULTURECULTURE

GAME NIGHT

directed by John Francis Daley & Jonathan Goldstein

F

ull of left-field twists, packed with

enough pop-culture references to

make a round of charades and as

nerve-racking as a game of Jenga,

Game Night proves to be much

funnier than many recent Hollywood

comedies.

It centres on couple, Max (a typically

dyspeptic Jason Bateman) and Annie

(Rachel McAdams), who take pub quizzes

very seriously indeed and are also the

aggressive hosts of a weekly game night,

seeking to destroy all-comers at Scrabble,

Risk and the like.

One week, Brooks (Kyle Chandler),

Max’s wildly successful playboy brother,

shows up and promises a game night

that the central cast (which includes

Irish writer-actor Sharon Horgan from

television’s Catastrophe) will never forget.

Cue a staged murder mystery, which spins

into a possible actual crime spree.

It’s got a good line in pop-culture gags:

Denzel Washington, Pulp Fiction and

Donnie Wahlberg are all cited. But the real

Funny

games

A crime comedy deals

a winning hand with

its witty characters

and absurd touches.

FILM

by James Robins

A FANTASTIC WOMAN

directed by Sebastián Lelio

A

s her older lover, Orlando (Fran-

cisco Reyes), lies dying on a

hospital gurney, Marina Vidal

(Daniela Vega) finds her problems

are only beginning. The couple had spent

the evening together, dancing, drinking

and planning a holiday. Now she has been

pulled aside by a doctor who looks at her

face, then her chest, as if trying to prove

Confronting

contempt

A Chilean drama

about the struggles of a

transgender woman is

powerful but unsubtle.

something ought to be there. He calls the

police.

The cops ask Marina for her ID, which

bears a male name: she is a transgender

woman (as is the actor who plays her) and

under suspicion because of it. Then comes

Daniela Vega as Marina in

A Fantastic Woman: defined

by the contempt of others.

the pressure from the “Sexual Offences

Unit”, gentle at first, then humiliat-

ing, as she’s obliged to have a “physical

evaluation”.

Orlando’s family don’t want her at the

funeral. “I don’t know what you are,”