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(You will need quicktime to view the video clips.) Howard Stern tells his audience, "Go see this movie!"...

—By Richard Horgan

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EBERT & ROEPER
movie review!

THUMBS UP!

Transcript of "Games People Play: New York"
Air Date 4/17

ROGER EBERT
Now for a seriously weird movie. "Games People Play: New York"...Some of the movie is fake, some of it is real, and at the end I was not absolutely sure what was fake and what wasn't. Six actors chosen in auditions and given outrageous assignments that involve a lot of nudity and public embarrassment.

CUT TO A CLIP FROM THE MOVIE

ROGER EBERT V/O
That was the director, James Ronald Whitney, explaining the challenge and Dani Marco dropping the towel. Here's another assignment: Try to collect urine samples from complete strangers on the street.

CUT TO A CLIP FROM THE MOVIE

ROGER EBERT V/O
Another game: Convince a stranger to make a threesome in a hotel room.

CUT TO A CLIP FROM THE MOVIE

ROGER EBERT
Although the strangers probably thought they were going to have sex. It turns out it's going to be a music performance in the nude. The imagination behind this film is cruel and sadistic. Are we supposed to think of these people as courageous, or good sports, or victims, or simply actors who will do anything to be in a movie?

RICHARD ROEPER
...I understand what you're saying. I think that's part of the reason why I am going to give this movie THUMBS UP. Because whether it's all real or fiction, you're right it's still confusing towards the end. Like who's playing who and what. These are real human beings who we see on screen willing to ah, getting naked is just the beginning, as you said with these people and there is something fascinating about that and yeah something very sad about that.

ROGER EBERT
I wondered whether they had a lot of turndowns before they got the people we see on screen.

RICHARD ROEPER
I would only hope so.

ROGER EBERT
I wonder how? Would you give a urine sample to a stranger on the street?

RICHARD ROEPER
I wouldn't even give it to a friend on the street.

ROGER EBERT
No, I wouldn't give it at all...

RICHARD ROEPER
That's just me...

ROGER EBERT
NO...

RICHARD ROEPER
But I'll tell ya, you mentioned two of these actors, I think this Dani Marco in particular she could be a star. I don't know if she's playing this character or it's really her or whatever the case may be...

ROGER
It left me feeling sad. At the same time I have to say that it certainly was compulsively watch-able!

RICHARD ROEPER
It's a unique piece of work!

"'GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: New York" is the best independent film I have ever seen!"

—Brian Sebastian

Games People Play (2003)

Directed by James Ronald Whitney Add to MyMovies Photos Genre: Comedy / Documentary / Drama User Rating: 9.8/10  Runtime: USA:96 min Country: USA Language: English Color: Color

"Ingenious! and the uninhibited contestants prove to be surprisingly good actors."

—Jonathan Foreman

...Wondering "how far people will go for fame?" James Ronald Whitney sets out to shoot a pilot for "the world's most uninhibited reality show." In 72 hours, six hard-bodied aspiring actors--three men and three women--compete for a $10,000 grand prize by luring NYC citizens into compromising situations...

—Matthew Plouffe

"With GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: New York, filmmaker James Ronald Whitney takes having it both ways to new heights...He satirizes reality TV while showing total nudity...TITILLATING and ENERGETIC...Whitney has plenty of hoops for them to jump through...Coleman, a personable prize-winning college athlete, and the lovely and imaginative Smith possess the strongest presences among the most attractive sextet, and have been rewarded...for their efforts by having been cast in the film's sequel, GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: Hollywood, already in post-production."

—Kevin Thomas

Games People Play: New York
If anyone has earned the right to invent another goofy reality TV series and place himself as the sadistic circusmaster handling the flaming hoops, it's James Ronald Whitney. Whitney's 2000 film, Just, Melvin: Just Evil, was the rawest confessional doc of its era, a film that revealed his grandfather to be child molester and possible murderer, while looking at the effect Grandpa Melvin had on ensuing generations - some of whom are just barely getting by, living in trailer parks and succumbing to heavy drinking. Whitney, who did a turn as a Chippendales dancer, put his own campy overachievements as a teen gymnast and quiz whiz under the microscope as well. He turns the camera outward this time, in a purported pilot for a reality show this time - offering aspiring actors and actresses the chance to win $10,000 if they out-expose each other in a series of exhibitionist trials that include confessing their most traumatic moments to the camera, collecting urine samples from passersby, and convincing strangers to have sex with them in four minutes or less. Who's playing, and who's getting played, is the real $10,000 question - and Whitney excellently maneuvers the manipulations to keep you guessing till the final credits roll.

—Susan Gerhard

Director James Ronald Whitney takes the reality television craze to the outer limits in this motion picture, which at once parodies the antics of shows such as Fear Factor and Punk'd while pushing the envelope of both the concept and his participants. After auditioning several hundred New Yorkers, Whitney recruits a cast of three men and three women to perform various stunts around the city, most of which involve nudity or sexual situations, with the cast member who is judged as the best walking home with a prize of $10,000. But how far are the participants willing to go in pursuit of money and their 15 minutes of fame? And what does their combination of ambition and lack of inhibition tell us about the people willing to literally bare all without the clear promise of a reward? Games People Play: New York was the first in a projected series of three similar films from Whitney, with installments from Hollywood and the Bible Belt in the works.

—Mark Deming

	GAMES PEOPLE PLAY James Ronald Whitney, 2004
David Maynard, Joshua Coleman and Scott Ryan, holding Gilda Carle

" GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: New York"
The promise of reality stardom will make folks get freaky!

"Terrifying in its silliness...a frisson of shock!...A public audition is held to find six contestants who are willing to peel off their clothes, divulge their darkest secrets...Just about all of the participants are good-looking aspiring actors, and their willingness to get naked on camera is, in every respect, eye-opening....As the contestants talk of bulimia and prostitution and Tourette's syndrome, shedding enough tears for 10 Barbara Walters specials, Whitney pulls off a big twist, leaving you to ask, What is reality?"

-Owen Glieberman

“An uproarious (and surprisingly subversive) satire that manages to be as intriguing, salacious and fun as the genre it's satirizing (not to mention a helluva a lot sexier). Mix FEAR FACTOR with the REAL WORLD, add a screen load of naked, buff young actors and throw in a third-act twist worthy of a spy novel and you have some idea of what's in store in James Ronald Whitney's mind-bending new film."

—Jim Baker - writer, GLAMOUR

..."GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: New York" has twists that catch even the toughest skeptics off-guard. Too hot for TV...this high-concept documentary outlines a racy new reality series in which wannabe actors compete for the chance to bare all, improvise steamy "love scenes," and perform embarrassing adult pranks (like trying to seduce an unsuspecting delivery boy) for a shot at fame and $10,000.

In his director's notes, self-proclaimed "reality whore" James Ronald Whitney (who won acclaim for his documentaries Just, Melvin and Telling Nicholas) blasts the current anything-goes trend in reality television. "It's all bullshit," he says.

Let's skip to the good stuff: Chock full of full-frontal nudity, Games sends its cast on such naughty assignments as collecting urine samples from strangers and enlisting passersby to join an all-nude song-and-dance trio. And where real reality shows freak out about their contestants' murky pasts, this one openly exploits its damaged-goods participants. The group includes a guy with Tourette's Syndrome, a gay male escort, a homophobe with deep-rooted mommy issues, a bulimic, and a childhood sex-abuse victim. These, dear friends, are the happy souls you can look forward to watching cavort naked on-camera (however, it would be remiss not to mention that all six score at least 9 on the external-beauty scale)...

—Peter Debruge

"Reality programming pushed to the max!"

—Kirk Honeycutt

4 out of 4 stars!

Reality Movie Pits Competitors Against Each Other in Quest for $10,000 Forget television shows like Big Brother, Survivor, American Idol, Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire, Average Joe, Temptation Island, The Bachelor and even Donald Trump's The Apprentice. For if Games People Play is a sign of what's in store for America, reality movies may break even bigger than the reality TV craze. The small screen is severely limited by the dictates of censors who freak out about Janet Jackson briefly baring a breast. This means that despite commercials which show sweaty, scantily-clad singles flirting shamelessly in hot tubs, the network programmers never let the reality show action get any steamier than a provocative back massage or maybe a passionate, but guilt-ridden kiss.

Nothing much ever happens, and the closest any of these programs have ever gotten to full-blown nudity is that tiled-out, gay guy on Survivor frolicking in the ocean.

By contrast, the outrageous Games People Play, breaks the reality mold, presenting some very complicated individuals, warts, neuroses, genitals and all, in front of the unblinking eye of an uncensored camera. Directed by Emmy Award-winner James Ronald Whitney (Telling Nicholas), this fascinating flick easily blows all the competition out of the water.

The ingenious Whitney wanted to find out just how far struggling actors and actresses were willing to go for 15 minutes of fame. So, he ran an ad in a New York City newspaper seeking: "3 leading men, 3 leading women, one of whom will earn $10,000 in 72 hours, 21-30, non-union, in shape, attractive, and uninhibited- for an independent film." .

Operating under severe financial and time constraints, he hired a couple of celebrity judges, TV talk show therapist Dr. Gilda Carle and NY nightclub legend Jim Caruso. The film starts with their auditioning the hundreds of hopefuls who showed up for the casting call at a Tribeca studio. From the (NC-17) rated selection process alone, it becomes apparent early on that there are plenty of people out there desperate enough to bare themselves, both emotionally and physically, for ten grand.

A compelling combination of shocking stunts and revealing therapy sessions, Games People Play lives up to its billing as "America's Most Uninhibited Game Show." To rack up the most points, contestants must approach people on the street for a urine sample, invite strangers up to a hotel room for a threesome, seduce delivery boys, and try bed aspiring actresses on the casting couch.

Because one’s score is based on how far along each mark agrees to go, you can imagine the degree to which the entrants might compromise their values. This is evident at moments such as the one where contestant (Sarah), who had just resorted to nudity to prevail at a task, starts crying when asked, "What would your father say about what you're doing?"

During these down times, we get to see what damaged goods we're dealing with, because the movie mixes in some rather revealing personality profiles of its stars. (Elisha talks about) being molested at the age of 4. (Scott tells how he) was shuttled around foster homes after his mom died in a car crash. (Josh describes how he) is afflicted with Tourette's Syndrome and (Dani admits how she) suffers from bulimia. (David reveals that he) is a male escort and (Sarah describes how she), as a kid, hid under the bed when her father was shot during a raid on their UN compound.

This micro-budgeted production proves that you don't need much money to make an absolutely fascinating movie...Games People Play is a unique feat certain to herald in a new era of reality cinema... Sign me up to see the sequel, which is already referred to in the closing credits.

Clever, intriguing, exciting, surprising, scandalous, jaw-dropping and, ultimately, very thought-provoking. What more could you possibly ask of a reality movie? To paraphrase Trump, "James Ronald Whitney, you're hired!"

Excellent...Four out of four stars!

-Kam Williams

Reality TV's move to big screen is surprisingly fresh!

That’s right, a whopping 10 grand. Who wouldn’t strip everything off and have simulated sex with a complete stranger in front of a crowd for a chance at that kind of money?

The money, of course, is secondary. What this game and movie are offering to the six attractive twentysomethings who ultimately compete is a chance at public exposure, with the emphasis on exposure. And yet what at first seems like an outlandishly exploitative and garish concept evolves into something both funny and surprisingly inventive by film’s end as the supposed dupes playing the game turn out to be far more than you expect...

The game involves each set undertaking specific, progressively more outrageous challenges. In the first, the guys have to go out on the street and ask strangers for urine samples while the gals have to garner personal information from women in neighboring bathroom stalls. And that’s just the beginning. At the same time, two judges make the rounds of the contestants’ hotel rooms for in-depth interviews about their lives and feelings.

The idea of expanding the reality TV craze onto film surfaced more than a year ago with a few ill-fated Spring Break-meets-Girls Going Wilder projects that either flopped or disappeared. Now director James Ronald Whitney has come up with an unrated, over-the-top concept designed to...appeal to people looking beyond this week’s Idol-Bachelor-Apprentice flash of fame.

AND IT WORKS. Somehow Whitney manages to combine bulimia, urine tests, tearful confessions, erotic auditions, complete strangers, naked musical numbers, homophobia, male prostitution, Tourette’s syndrome and copious nudity into a highly entertaining, enlightening and ultimately devious film here.

Whether he’ll have equal success with subsequent efforts — “GPP: Hollywood” has already been shot — is hard to say, but the level of invention, as well as the level of exhibition, leaves most of the TV competition far behind. Part “Fear Factor,” part “Candid Camera,” part “Survivor” and many parts new, “Games People Play” is indeed a look at the fame machine, done with tongue in cheek, eyes open in wonderment and a brazen sense of playfulness that’s hard to resist.

By Tom Long / Detroit News Film Critic

 

3 out of 4 stars!

GUILTY PLEASURES

"...Writer-director-producer-editor-composer James Ronald Whitney introduces his film as the pilot for “America’s most uninhibited game show.”

Between outrageous stunts that are heavy on full-frontal nudity and simulated sex, the contestants bare their souls.

David Maynard talks about his life as a male prostitute, and Dani Marco about her eating disorder. Joshua Coleman discusses his work as a bodybuilder. Sarah Smith and Scott Ryan lost parents when they were young, and Elisha Imani Wilson’s father beat her when she was four.

The...audition process starts with hundreds responding to an ad for three men and three women, ages 21-30, “in shape, attractive, uninhibited.”

The crowd is whittled down for in-studio auditions, including a screen test that ends with an “uninhibited, erotic, three-minute love scene.”

The last, in which strangers pair up, bare all and go at it in front of a room full of strangers, includes a male couple, a female couple and a woman screwing a man in the ass. That’s nothing compared to what the chosen six will have to do with other strangers.

“Games People Play: New York” made me ashamed to be watching, especially when I found myself enjoying it, which was quite a bit of the time."

"A big-screen reality show that flashes plenty of tit and dick!"

—Chuck Wilson, LA WEEKLY

GAME' ON
By MARISA MELTZER

INSANE, FASCINATING..."Games People Play: New York" just opened at Chelsea's Clearview Cinema.

Director, James Ronald Whitney, who also takes on the role of mischievous emcee (his previous films include HBO's acclaimed "Just, Melvin" and "Telling Nicholas"), says, "I'm a reality TV whore - I watch all of it. But I also get frustrated with its limitations. I wanted to make a movie that tested how uninhibited people could be - both physically and emotionally."

And the six unknown actors chosen for the 72-hour hour adventure were certainly put to the test in terms of what they were willing to reveal - literally.

"I think the nakedness was appropriate for the project," says actress Sarah Smith, who appears topless on the movie's poster. However, she adds, "my parents haven't seen it - I'm going to let them make that decision."

As for Whitney, he says: "I would never ask my actors to do anything I wouldn't do myself."

"Being on a billboard on 42nd Street blows my mind," says actor Scott Ryan. "And I'm still friends with the cast. It was such a bonding experience."

And as with any BUZZED-ABOUT reality show, there will be sequels. "Games People Play: Hollywood," is already completed, and "Games People Play: Bible Belt" will be filmed soon.

And Whitney is convinced that the Bible Belt won't be shocked by his brand of fun: "I think the mainstream is ready for this material."

I was very impressed by James Ronald Whitney's consistently surprising Games People Play, which kept audiences guessing as to whether they were watching the pilot for a new reality-TV show, a carefully staged mockumentary or a torture test for actors willing to bear their souls and bodies for a shot at a measly $10,000 prize. Besides the demands placed on the actors in his "extreme reality" show, Whitney forces viewers to come to grips with their own willingness to accept voyeurism and self-flagellation as entertainment.

It wasn't Cannes - or Chicago, for that matter -- but CineVegas sure made me feel good about movies again.

—Gary Dretzka

Games People Play: New York

An amusing, roundly enjoyable social experiment wrapped in colorful docu-tainment swaddling clothes, Games People Play: New York is billed, both in press materials and by its director, Emmy-winning documentarian James Ronald Whitney (Telling Nicholas, HBO's Just, Melvin), in an introduction to the movie, as the filmed pilot episode of a series-baiting trilogy (sorry aspirant Los Angelenos, Games People Play: Hollywood is apparently even already in the can, with contestants from the first film serving as judges/hosts)...beautifully zonked-out
hybrid, part Punk'd, part The Real World, part game show... Fantastically entertaining!

Games People Play also scores considerable points for at least tangentially addressing the fact that perhaps the interpersonal tumult on display may have some sort of latent connection with each individual's predisposition toward theatricality or performance. (The film would make for immensely interesting viewing for thoughtful, struggling and would-be actors.)

In the end...it is clever and certainly does come off as more realistic than most so-called reality TV. Ironic, given that everyone involved is an actor? Nah, at least they're finally being honest about their aspirations. Maybe we've finally achieved a societal breakthrough.

-Brent Simon

"Explaining 'Games People Play' in detail will spoil the ending as surely as shouting, 'Bruce Willis is a ghost!' would ruin 'The Sixth Sense'...the freak-show factor is off the meter!"

rating: (out of 4!)

GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: New York"

Reality TV hits the big screen with shocking results!
Okay, it was bound to happen. No one could stop it. With massively popular TV shows like The Bachelor, Survivor, American Idol, Who Wants To Be A Millionaire, The Real World, Fear Factor and Dr. Phil popping up everywhere, it was only a matter of time before some cutting-edge filmmaker figured out a way to capitalize and take it... uh, down to the next level: NAKED!

Emmy winning filmmaker James Ronald Whitney has come up with a reality concept so utterly all-encompassing that it combines the premises of all these types of shows into one explicit 99-minute "game show pitch." The effect is similar to watching a car accident pile up: you're horrified, confused, appalled and strangely drawn to the debacle. After watching it I felt manipulated, annoyed, sickened, amused and strangely enthralled by the sheer audacity of what Whitney pulls out of his hat by the end, which I won't give away here.

...A self-proclaimed "reality whore," Whitney holds an open casting call in NYC for "uninhibited" actors and actresses to use their "acting" talents to compete in "games" to win $10,000.

Contestants happily bare all, body and soul, at the drop of a hat and with each other, in extremely compromising positions...There's also a soul-baring part which made me even more uncomfortable when these people, on request, told their darkest secrets on camera to strangers and then cried hysterically. All for money. And fame! They wanna live forever! Yikes.

After the auditions, six very attractive young men and women are chosen, and asked to basically become robots and do whatever they're asked. Whitney's next round of games involve more nudity, the manipulation of unsuspecting passers-by to pee in cups for fake urine tests, and working with more aspiring actors who are unwittingly auditioning for fake films...Particularly amusing was a segment called "The Naked Trio," where the contestants went out in pairs to coerce some poor schmo off the street into going back to their hotel for a three-way sex romp. Instead, the guy ended up as a naked background singer performing a vaudeville song as part of "The Naked Trio." Bravo! It's lucky that one of these random guys off the street didn't pull a gun.

...I can't tell you why I'm being so cryptic but I don't want to spoil the ending, which is the reason to sit through this...I have to watch it again to see what I missed. Come to think of it, they got me. Damn!...I hate to admit it, but it's gonna be huge. God help us!

—Kimberlye Gold

GAME FOR ANYTHING
" How far will people go for fame and fortune? You have no idea!"

Cute couples taking home a stranger for a "naked trio." A foxy boy asks a guy on the street for a sample of his urine. Seducing the all-too-willing deli delivery boy... Plus a few tears and cliffhangers along the way...It's just the tip of the randy iceberg of the antics of six actor wannabes who bare all--and yes, we mean all--in their quest to win a pot of cash and prove that they are the most fearless/shameless young acting talent alive.

Taking the gimmickry of reality-TV game shows to another, more manic level is director James Ronald Whitney's GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: New York (an L.A. installment is due soon)...Hilarious, sometimes harrowing, infinitely watchable (it's hard to turn away) look at what people will do to prove themselves. There are teary moments and confessions...You'll laugh; you'll cry; you'll cringe; you'll see some dick--and then you'll laugh some more. And you'll thank God you're not on reality TV!

-John Polly

Games People Play: New York

Watching Games People Play: New York, a feature film that purports to have begun life as a pitch for a reality-TV series, I am reminded of a famous anecdote about George Bernard Shaw, who found himself seated next to an attractive woman at a party. "Madam," he said, "would you go to bed with me for a thousand pounds?" Despite receiving an indignant refusal, the writer persisted, eventually getting his dinner companion to admit that she might sleep with him for the then princely sum of 50,000 pounds. "And if I were to offer you five pounds?" Shaw countered, only to hear her exclaim, "Mr. Shaw! What do you take me for?" "We have already established what you are," Shaw replied. "Now we are merely haggling over the price."

In Games, the price for selling oneself in front of a national audience is apparently $10,000, which is the relatively paltry prize filmmaker James Ronald Whitney offers to whichever one of six contestants (three men and three women) proves best at performing such "uninhibited" on-camera stunts as persuading strangers to provide urine samples and seducing immigrant deliverymen into receiving an all-nude massage. In a disturbing twist to this parade of debasement -- interspersed with excruciatingly private confessionals to the game's "judges," a celebrity publicist and a psychotherapist -- Whitney adds a surprise layer, turning the film's audience into the ultimate sucker. That, and not the copious exposed flesh and rampant emotional cruelty, is what makes Games actually rather interesting...it's a kind of Candid Camera on acid (or at least Rohypnol)!

- Michael O'Sullivan

'Games'...It may be your cup of T-- and A!

" Games People Play" is not a documentary about the Spinners. But whatever it is, it opens today at the Ritz Bourse...It's a wonder no one got the crap beat out of them during the making of the film.

A theme of the movie is that a struggling actor will do virtually anything for a chance at money and fame...What's more bizarre about "GPP" is that the people pulled in off the street will do virtually anything...for nothing.

Like any reality show, there are some twists and heartbreaks along the way...which should catch most viewers by surprise. "Games People Play" is definitely not for everyone...but it is different - and thanks to six attractive, likable actors, oddly riveting.

-HOWARD GENSLER

Games People Play: New York

...James Ronald Whitney previously made the intensely personal and searing autobiographical doc Just Melvin (renamed as Just, Melvin: Just Evil for HBO). For Games, he holds a casting call for actors who compete for a $10,000 prize by doing zany pranks around Manhattan and confessing secrets that no one but an emotional voyeur would want to know.

Poor, weeping Brianne looks into the camera and explains that she "has just been sleeping with random people and could get AIDS." ...Games may be the apotheosis of reality-TV culture, complete with full nudity, toilet humor and lots of other naughtiness...Is this what it has come to? Are we just a bunch of doltish, confessional cheap-thrill seekers? Games People Play would have you think so, and judging from reality TV's ratings triumphs, it may be right. This is the kind of faux-dignified freak show that was once the stuff of parody and satire...!"

By Chris Vognar

Games People Play: New York, a feature film...it's a pretty scathing satire of reality fare, including itself, which makes it both what it is and a critique of what it is. I'm just not sure I like the feeling of squirming in that narrowest of gaps.

"Games People Play...Whitney's idea is to rub "reality" in a steaming heap of exploitation that would leave nightly addicts of "elimiDATE," "Taildaters, "Cheaters," or "The 5th Wheel" feeling completely satisfied. He brings in the hard-core sensibility that broadcast standards won't allow in those shows.

In "Games People Play," three men and three women run around Manhattan for 72 hours attempting to seduce...strangers for a $10,000 prize. The six players are also actors, and another part of this contest is to discover which is the best performer...The ultimate victor is victorious because he or she can score the most total points across three events...

The hundreds of people who descend upon the show's open casting call passionately dredge up their most terrible diary entries for a spot in this...production. There seem to be dozens of stories of rape, attempted suicide, and promiscuity...

After the big confessional round and once all the middle-aged and unattractive applicants have been turned away, the remaining hopefuls are asked to do a scene with each other that involves a little acting and a lot of lust. Oh, and fully disrobing is a plus.

The final six, a tolerable bunch, reveal their troubles and insecurities -- eating disorders, male prostitution, Tourette's syndrome, nymphomania, etc. -- to the judges. Between these confessions, they perform ridiculous stunts. While the men are out accosting strangers for urine samples, for instance, the women are gathering personal information from the person in the next bathroom stall.

Another stunt involves the women individually dropping their towels, then seducing take-out delivery guys, most of whom don't speak English. At some point, the actress and filmmakers confess to the bewildered delivery guys that, in the words of Ashton Kutcher and MTV, they've been punk'd...

Last year, the release of the reality movie "The Real Cancun" prompted widespread fear and loathing. What happens to actors? What happens to civilization? Nobody saw it, and the movie was ultimately harmless. But there's something unsafe and scary about "Games People Play." It has the homemade look of both a public access special and a "Dateline" undercover investigation. A lot of the action takes place at night in sterile hotel rooms and in other anonymous places. The whole experience feels...like walking alone down a long damp alley at 3 in the morning.

On the film's website, Whitney claims to be a "reality whore." Accordingly, in 2002, he made a documentary called "Telling Nicholas," in which the director...won an Emmy...!"

By Wesley Morris

"The film offers plenty of male and female frontal nudity, and some mimed sex (in an audition scene where the actors are told to improvise erotic content). If your not ashamed of yourself by now, dear viewer, just wait till the participants indulge in tearful confessions--in front of the former Love Doc from MTV--about incidents involving bulimia, molestation and prostitution. And there's a surprise ending...

Director James Ronald Whitney has created a couple of highly praised HBO documentaries: 'Just, Melvin,' which dealt with childhood sexual abuse, and 'Telling Nicholas,' about the effects of Sept. 11, 2001, on one family...Whitney, I believe thinks of 'Games People Play' as a satire of reality TV, and wants viewers to question their own fascination with this lurid stuff."

-Walter Addiego

"TITILLATING REALITY...for the big screen."

— Bilge Ebiri & Logan Hill

Film lets the 'Games' begin

Three hunky guys - one of whom is gay - and three sexy women via for $10,000 in the new film "Games People Play: New York." This big-screen version of a "reality show" takes six actors, and puts them through 72 hours of sexual shenanigans. While writer/director James Ronald Whitney''s film is certainly audacious, it remains to be seen if his "game show pilot" will take off.

What does come off, however, are the participants'' clothes - and often...From the auditions - which feature two guys, two girls or one of each improvising an erotic, three-minute love scene (one involves toe sucking) - to the "games" themselves, everyone must bare their bodies.

And Whitney also has the cast bare their souls.

Each individual meets privately with a psychologist and a celebrity publicist where they reveal their deepest, darkest secrets. In these episodes, David confesses that he works as a male escort, while another, Sarah, describes watching her father being shot when she was a teen. Other participants describe their battles with bulimia, and Tourette''s syndrome.

"Games People Play" uses these segments to uncover more about the players than the full-frontal exhibitionism. Yet most of the movie consists of the entertaining games. The women get to act out such things as "Delivery Boy''s Fantasy" in which they must get a stranger naked within a specified time limit. Likewise, the guys get to do things like solicit urine samples from people on the street. It is brazen in the way of a fraternity hell week...audiences will be amazed at how the players participated for the outrageous scenes.

One event, titled "Naked Trio" involves two guys and a girl getting completely nude in a hotel room - to sing. Part of the fun of the film is seeing what shameful antics Whitney has in store for them...Overall, the male contestants are not shy, especially Joshua who has little trouble asking men on the street - some of whom are shamelessly attracted to him - to provide him with the urine samples. (Incidentally, blond stud Joshua earned the championship bodybuilder title Mr. Penn while enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania).

Likewise, David (the escort) has no reservations about being out - as when he tells a women he''s such a good kisser that he could turn her straight son gay...As with any good reality program, there is a final twist that while satisfying, many viewers will see coming. "Games People Play" may not revolutionize the reality show craze as Whitney might hope, but this amiable film will certainly have eyes popping and tongues wagging.

-Gary M. Kramer

3 out of 4 stars!

A lie, a gag or both? 'Games' leaves a mystery!

If the concept of metafiction -- fiction that is about fiction -- has you so confused you tend to shy away from bookstores, you will want to carefully consider whether to see "Games People Play: New York," especially if you are one of the millions of reality-show junkies.

An alleged documentary that so blurs the boundaries between real, unreal and surreal that they might as well not exist, "Games" is... just interesting enough to relieve the embarrassment you deserve for enjoying it.

We are supposed to believe, I think, that "Games People Play" is either the pilot for a risque, cable-ready reality show or...the first in a trilogy of reality movies...Either way, it begins with a cattle-call audition for "uninhibited" actors, six of whom will be chosen to compete for a $10,000 prize.

Before a pair of judges, an actor named Jim Caruso and a psychotherapist named Gilda Carle -- both of whom may be phonies for all I know -- the hopefuls, without much prodding, bare themselves emotionally and then physically. The latter is a prerequisite, because nearly all challenges they will face in competition (most of which are more like "Candid Camera" stunts) involve full nudity.

Not surprisingly, all six contestants chosen by director-producer James Ronald Whitney (who, it should be noted, also takes a credit for the screenplay) are attractive and have suffered some serious psychological trauma or harbor some deep secret, or at least do their best to convince us that is the case.

They then proceed, scavenger hunt-style, to their assignments, which include seeing who can collect the largest number of urine samples from people on the street in a limited time, who can recruit strangers at a hotel to join two of them to perform as an all-nude trio and, for the women, who can seduce a delivery boy the quickest. The men, meanwhile, pretend to be producers in order to get women on their casting couch, which could be Whitney's own nod to metafiction...

The distinction is ultimately negligible whether "Games People Play" is all put-on, part put-on or all exploitation. As Lily Tomlin once asked, what is reality, anyway, except a collective hunch?

BY TERRY LAWSON
MOVIE CRITIC

"Full-frontal nudity is the least outrageous part of this picture!"

"First in a trilogy...a heavy sex-and-skin factor!...

Writer-director James Ronald Whitney assembles a team of six actors in their early 20s --three buff, gym-sculpted lads and three ethnically assorted babes...The sextet is culled from an open-call audition, during which aspiring contestants reveal all, emotionally and physically...Boys must collect urine samples from strangers and coax actresses to uninhibited heights in a casting couch session; girls must engage women in neighboring bathroom stalls in elaborate dialogues and seduce delivery boys in record time. Split into teams of two, the couples must enlist a man off the street to sing in a naked trio act, all recorded on invisible mini-cams.

The confessional segments involve the attractive but unfortunate contestants spilling their guts on experiences including bulimia, parental loss and abandonment, turning tricks and sexual molestation during intimate interviews with the judges, singer-performer Jim Caruso and psychotherapist Dr. Gilda Carle...perhaps the least sympathetic shrink on the planet -- as she spouts compassionate lines like, "But you were a male prostitute before this guy got cancer, right?"

...Next release, "Games People Play: Hollywood."

-David Rooney

"Titillating!"

—Paul Birchall

THE GAMES BEGIN

"Let's face it, many people are going to see James Ronald Whitney's new film, 'GAMES PEOPLE PLAY: New York'...and this reality film delivers!

—Jeffrey Epstein