"There's always a kid, isn't there?"
Even though I couldn't play a hand of poker to save my life (or yours), I wrote a piece for MSNBC on the five top card movies, to coincide with the opening of the card counting flick, "21." My friend Brett, who's got a pretty good poker face even when he's not playing poker, helped me. Also a dude I met at the 5 Spot on the top of Queen Anne. Interestingly, both he and Brett liked the same film, "Rounders," for the reasons I state in the article. I had problems with it, which I also state, but I like how anti-Hollywood, even anti-American the movie is in this sense: Its tagline went something something like, "You play the hand you're dealt." That's the film. You are who you are. You can't overcome it. Forget Nietzsche or self-help books. "Would you make a different choice?" one character says, to which another replies, "What choice?" There's something truly freeing in this notion.
It's a short piece, but enjoy. Martin Scorsese's next.
Twitter: @ErikLundegaard
Tweets by @ErikLundegaardThings I Learned on Vacation in Belgium and France
2019 Reviews
What She Said: The Art of Pauline Kael
The Fall of the American Empire
Won Ton Ton: The Dog Who Saved Hollywood (1976)
Robin Hood of El Dorado (1936)
The Whole Town's Talking (1935)
Oil for the Lamps of China (1935)
Fifty Million Frenchmen (1931)
The Phantom of the Opera (1925)
Serials
Adventures of Captain Marvel (1941)
Cagneys
Something to Sing About (1937)