BEFORE: We're getting down to it now, September's coming, and that's the last month before the horror chain, which is the last chain before the home stretch. So really, the year's almost over, the end is in sight. In racing terms, the horses are going around the last turn, it's the last chance to jockey for position before that long straight part, so the race is going to be over very soon. It may not feel like progress is being made, especially when I have to skip a day, or large parts of November and December, but in essence, I'm close to the end of another year. I think I'm going "all in" on the possibility of movie theaters being open by November so I can see "Black Widow", and I'll just have to catch up with all other recent 2020 theatrical releases some time in 2021, because I'm not traveling up to Connecticut just to go to a movie theater. NYC, please get your act together where movie theaters are concerned, because I'm just not paying $24.99 to see "Bill & Ted Face the Music" on iTunes, that sets a dangerous precedent.
Bruce Willis carries over from "Death Wish".
THE PLOT: Ex-private dancer Beth aspires to be a Las Vegas cocktail waitress when she falls in with Dink, a sports gambler. Sparks fly as she proves to be something of a gambling prodigy - much to the ire of Dink's wife, Tulip.
AFTER: It seems just a bit odd that this film comes from the same director as "My Beautiful Laundrette", "Dangerous Liaisons" and "The Queen", because it feels so very American, focused on sports book gambling and the culture of the aimless people who live and work around Las Vegas. But the same director also made "The Grifters" and "High Fidelity", and once I realized that, that's when things started to fall a bit more into place.
I had this one in my Netflix queue, only guess what, I took too long, and now it's not there any more. It's my own fault, I couldn't really decide whether this belonged in the "romance" chain or not - a case could be made to put it there, but the romance is rather tangential to the plot, but the debate over the category caused a delay, so by the time my chain was able to circle back to it, too late. No worries, stuff that scrolls off of Netflix often then turns up on Hulu, or Amazon Prime - or at least they used to, it seems the natural order of the streaming landscape has changed once again. So I had to watch this one on Tubi - their slogan is "Where movies come to die" - which means ad breaks every half-hour, and the service doesn't let me watch the end credits, but hey, at least it was free.
A couple Februarys ago I watched "I Give It a Year", which was a little British romance film that kind of surprised me, because it had an depiction of divorce that I hadn't seen before, one where both parties were actually better off after the split, they went on to have more positive relationships with other people, unlike some romances that seem to have an agenda of supporting marriage at all costs, even if it's not working well. I got that same kind of feeling here, because it would have been SO EASY to have Beth fall into a relationship with her boss Dink, and it felt like it was heading that way, because Dink was having trouble with his wife, Tulip. But Dink stopped the advance of his relationship with Beth, fired her yet also remained a friend and an advisor to her, and that seemed genuinely to come from a very sweet and realistic place, even though many of the other events in the film bordered on the ridiculous.
I'm just not familiar enough with the world of sports betting to be sure about that - even when we go to casinos that have legal sports betting, I still stick to the slot machines, even though I know "wheel games are for suckers". And apparently so is "Flip-it" or "Coindozer" or whatever you call that game that appears to be pushing a pile coins toward you when it really isn't. (They never really...fall...damn it! OK, just one more coin, that should do it!). But this is also a film about being unsure what to do for a job, finally taking that step and striking out in a new direction, encountering new challenges and then doing one's best to overcome them. Perhaps a very appropriate film for this time in history, when so many people are out of work, or in some kind of job-related limbo while waiting for that restaurant or movie theater or film studio to finally re-open.
But this is the year of weird movies, right? Or I should say, mostly weirder than usual, and I think this one qualifies, on some levels. Not because it's about aliens or witches or kids who can somehow go to the same museums in New York City, exactly 50 years apart from each other, but because Bruce Willis doesn't do any action-movie stuff, he doesn't shoot anybody or blow anything up, which is simultaneously a little refreshing and a little boring. Weird because Vince Vaughn plays a Jewish bookie and really amps up the accent, which may come off as an overblown stereotype, and I'm not sure if that's OK or not. But also weird in a good way because the story didn't take the easy route and have Dink sleep with Beth, and the result was better and stronger, in addition to being more positive.
But I also realize there are only so many things you can do with a gambling storyline, and I've already watched "Uncut Gems" and "The Gambler" so far this year, and all of these films rely on some of the same tricks to allow their lead characters to prevail. "The Gambler" was probably the best at this, the way the lead character played all the people he owed money to off against each other, here we're just kind of seeing it from the other side, the bookie's side. How do you get the customers to pay up when they lose, and still do that in a positive way, especially when gambling is illegal in the city you're working in? Making bets in Las Vegas and taking bets in New York should be two completely different situations, but here they're presented as sort of all part of some bigger picture - that seems like saying that watching films is very close to producing films, and nothing could be further from the truth. One's a very passive endeavor, and the other one requires a ton of work.
Dink's a great character, but he's also a gambler, so he definitely has faults related to that. Just because his wife is in the room while he makes bad bets, that doesn't make her a "jinx". Maybe the bets were just bad, or luck is a subjective quality that comes and goes, or perhaps doesn't exist at all. Blaming others around him for his bad bets is a character flaw, but that also helps make him interesting. He's a solid dude, for several reasons, chief among them is the fact that he fired Beth when he felt she was getting too close to him, but still remained her friend, which is a rare thing.
On the other hand, the movie relies very heavy on stereotypes - hey, they're timesavers, right? In addition to the Jewish stereotypes I mentioned before, all of the women are very ditzy - like Beth, is she smart or stupid or what? She's great with numbers, but she can't understand odds? That's what odds are, they're just numbers, or percentages. The film can't seem to decide how in control of her own life it wants her to be. Is she a strong, confident woman, and if so, then why does she fall apart at the first sign of pressure when her client makes a losing bet and doesn't want to pay up? And all of the other women in the film are either gold-diggers, bottom feeders, strippers or some combination of those. Somewhere else, women are doctors, lawyers and CEO's but you wouldn't know that from watching this movie.
With regards to the gambling, like I said last week, I'm not comfortable betting any money that I'm not prepared to lose. I doubt I'll ever call up a bookie and take two dimes on Chicago to beat the spread, I just don't have it in me. I'll stick to losing $40 in a casino on the slots and then hitting the buffet, thanks. I know sports betting is legal in New Jersey, now, but still not in New York so there's a bunch of people who will ride the train into NJ just to place a bet on their phones and then ride back, which seems really stupid to me.
It's an OK film, I'm glad I watched it during regular play and not during a romance chain, but I suspect that "Molly's Game" was a slightly better film on a similar subject.
Also starring Rebecca Hall (last seen in "Professor Marston & the Wonder Women"), Catherine Zeta-Jones (last seen in "No Reservations"), Joshua Jackson (last seen in "Bobby"), Vince Vaughn (last seen in "Fighting With My Family"), Laura Prepon (last seen in "The Hero"), John Carroll Lynch (last seen in "Private Life"), Wayne Pére (last seen in "Billionaire Boys Club"), Frank Grillo (last seen in "Avengers: Endgame"), Corbin Bernsen (last seen in "Kiss Kiss Bang Bang"), Hugo Armstrong (last seen in "Roman J. Israel, Esq."), Jo Newman (last seen in "Love & Other Drugs"), Wendell Pierce (last seen in "Selma"), Ritchie Montgomery (last seen in "The Last Laugh"), John J. Mourain, René J.F. Piazza (last seen in "Supercon").
RATING: 5 out of 10 losing streaks
No comments:
Post a Comment