Top 10 Casino Movies of All Time

For decades, casino movies have filled theaters in America and globally, offering a visually dramatized experience that rekindles the rush, euphoria, and casino lifestyle.

With countless hours of cinema depicting casinos throughout the years, we set a goal to try to make a tier list and rank some of the best casino movies ever made. In the article, you can find movies that either depict casinos as the main subject of the film, where all the action happens or mainly focus on various types of gambling that can be found in casinos.

Our Picks and Recommendations

By going through numerous hours of cinema, with our choice we think we have a perfect blend of movies that depict what casinos truly are and how can one hand or roll can determine if you are going to live a life of luxury or plummet you down to the darkest places in life. These are our top picks:

  • Casino
  • Rain Man
  • Casino Royale
  • 21
  • Ocean’s Eleven
  • The Gambler
  • Croupier
  • Rounders
  • The Cooler
  • The Hangover

Let’s dive into these cinematic gems and see how they uniquely capture the thrilling highs and perilous lows of the casino world, offering viewers a compelling glimpse into the allure of gambling and the dramatic stakes involved.

Casino Movie

Casino (1995)

Of course, we were going to start the list with one of the most iconic Las Vegas flicks. Martin Scorsese’s Casino is a 1995 mob movie, with prime Rober De Niro playing the manager of a casino and an all-star supporting cast, including frequent De Niro/Scorsese collaborator Joe Pesci. De Niro has built a career playing tough-guy mobsters. Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein, his character in Casino, is deeply connected to the mafia in one way or another and gets into trouble at every given moment.

Alongside being a brilliant film, Casino offers a documentary-style look into the inner workings of a casino. Panning and tracking shots from blackjack tables to the ‘Holy of Holies,’ the count room, offer a cinematic casino experience unlike any other film before or after.

The Gambler Movie

 

The Gambler (1974)

The main plot of the movie follows Axel Freed, a school teacher whom his friends and family know as a pretty down-to-earth guy. But if we take a look behind that everyday teacher, we can see a gambling addict who slowly but surely is heading down the pit of despair.

Freed steals money from his mother and heads to Las Vegas to throw his last ‘Hail Marry’ and try to win all of the money that he has lost in the past. The Gambler is a perfect flick that can unravel the  implications of gambling addiction and how deeply it can affect a person’s life. This film is also featured on the Top10Casinos’ movie list, alongside some other casino classics that definitely deserve your attention.

Rain Man Movie

Rain Man (1988)

While there is a more comprehensive message Rain Man conveys about the relationship of two brothers, gambling is also at the forefront. When Charlie (played by Tom Cruise) discovers that his late father placed all of his fortunes in trust that supports his long-lost older savant brother, he sets out to find him.

In the road trip that the two brothers take, Charlie learns that his autistic older brother is also something of a mathematical prodigy and wants to use him as a get-rich-quick scheme. The primary idea is that Raymond can count cards, and the blackjack tables become their target.

Casino Royale Movie

Casino Royale (2006)

The debut of Daniel Craig as our favorite spy comes in the 2006 action-drama Casino Royale. Alongside his intrinsic charm, our 007 is a multifarious agent with a knack for gambling. In this James Bond flick, one of the best scenes is when Bond heads to Montenegro for a high-stakes poker tournament.

He is sent to participate because Le Chiffre, a globally wanted financial terrorist, is also involved in the tournament, winning the multi-million dollar prize. Bond has to go up against him. He must win to stop the funds from going into the hands of the terrorists.

21 Casino Movie

21 (2008)

While the movie starts as a laid-back story of a med student trying to get by and fund his education, it takes a big turn when Ben Cambell gets an invite to an exclusive after-school club.

Because of his gift with numbers, his math professor, played by Kevin Spacey, invites Cambell to be part of a group of talented students who use their gift for counting cards. After various luxurious and heavily planned trips to Las Vegas, Cambell and his accomplices start winning big at the blackjack tables.

Ocean’s Eleven Movie

 

Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

Without a doubt, the most stacked star-studded cast in our list is Ocean’s Eleven. This crime movie depicts Danny Ocean (played by George Clooney) and his plan to execute the biggest casino heist of all time. Robbing one Las Vegas casino isn’t enough, so he sets his site to the 3 most popular casinos in the city.

Along the way, we can see the intricacies of a casino establishment as Ocean explains the plan to his crew. We can take a look at how casinos operate, the inside of the casino’s vaults, and their foolproof security. Well, nearly foolproof.

Croupier Movie

 

Croupier (1998)

Croupier is a British movie which, while it does set the scene in one of many London casinos, follows the life of a writer who has turned a casino croupier for money. The amazing Clive Owen is the main character and leads the movie as he goes to his casino shifts, painting the picture from the other side of the table.

While he may be uninterested and solely on the job for the funds, the casino life takes a toll on him and also sucks him in. While it might not have the glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas strip, Croupier subtly shows us the colder side of what happens in a casino.

Rounders Movie

Rounders (1998)

We had to throw in another poker movie, and Rounders needs to be on the list as well. This 1998 drama directed by John Dahl follows Mike McDermott (played by Matt Damon), a New York law student who obviously has a talent for poker.

While Mike decides to quit his life of gambling and focus on his studies, his friend gets out of jail and needs help getting money to pay off his debts. This pulls Mike into the underground poker scene as he tries to help out a friend.

The Cooler Movie

The Cooler (2003)

William H. Macy plays Bernie, a casino employee like you have never seen before. Instead of a dealer, cashier, or security, Bernie is a known bad omen or a jinx that goes around the casino, stands next to players, and somehow gives them bad luck.

Alec Baldwin is the casino boss who hires Bernie because he has an unpaid debt. At one point, Bernie falls in love and starts to love his life again. As his personal life takes a turn, his bad luck seems to fade away.

The Hangover Movie

The Hangover (2009)

‘What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas,’ and in the family The movie follows 3 friends, Alen, Phil, and Stu, as they head to Las Vegas for their friend Doug’s bachelor adventure.

Everything seems to be going fine until they wake up hung over the next day with Dough missing. Throughout the movie, we see the three friends turn Vegas upside down to find Doug facing hilarious and dangerous misadventures. There’s also plenty of casinos and gambling involved that gave birth to a famous meme involving Alan (Zach Galifianakis) counting cards in blackjack to save Doug.

Deadfall

Oh man! This is so bad! This film is so badly written and directed that it would suck even if it was a TV movie. The only reason it was made is because it’s the first film of Francis Ford Coppola’s nephew Christopher. It’s about a con man who accidentally kills his father/partner during a scam and then goes to work for his uncle Lou, who’s putting together a huge job. The son, Joe, also has to handle a bunch of possibly threatening people, namely Eddie, a psychotic thug, and his temptress girlfriend Diana.

This film is pure B trash that tries to be a witty neo-film noir à la “Reservoir Dogs”. But it just crawls in gore and pointless sex, as well as boring twists. Well, what can you do… At least, the cast is interesting. Michael Biehn plays Joe, Peter Fonda and Charlie Sheen are bit players, but there’s one performance not to be missed. Who else but the best actor of all time, Nicolas Cage, who plays the deranged Eddie. Cage must know how bad this film is, but at least, he tries to pump some excitement into his part. It’s undeniably one of his most over the top performances. Wearing an ugly wig, sunglasses and pukey suits, he keeps getting high as a kite and screaming his lungs out. Every second Cage’s on-screen, the film gets riveting. He’s just so cool as this pissed loser! Think of Dennis Hopper’s “Blue Velvet” character, only weirder! Unfortunately, Cage doesn’t have such a big role (he’s killed after an hour). Still, his performance alone is almost enough to make this dud a worthy rental.

Online Casino Security System

This movie reminds me of the real stories of people I know who had very similar circumstances and had to navigate dangerous situations. They ended up robbing a land-based casino, but unfortunately, they were caught and sentenced to prison. It was not the first time someone tried to rob that particular casino, as it was very poorly secured. Nowadays, land-based casinos have thorough security systems to prevent such incidents from happening again. But people who want to be completely secure have chosen to re-orient towards online gambling instead.

Online casinos these days offer advanced encryption technology and robust security measures to ensure the safety of players’ personal and financial information. Besides, they give players the ultimate pleasure of enjoying the atmosphere from the comfort of their own homes.

Some online casinos offer the opportunity to connect with social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing players to share their gaming experiences with friends and followers. That way, that particular casino that enables social media connections allows social media sign-in to streamline the user experience and enhance social interactions within the gaming community. All of this leads to a totally different safety and experience compared to land-based casinos. If this were reachable back then, those people wouldn’t have gone through hell like in Deadfall.

Unfaithful

I love doing these reviews, but they don’t pay the bills. In fact, I still have to pay to see most movies, so I don’t bother seeing movies that are obviously not worth my time. As for what I do see, it can come down to a bunch of factors: an interesting synopsis, a cool looking trailer, a filmmaker whose work I admire, actors I’m a fan of… Then there’s “Unfaithful”, the first movie I went to see almost solely for its music! I loathe Richard Gere, director Adrian Lyne’s got a pitiful track record (“Flashdance”? “Indecent Proposal”???) and the critics are mostly lukewarm or negative, but at least its got a composer with taste. You see, Jan A.D. Kaczmarek had the great idea to fly Quebec cellist-singer JoRane to L.A. to work on the film score. Her name might mean diddlysquat to folks at large but believe me, that girl is amazing. Her latest album, 16mm, is a thing of beauty, inspiring the trippiest little films in your head, and she’s even better live. Hence, if it means I’ll get to hear some new material, I’ll watch any movie, unappealing as it might seem.

Based on the Claude Chabrol film “La femme infidèle”, the film revolves around Constance (Diane Lane), a suburban married mom who’s seduced by a greasy Frenchman (Olivier Martinez) with a nice big loft filled with old books in Soho. Why does she do it? Good question, but the film doesn’t offer much answers. Actually, I don’t think you’re supposed to question what happens at all. You just have to sit and accept that a seemingly smart, happy woman with a rich, caring husband who looks like Richard Gere would throw it all away for some hanky panky with a young unshaven bum who bullshits women in a thick French accent, Pepe Le Pew style: “You have amazing eyes. You should never close them, not even at night.” Or he’s got this nifty little scam where he has her pick one of his many books of a shelf, open it at page 23 and read: “This moment is your life”. Tsk, as if he didn’t do that with every girl!

Maybe Constance is bored with her neat suburban life, maybe she’d rather have rough public sex with a near stranger than the usual quick-the-boy-is-asleep-let’s-do-this with her Cosby sweater wearing husband. But even if you buy the premise, for the longest time the film doesn’t go anywhere with it. For a movie with such a literal title, it sure takes forever for what we know is gonna happen to happen. Lyne painstakingly revels into the oh so comfy, oh so elegant life of the Sumners, with their huge mansion, their dog, their two cars in the garage, their Black maid, Connie’s snow globe collection… Then in an oh so symbolic storm, Constance is swept away by high winds right in the arms of Pepe. He invites her up but they don’t do it, oh no! Later she goes back to his bachelor pad but she stays all dressed again. Damn, woman, be unfaithful already! Even when the two lovers do get down to business, the film remains soporific. Diane Lane is a gorgeous woman, and every glimpse of her flesh is a welcomed distraction, but the sex itself is surprisingly tame, like something out of a pretentious soft-core porno. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by the natural, lively and truly sensual sex scenes in “Y Tu Mama Tambien”, but the so-called erotic scenes in “Unfaithful” seem awfully staged. Oooh, watch her belly button tremble! Hear him ask her to hit him, how wild… *yawn*

The film drags and drags between forgettable sex and scenes of Richard Gere getting suspicious. Some tension finally grows when Gere goes to Pepe’s House of Love to confront him, but it’s short-lived. Gere is just not much of an actor, Martinez is worse and Lyne blatantly botches his big shocker to the point where it’s downright laughable (it’s Gere’s ridiculous “squeak of rage” that did it for me). It drags some more from there, as the spouses try to cope with this horrible thing that’s come between them, but the movie apparently doesn’t know what to have them do or say, so they mostly stand there looking concerned until the ineffective last stroke of strained ambiguity. “Unfaithful”, it turns out, is even worse than I thought it would be, and the music wasn’t particularly noticeable outside of the use of an instrumental version of Radiohead’s “Exit Music (for a film)”. It’s mostly the usual piano and strings, with some female vocals in the first sex scene. That was JoRane’s big contribution, I guess, but if you’re not making an effort to pick it up, you won’t. You’re left with a movie with a strong performance from Diane Lane but little less to offer. Don’t bother.

Big Daddy

One of the things I’m proud of as a film critic is that I’m able to enjoy all kinds of movies. I don’t mean that I’m too easily please; it’s just that I can appreciate the virtues of certain big blockbusters like I do for the classy arthouse pics. Hence, I don’t take part in the near-universal vendetta of reviewers against SNL alumn Adam Sandler. Yeah, his movies can be shallow, unambitious, predictable, offensive or even retarded. But doggone it, they’re as entertaining as it gets, and the great Sandoo is one of the most likable performers in Hollywood. Sandler and his old college pals (who often serve as writers and directors on his pictures) are not master filmmakers of Scorsese proportions, but movies like “Billy Madison”, “Happy Gilmore”, “The Wedding Singer”, “The Waterboy” and now “Big Daddy” are colorful, hilarious and sincere in their affection for slackers.

Here, the Sandman plays one helluvah slacker named Sonny Koufax, who finished law school some ten years ago but still lives like a frat boy. He works one day a week as a toolbooth clerk and spends the rest of his time drinking, watching TV and listening to his all-time favorite band, Styx. It’s an enjoyably laid back lifestyle, but it ain’t what his girlfriend thinks. Pointing out how immature he is, she dumps him. That’s when, through unlikely movie circumstances, five year old Julian (played by the cute and funny twins Cole and Dylan Sprouse) is delivered at his doorstep, prompting Koufax to adopt him to show his girl he can get a life. Yet it doesn’t work at all, since she has already replaced him with a 60 year old man (you gotta see Sandler’s reaction!). Sonny will have to take care of the kid by himself and, who knows, he might even get to like the little guy…

The biggest and most surprising quality of Big Daddy is how sweet it is. Some people were actually crying in the audience! It reminded me of the father-son relationship in Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful, no kidding! Of course, this being a Sandler flick, we also get lots of raunchy humor, as he teaches his kid to trip rollerbladers, pee on walls and other important stuff. But Sandler also shows that he does have acting chops, and he convincingly shows how his character starts to care about the kid. Big Daddy was written by Sandler and two buddies and directed by Dennis Dugan, who also helmed “Happy Gilmore”. The movie is rather conventionally crafted, with big threads and particularly obvious product placement (Hooters, McDonald’s, various junk food…), but that doesn’t really matter in a flick like this.

Dugan keeps the movie quick and funny, and surrounds Sandler with an amazing supporting cast, most notably the underrated Rob Schneider as an illegal imigrant delivery boy and scene-stealer Steve Buscemi who once again gets some of the film’s biggest laughs (like in “Billy Madison” and “The Wedding Singer”) as a homeless lunatic. There’s also “Chasing Amy’s Joey Lauren Adams as Sandler’s lovable new flame, but there isn’t any doubt that the film’s real love story is between Adam and his tiny playmate. If most critics don’t appreciate that, it’s because they’re, as Sandler puts it in the film, “cynical assholes”. Well, don’t expect “La Dolce Vita” and you’ll love Big Daddy.

In Good Company

“I totally phoned in that Dennis Quaid movie!”

So said Topher Grace in Ocean’s Twelve, but don’t take him seriously. I’ve yet to see the guy be less than charming and hilarious on screen. Even in forgettable crap like Win a Date with Tad Hamilton!, he manages to be entertaining and likable. Here he doesn’t have to worry about being the only bright spot in a heap of crud. This is a well crafted, smart and heartfelt piece which, while not as great as “About the Boy”, confirms that Paul Weitz is a filmmaker to watch for (let’s pretend “Down to Earth” never happened).

Dennis Quaid stars as Dan Foreman (not to be confused with Eric Forman, the character Grace plays on That ‘70s Show), a 51-year-old good old boy, old-fashioned kind of guy who heads the ad sales department of a sports magazine. He’s got a perfect little wife, perfect little daughters and a perfect little life. It’s all good… Until a multinational corporation buys out the publisher that owns Sports America and 26 year old “ninja assassin” corporate hotshot Carter Duryea (Grace) is brought in to increase ad pages, reduce the payroll and enforce the company’s bottom-line thinking.

His wife (Selma Blair) having just walked out on him, Carter leeches onto Dan, who might find himself inferior to him in this new business culture but who’s more successful than anyone could hope for as far as home and family go. Carter takes a special interest in Alex (Scarlett Johansson), the oldest Foreman daughter, around whom he feels “bizarrely honest”, but I don’t see it. Oh, the Scarlett’s hot as hell, but there’s zero chemistry between Topher and her. This would be a deal-breaker if this was a romantic comedy, but Carter’s daughter-sausageing mostly serves as a way to (effectively) add further conflict to the story’s central relationship, between the old fart and the young asshole.

I’ve mentioned how endearing I find Topher Grace to be, but Dennis Quaid owns this movie. It’s rare to find a film that is able to stop glorifying youth and show respect for maturity and experience instead, and Quaid wonderfully embodies that. The antagonism between the two is very interestingly played. It would have been easy to do a good guy/bad guy thing, but this film’s able to see nuances. Foreman and Duryea are not enemies, they just disagree.

As writer and director, Paul Weitz must certainly be applauded for how lovely his film is, but cinema is a collaborative medium and Weitz surrounded himself well. Cinematographer Remi Adefarasin makes everyone and everything look gorgeous, editor Myron Kerstein keeps things flowing without rushing them and composer Stephen Trask nicely underlines scenes musically, as does the use of songs by The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Damien Rice and others. Little things like the lack of chemistry between Grace and Johansson keep “In Good Company” from greatness but it remains, in the words of one of its characters, PFG: Pretty Fucking Good.

Scott Pilgrim vs. the World

I was born in 1980. As a kid, I watched a lot of cartoons, I played video games (Atari, Nintendo, and eventually Super NES), I collected comic books, and I was into action movies something fierce. As I grew older, I also became a huge fan of music and of, well, girls.

The above is not a self-indulgent intro but a way of telling you how “Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World” seems to have been made specifically for me and everyone of my generation who more or less carries that same pop culture baggage. Adapted from the Bryan Lee O’Malley (born 1979) series of graphic novels by Edgar Wright (born 1974), who was already one of my favorite directors because of “Shaun of the Dead” and “Hot Fuzz” but who totally outdoes himself here, this movie is basically all I ever loved packed into two hours.

Michael Cera stars as the titular Scott Pilgrim, the geeky bass player for the Toronto-based band Sex Bob-omb. Even though he’s still not quite over his break-up with Natalie (Brie Larson) and is currently dating a 17-year-old Chinese schoolgirl (Ellen Wong), everything changes when he meets Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead, the cheerleader from “Death Proof”), a crazy/beautiful hipster goddess he falls desperately in love of with, in spite of the disapproval of his band-mates (Mark Webber and Alison Pill), his bitchy gay roommate (scene-stealer Kieran Culkin), his sister (Anna Kendrick), the girl at the record store (Aubrey Plaza) and just about everyone else.

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Worse, to win Ramona’s heart, Scott will have to fight defeat her seven evil exes: Bollywood mystic Matthew Patel (Satya Bhabha), pro skateboarder/movie star Lucas Lee (Chris Evans), psychic vegan bass player Todd Ingram (Brandon Routh), bi-furious half-ninja Roxy Richter (Mae Whitman), electro music-playing twins Kyle and Ken Katayanagi (Shota & Keita Saito), and record label executive/club owner/League of Evil Ex-Boyfriends leader Gideon Graves (Jason Schwartzman)…

Between its countless hilarious one-liners, its badass fight scenes and its surprisingly insightful and touching look into modern relationships, “Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World” could be described as a cross between “Juno”, “Kill Bill” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. Brilliantly directed by Wright, who uses all kinds of clever visual tricks, inventive transitions and spot-on sound effects to keep us constantly enthralled, the film can also rely on a stellar cast in which everyone shines, starting with Cera and Winstead, who make quirky aloofness into an art form and who end up truly making us care about their rocky road to potential happiness.

I could go on and on about all the awesome little touches that fill the film, about the bloody great soundtrack (which include songs composed by Beck, Broken Social Scene and Metric for the fictional bands in the film) and so on, but I think I’ll leave it that for now. This is as smart, original, involving, exciting and fun a flick you could ever hope for. I already can’t wait to see it again!

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UHF

Where the hell has “Weird Al” Yankovic been? Besides an offhand reference in last year’s “Ghost World”, I haven’t heard of him since he released the amusingly titled album “Running with Scissors” back in 1999. I always had a special fondness for Yankovic’ brand of silliness, whether it be on record, on stage, in his always inspired music videos or on his sadly short-lived subversive Saturday morning TV show “The Weird Al Show”. And then there is “UHF”, his 1989 cult comedy, which he is now re-releasing on DVD. This is no bare-bones affair: “Weird Al” has given us a surprisingly complete walk-through the ins and outs of his first and last starring vehicle, from a behind the scenes featurette shot in ’89 to production stills and promotional materials.

Even the menus are fun, with Al goofing off in the background. Also featured is the hysterical music video to the “UHF” theme song in which Yankovic spoofs Prince, Billy Idol, George Michael, Peter Gabriel in “Sledgehammer” and others, and 19 minutes of deleted scenes self-mockingly presented by Al. “Look at all the junk that actually wound up IN the movie… Well, this stuff is even WORSE than that!” The pièce de résistance, though, is the audio commentary with Yankovic, director Jay Levey and Michael Richards. Derision is still king, as Al floods us with “useless trivia” about supporting actors and locations and sarcasm: “This movie is just ripe with symbolic imagery… Fellini, eat your heart out!”

How about the actual movie? Well, it has aged a bit, but so has every movie from the ’80s and, then again, “UHF” still packs the laughs. It might be a cheapie, badly directed mess of disconnected skits, but that was sorta kinda the idea, as Al explains on the commentary: “We were trying to think of a vehicle for me that would involve parodies and making fun of TV and commercials and still have some kind of storyline, and we thought the idea of me running a low budget TV station was fraught with possibilities!”

Indeed, how else could you fit such delicious bits of insanity as the commercials for “Spatula City” and the “Plots R Us Funeral Home” or quirky spin-offs like “Conan the Librarian” and “Gandhi II” (“No more Mr. Passive-Resistance guy!”)? Or how about such memorably demented shows as “Wheel of Fish”, “Raul’s Wild Kingdom” or Al’s on Geraldo-inspired “Town Talk”? Then there are the hilarious fantasy sequences that book-end the film which have “Weird Al” adopting the personas of Indiana Jones and Rambo!

What little plot there is has Yankovic playing George Newman, a daydreamer who can’t hold on to a job but somehow ends up as the manager of a nearly bankrupt local UHF station. He gets his big break when he hires out of kindness a mildly retarded janitor (played with spastic body language and contagious enthusiasm by a pre-Cosmo Kramer Michael Richards) who somehow becomes a sensation on the air, with “Stanley Spadowski’s Clubhouse” hitting #1 in the ratings! This is much to the dismay of R.J. Fletcher (Kevin McCarthy), president of the local network affiliate, who vows to do anything to destroy these Channel 62 fools…

Pretty “cookie-cutter plot” there (Al’s own words!), but it’s actually involving enough, and the inevitable final triumph by the good guys makes you want to stand up and cheer! On that note, I’ll leave you with a ridiculously inspirational speech made in the film by Stanley:

“Life is like a mop. Sometimes life gets full of dirt and crud and hairballs and things and you gotta clean it out. You gotta stick it in here and rinse it off and start all over again. And sometimes life sticks to the floor so much that a mop, a mop, it’s not good enough. You gotta get down there with like a toothbrush, you know, and you gotta really scrub ’cause you gotta get it off! But if that doesn’t work, you can’t give up! You gotta stand right up! You gotta run to a window and say, “These floors are dirty as hell, and I’m not gonna take it any more!”

“UHF” is being released by MGM DVD, in Full Frame or Widescreen format, with English, French or Spanish audio tracks. Check it out!

Monica la Mitraille

This Quebec-made gangster movie is based on the true story of “Machine Gun Molly”, a young woman born on the wrong side of the Main who made headlines in the 1960s during a spree of bank robberies. While not quite glorifying the notorious criminal, the film does attempt to make us understand that Monique Sparvieri’s choices were limited. For this uneducated girl to overcome poverty, the easiest ways were basically to turn tricks or to find a man. She did whore herself out in seedy drinking holes and back streets and through most of her life, she always used and was used by men.

There’s Michael (Frank Schorpion), a Scottish safecracker who gave her nice things (including two kids) but always put his “career” before her. Small time crook Gaston (Patrick Huard) might have been the only one who truly loved her but he didn’t turn her on, only reluctantly allowing her to tag along on some jobs. At the complete opposite of that is Gérald (Roy Dupuis), Monica’s sexy and dangerous last lover with whom she conducted daring hold-ups until the cops and a blaze of bullets finally caught up to her…

This is the feature film debut of Pierre Houle, who honed his skills while directing a lot of TV series. His work here calls to mind early Scorsese, like a cross between “Mean Streets” and “Boxcar Bertha”, minus the religious overtones – which is odd considering the extent of the Church’s influence in Quebec at the time. Luc Dionne and Sylvain Guy’s screenplay covers a lot of ground, not only following Monique for about a decade but also giving a distinct feel of Montreal in the Red Light years. Some stretches feel superficial and some dramatic shortcuts are taken with the characters, but Houle manages to keep the movie dynamic and consistent nonetheless.

“Monica la Mitraille” features a who’s who of local stars clearly having a blast playing it mean and dirty. Beside Dupuis, Huard and Schorpion, there’s Rémy Girard, wonderfully sleazy as kind of a poor man’s godfather, Isabelle Blais, as great as ever as Monica’s cousin who daydreams of being a singer but spends her nights being pimped out by her no good boyfriend, and funniest-man-in-Quebec Marc Labrèche, toning it down and giving a strong, multi-layered performance as Monica’s father.

Last but not least is Céline Bonnier, tough yet touching in the title role. She’s that ordinary girl who becomes extraordinary for all the wrong reasons, but you can still feel that there’s a vulnerable young woman behind the badass façade. The whole picture rests on Bonnier’s shoulders, and it’s her heartfelt and charismatic turn that assures it’s gonna be a big hit.

Closer

When perverted dermatologist Larry (Clive Owen) asks angelic stripper Alice (Natalie Portman) what she thinks of photograph Anna (Julia Roberts)’s pictures, she answers that “it’s a lie”, a “bunch of sad strangers photographed beautifully” so the art gallery crowd can feel better about it. The implication, it seems, is that “Closer” won’t go for that lie, that it will show sad people without making them beautiful. Whether the filmmakers succeed or not is ambiguous, and it’s not clear either whether this is even a worthy attempt.

The movie opens like a dreamy rom-com, with Alice walking in slow-motion through a crowd and, on the other side of the curb, failed novelist turned obituaries writer (“the Siberia of journalism”) Dan (Jude Law) walking towards her, also in slow-motion. Damien Rice’s wonderful Blower’s Daughter on the soundtrack and the way the two are looking at each other, you know it’s love at first sight. Their inevitable meet-cute (“Hello, stranger”) is rushed because of painful circumstances (which I won’t spoil), but it remains really romantic.

The next scene has Dan going to Anna’s studio to get photographed and seducing her without a second thought. That’s when we realize that Prince Charming is kind of a dick. He pretends to believe in love at first sight, but he doesn’t think it has to be exclusive. Making his actions even more questionable is the fact that he’s been going out with Alice for months when he makes a move on Anna. Are you confused? Well, that’s just the beginning: the whole film is about brutal time jumps (but more on that later).

So the idealized vision of love we see in romantic comedies is a big fat lie, in fact these characters cheat and deceive and hurt each other, and none of it is pretty. Ok. Mike Nichols’ film, based on the play by Patrick Marber (who adapted it for the screen himself), is indeed more straightforward and incisive than most Hollywood love stories, but it’s ultimately not as down and dirty as it could have been. Even if Julia Roberts tones down the star-wattage, it’s still hard to agree with her character when she says she’s “disgusting”. Likewise, even when they’re treating women like shit and being assholes, Jude Law and Clive Owen’s charisma makes it difficult to hate them. We would still rather be used and abused by these movie gods and goddesses than be comfortable and happy in real life!

Here’s the thing: when I go to the movies, I * want * to be lied to. I want to believe for two hours that everyone’s got a great face, that every conversation is full of wit and insight, that love always triumphs in the end, etc. If a film decides to be gritty and realistic instead, that’s interesting too, but you have to go all the way with it. “Closer” wants to have its cake and eat it too. It shows people being gorgeous and clever, but it doesn’t want you to feel good watching them. Yet these are still movie stars, so they can’t completely go to the dark side.

You can have Roberts saying “fuck” and talking about getting a shot in the face from Law (“It tastes like yours, but sweeter”), but you can’t show it. Portman can wiggle her thonged bum a little, but when Owen asks her to take everything off and bend over, the camera stays tastefully on his face. It’s not that I desperately want to see celebrity skin, but the film would have much more impact if it was willing to really make us feel how degrading the situations the characters get into can be.

I’m also not sure what the elliptic storytelling is supposed to accomplish. It might have worked on stage, but it feels odd here how months go by between each scene. Nichols says that “it’s all beautiful beginnings and miserable endings, somewhat like the way you experience your own adventures in love as you look back.” Maybe, but it makes it nearly impossible to empathize with the characters when we don’t know what they’ve been through.

What to make of “Closer” then? Good question. It’s got great dialogue and good acting, but none of it ends up feeling totally satisfying. It teases us a lot, but there’s no payoff. It’s too cold to be moving, but not cold enough to be shocking.

Vertigo

This is one of the single most masterful pictures ever made. I had the privilege of first seeing it as it was meant to be watched, i.e. in a movie theater in a grandiose, newly restored 70mm Vistavision print when the film was re-released in 1996. I had never been so stirred by a movie, and have rarely been since to that level.

“Vertigo” is such a whirlpool of obsession and all the darkest things that lurk beneath human nature, things wrenching to face. It stars Jimmy Stewart as you’ve never seen him before, in the role of John Ferguson, a police detective who quits the force after his fear of heights cost the life of a partner. Then one day, an old college friends hires him to follow his wife Madeleine (played by the beautiful Kim Novak), who has been behaving strangely lately. Johnny takes the job as a favor to his friend and soon gets caught in a rather disturbing affair. Madeleine seems to connect with a lady who died tragically a hundred years ago. She wanders around the places where the lady spent time, stares at a portrait of her in the museum, visits her grave… Ferguson is puzzled by Madeleine’s behavior, but he’s also compelled to keep following her and eventually falls deeply in love with her.

And then things go wrong and… Believe me, this is barely the tip of the iceberg. “Vertigo” keeps getting more psychologically and emotionally complex and sordid, as John’s love becomes obsession and he feels the urge to regain what he had. The film relentlessly explores the relation between John and Madeleine even after she’s gone and replaced by another girl who reminds him of his flame (also played by Novak).

“Vertigo” is extremely well written: it’s intelligent, unpredictable, riveting. And then there’s Alfred Hitchcock, who outdid himself by crafting this unique masterpiece. Through all his work, you sense the Master’s keen sense of suspense and storytelling, but never has his style been this weaved with the film’s core, creating such a visceral cinematic experience. The cinematography is gorgeous and many shots are really impressive, like the classic staircase shot that simulates the effect of vertigo and the sequence by the Golden Gate. There’s also a dazzling sequence showing Stewart’s difficulty to keep a straight mind. And then there’s Novak and Stewart’s unforgettable screen couple, so lost in what’s real and pretend, said and unsaid, as well as Bernard Herrman‘s brilliant score. “Vertigo” is an absolute must-see if you aren’t afraid to see how far filmmaking is able to take you.