I watched The Cooler.
This is a film set in Las Vegas, about a down-on-his-luck guy who's actually employed for his unluckiness - he's a 'cooler' at a casino, who goes to tables where players are winning so that his bad luck rubs off on them and they start losing.
William H Macy is the loser, Alec Baldwin his boss with a dark side, Maria Bello the waitress that Macy starts to fall for.
This treads a lot of the same ground as a lot of Las Vegas films. It's all here - everyone's on the take, nights bleed into days bleed into nights, there's a loneliness and an emptiness that echoes among the slot machines and neon. And then there's some people finding some human connection among all that soullessness.
So it's kind of like Hard Eight or Leaving Las Vegas in that regard, or myriad other films that play this template (even Night of the Running Man, although that's significantly cornier).
Although the material isn't totally original, it's still a really good film, elevated by great performances, a good script, and some creative cinematography. It's a nice tight 97 minutes, and yet manages to fit two parallel storylines - one about Macy's life and putative relationship with Bello, one about Baldwin's bosses plan to remake his beloved casino in a way that he hates - in, plus a significant emotional payoff.
The one thing I did think was strange was the way that luck, the idea that it can in a very real sense run hot or cold, is incorporated as a factual element. It wasn't a huge problem but it was essentially a fantasy element that sat at odds with much of the rest of the action for me.
But it's a good film, basically. Recommended. It's on Prime Video right now gratis.
This is a film set in Las Vegas, about a down-on-his-luck guy who's actually employed for his unluckiness - he's a 'cooler' at a casino, who goes to tables where players are winning so that his bad luck rubs off on them and they start losing.
William H Macy is the loser, Alec Baldwin his boss with a dark side, Maria Bello the waitress that Macy starts to fall for.
This treads a lot of the same ground as a lot of Las Vegas films. It's all here - everyone's on the take, nights bleed into days bleed into nights, there's a loneliness and an emptiness that echoes among the slot machines and neon. And then there's some people finding some human connection among all that soullessness.
So it's kind of like Hard Eight or Leaving Las Vegas in that regard, or myriad other films that play this template (even Night of the Running Man, although that's significantly cornier).
Although the material isn't totally original, it's still a really good film, elevated by great performances, a good script, and some creative cinematography. It's a nice tight 97 minutes, and yet manages to fit two parallel storylines - one about Macy's life and putative relationship with Bello, one about Baldwin's bosses plan to remake his beloved casino in a way that he hates - in, plus a significant emotional payoff.
The one thing I did think was strange was the way that luck, the idea that it can in a very real sense run hot or cold, is incorporated as a factual element. It wasn't a huge problem but it was essentially a fantasy element that sat at odds with much of the rest of the action for me.
But it's a good film, basically. Recommended. It's on Prime Video right now gratis.
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