Rounders (1998)

	Director: John Dahl	COUNTRY USA Genre Drama NORWEGIAN TITLE Siste spill RUNNING TIME 121 minutes
	Producers: Ted Demme Joel Stillerman
	Screenwriters: David Levien Brian Koppelman

Cast includes:
CHARACTER	ACTOR/ACTRESS	RATING
Mike McDermott	Matt Damon
Lester 'Worm' Murphy	Edward Norton
Jo	Gretchen Mol	½
Joey Knish	John Turturro
Teddy KGB	John Malkovich	½
Petra	Famke Janssen	½
Sergeant Detweiler	Murphy Guyer	-
Grama	Michael Rispoli	½
Judge Abe Petrovsky	Martin Landau	½
Barbara	Melina Kanakaredes	-
Zagosh	Josh Mostel	-
Judge Marinacci	Tom Aldredge	-

Review

Right at the dawn of internet poker and the Texas Hold'em explosion, director John Dahl (The Last Seduction) made this moody, atmospheric piece about a talented poker player (Matt Damon) and his out-of-luck hustler friend (Edward Norton). The script by the young writer team of David Levien and Brian Koppelman was remarkably insightful about poker technicalities by 1998 standards, even if it probably overembellished the gangster part of the underground poker scene. From a poker point of view, however, there is no doubt that Rounders helped promote the game in general and Hold'em in particular to a wider audience. And thanks to Dahl's seductive combo of offbeat aesthetics and traditional pay-offs, the film quickly gained a cult following which it has preserved over the next quarter of a century, and deservedly so. There's something upliftingly recognizable about the inevitability of Mike's choices and Worm's downfall. It may be determinism, but it's a sweet, melancholy determinism from which there still seems to be endless opportunities. And the effect is made all the more evocative thanks to Christopher Young's gloomy jazz score and Jean-Yves Escoffier's beautiful photography. There are fine performances from the two young leads and superb supporting work in the form of a tender Martin Landau and a wonderfully stylized John Malkovich, whose Teddy KGB has a vitality and peculiarity only Malkovich could create. Granted, he's a distraction, but what a delightful one at that.