Hard Eight (1997)

I like PT Andersons films. There Will be Blood, The Master and Punch Drunk Love especially, and I'm all on for character studies but this film was bad. No story, bad acting, bad dialogue, unrealistic characters, the whole shebang. It was his first film and it seems he lost creative control over it, but it shouldn't get a free ride just cos it's PT Anderson. It's bad. Maybe not 1star bad but I'm bringing down the average to even out the good 7, 8 and 9s from the fanboys who don't know better. Avoid. These next few lines are just to fill out the review and meet the 10 line minimum needed to get accepted as there is really nothing more to say about the film. Seriously.

In 1996, "Fargo"; "Mission Impossible"; "Romeo + Juliet"; "The Rock"; and "Happy Gilmore" we're released and stole the year away from much smaller films such as "Hard Eight". This film was the directorial debut of independent director Paul Thomas Anderson. The film stars Philip Baker Hall, as the character of Sydney, an old time gambler who lives off his winnings in casino hotels. One day Sydney runs into the character of John, played by John C. Reilly. John is a loner who went into Vegas to win some money to bury his recently deceased mother. Sydney feels pity towards John, and decides to teach him how to work the casino to his advantage and make money fast. Sydney eventually takes John under his wing, and treats him like a son. Two years pass and John befriends the mysteriously sinister Jimmy, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who knows a secret that can destroy Sydney and John's relationship. A local casino waitress Clementine, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, is going through personal troubles and has a friendly relationship with Sydney. Many fans of P.T. Anderson who mostly know him for "Boogie Nights"(1997) and "There Will Be Blood"(2007) have never even heard of "Hard Eight", and it's a real shame. This film is in my opinion the most underrated film of 1996, and of the 1990s. "Hard Eight" gives a wonderfully crafted crime, casino thriller that never let's go of your attention. Hall gives the best performance of his career as Sydney. The character of Sydney is very complicated but you can tell that this man has a very big hole in his heart and the people who fill that hole is John and Clementine. You understand the character of Sydney just by the way he dresses, the way he walks and talks, the food he eats, the way he takes his coffee, and how he smokes his cigarettes. In other words Sydney is a hard ass. There are so many things you can talk about with "Hard Eight". Most movies that take place in a casino are very fast, and exciting; that is not the case with "Hard Eight". This film is very calm, and cool, and it's a beautiful contrast because a good portion of the film takes place in a casino. Anderson takes his time to tell a good story and make sure that his cinematography is on point. My favorite scene of the film is the craps scene with the loud mouth Philip Seymour Hoffman facing off with the calm and cool Sydney. Hoffman makes all his screen time count in his two minutes in the film. Hoffman constantly harasses Sydney by talking about his sexuality, and calling him and "old timer". That scene makes me laugh every time I see it. Anderson made the film for only 3 or 4 million and only grossed a little over $400,000; and that is a goddamn shame. Production for the film was dreadful for Anderson as it was just an uphill struggle just to make the film. Now it's not like Anderson is all innocent, he did some things. "Hard Eight" is a film that people are just now discovering due to Anderson's bigger more well known films. I highly recommend YOU to see this film, it will not disappoint.

I'm a bit ambivalent here. Like young Tarantino, it moves the story by gaps away from story, small talk around a table over coffee or drinks, omitting and jumping ahead. Like Jarmusch, it has a languid air and characters shown to be hurt but still retain their kindness. He may have known Kaurismaki or not. Scorsese definitely.Reservoir Dogs was upending the ordinary heist movie by wandering around the main piece, this one is upending the casino movie by setting us up to imagine some cunning scheme that will maybe backfire, but what really backfires is that these people aren't cunning, aren't in calculating control of their emotions. The only 'scheme' is that the old fox was trying to set up a happy life for him, subtly guiding the narrative, to make up for what he took away. Like all these filmmakers, PT knows all the different bits from movies, as movies, and leverages a tentative control over both camera and narrative. He would later leverage more and more of that control in his art, size, strident ambition, first via Scorsese, then Altman, then Kubrick. In fact, as a matter of forces that move the world, I prefer this to some of his later projects. It's all very well prepared and he's good with actors but, unlike Altman, it doesn't break away from that control, it stays in my eyes as a certain kind of film that he's trying to make. It was early but you can tell even here, he wants a music that is tentative, flows and surrounds but tries to construct it by plucking each note carefully instead of allowing his hands to dance along the keys. It's the most talented guy in his film school showing that he has skill.(It's also mentioned as modern noir by some and that's how I came to it, more apt to simply call it about messed up lives and it has something to do with a crime. Noir is a different thing altogether.)

(69%) A precision made crime drama that tells its very neat plot with a fine degree of characterisation and thought. The cast only consists of four different people, each adding an integral part to the movie, and once the main intention of Philip Baker Hall's character is let out there's not a lot else to be told in what is a very low key movie. The cast is pretty faultless, even the sometimes too bland Paltrow gives a good performance, but this is Hall's movie as he is one of the coolest older men ever to feature in a movie. Scriptwise this is watertight, with every section finely crafted, and the movie has aged well in nearly 20 years. Without doubt this is worth tracking down, but it does lack the substance required to make it a true classic.