Ten years have almost passed since the release of "Mississippi Grind" with Ben Mendelsohn and Ryan Reynolds. The 2015 film directed by Anna Bolden and Ryan Fleck holds up as one of the better poker and gambling films. Very few films have come out since "Rounders" that can match the gritty nature of the gambling world, but "Mississippi Grind" came the closest.
Epic art is timeless. Sometimes there's a film that is so gripping that it speaks to you even though it was released decades earlier. That's when you know you've stumbled upon a piece of at that transcends time. The characters might dress and talk differently, but the themes are universal. And when it comes to the fringe aspect of the gambling world, very few films stand out in that unique sub-genre.
"The Cincinnati Kid" was released in 1965. I saw it on TV when I was a teenager and it only resonated with me because Steve McQueen was in it. I saw it again in college for a film class and it really struck a nerve because I had started to play poker frequently with friends.
When "Rounders" hit the big screen in 1998, it happened at the ideal time because I played in a weekly home game with friends in Seattle. The effect of the film coupled together with the rise of online poker and televised poker (hello Chris Moneymaker!) was ground zero for the glorious boom.
Very few films have a lasting impact like "Rounders" which is one of the few films I can recite nearly every line of dialogue. Several poker films were hyped up and released since the late 1990s, but none of them resonated with me until "Mississippi Grind" was released in 2015.
The creative team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck wrote and directed "Mississippi Grind" which was an indie film released by A24 in September 2015. The two eventually secured funding to shoot the film and production began in early 2014 with Ben Mendelsohn, Ryan Reynolds, Sienna Miller, and Alfre Woodard.
"Mississippi Grind" is not just a poker or gambling movie, but it's the combination of other creative genres and tropes including a road flick and a buddy movie. Instead of setting the film in Southern California or Las Vegas/Reno, they specifically picked local casinos in Iowa and along the Mississippi, which was a nod to American novels by Mark Twain with a Southern Gothic vibe.
The film has one of the most accurate depictions of a degen gambler at a regional casino, which Mendelsohn pulls off remarkably in the role of Gerry. The Australian actor uses a perfect American accent and absolutely crushes the role of the loser. I've played against and I've felted and I've sat next to that guy in numerous casinos and card rooms all over America. It was a lonely and sad role that a sensational thespian like Mendelsohn can pull off by adding a sense of humanity to a perpetual loser. Let's be frank here, Gerry is a degen and he's addicted to losing. He's been crushed by the slings and arrows of life with crippling debt and a failed marriage and estranged child), yet gambling fills an existentialist void.
That's why an enigmatic figure like happy-go lucky Curtis (Reynolds) illuminates Gerry's life when they cross paths at a poker table during a nightly tournament. In a romanticized sense, Curtis is a road-weary traveler, but he's really a charming drifter who has a mantra that it's "Machu Picchu time" whenever he gets bored with a locale or knows he's worn out his welcome and it's time to move on.
Gerry and Curtis embark on a journey together down the Mississippi which is a grandiose theme innumerous pieces of American literature and lore. Gerry is trying to get out of debt while gambling his way down the river en route to New Orleans. Curtis tags along on the ride, but we later find out why he was headed to New Orleans. The two get involved in numerous hijinks along the way -- both good and bad -- which provide both comic relief and a compelling narrative (albeit a disjointed one at times).
James Toback makes a cameo at the end of the flick as Tony Roundtree who hosts a high-stakes game in New Orleans. Toback is a well-known screenwriter who penned the original script to "The Gambler" with James Caan, which is often referred to as one of the greatest films about degens. There's an element of loneliness and dread of "The Gambler" mixed in with the camaraderie of "California Split" with "Mississippi Grind."
If you never saw the flick, then avoid the rest of this paragraph because it has a spoiler. You've been warned! The ending is somewhat ambiguous after they secure a big score, which does not happen at the poker table but during a hot run at the craps table. The actual ending leaves the characters flush with cash before the film fades out. You assume that Curtis will eventually fly down to Peru to finally visit Machu Picchu, or does he? That's what is great about the ending because his next step depends on what type of person you are. If you're romantic then he goes back to his ex. Or maybe you're helpful and thinks he gets on a flight to Machu Picchu. Or maybe you're a realist who thinks he avoids either destination and just keeps moving forward to a different location.
flip side, it's fairly obvious to anyone who plays poker or navigates gambling circles frequently that they know Gerry will eventually lose all the money. Because that's what degens do. Maybe Gerry rides the rush and pads his bankroll. Maybe he has a brief moment of stability, but it's only a matter of time before he donks it all off. Everything. Two hours. Two days. Two weeks. Two months. Two years. Doesn't matter when. His fate will always be the same. Once a degen, always a degen.
Yes, that's a bleak and depressing outlook, but it's also why the film seems so real to me. I know too many people like Gerry, not just in the poker or gambling world, but in life in general. They're self-destructive people that continue down a path of darkness to cure that overwhelming sense of existentialist dread.
Here's the trailer:
