While everyone is holed up at home binging on new shows and movies, there's a bunch of highly popular poker movies on Netflix to help get you through the coronavirus pandemic. The all-time classic, "Rounders", is available to stream. In addition, there's "Molly's Game", "Mississippi Grind", and "Win It All" to help you pass the time while in quarantine or lockdown.
Sometimes movies are like comfort food. Sometimes things are so weird and depressing, that you need to spend time with an old friend. Movies are often better than old friends, because they won't ask to borrow money or yap your ear off about the latest relationship bad beat story.
Movies are a salve in times of trouble. They can help you fall asleep on those sleepless nights. They can help get you through a mindless work task while you toil away at answering forty emails from Karen in HR, but at least you have your friends from the cinema keeping you sane in the background.
Movies can offer up a bit of mindless distraction when you have the weight of the world pressing down on your brain and shoulders. Sometimes you're looking for something light or sometimes you want something you do not have to think too much about. That's when re-airing movies you've seen once or a 100 times before can help out.
Netflix has a bunch of gambling and poker movies in their archives. And we're here to remind you about some of the best poker movies on Netflix right now including "Rounders", "Mississippi Grind", "Win It All", and "Molly's Game".
ROUNDERS (1998)... I do not have to man-splain the cultural and historical impact of "Rounders" on the poker community. It helped ignite the online poker boom at the start of the 20th Century. The best part about Rounders is that many normies or non-gamblers have seen the film. If you have family, friends, or significant others with you in quarantine, this could be the perfect opportunity to show them the movie that touches your heart and helped get you hooked on the game. In the meantime, if you're a poker player who always wanted a sequel, then write your own treatment (short synopsis) or try to pen some scenes. What would Worm and Mike McD be doing 20 years later? Check out our review of ROUNDERS.
MISSISSIPPI GRIND (2015)... I feel like "Mississippi Grind" doesn't get as much props as it should. Non-gambling aside, it's a good road film about a budding friendship between a drifter/gambler and a local degen. Ben Mendelsohn is a fantastic actor who completely blew up in the last couple of years, but he disappeared into this role of a hardcore poker junkie from Iowa. I lived in Vegas and played poker long enough to recognize a local with "the sickness", and Mendelsohn crushed it. To be honest, I'm not a fan of Ryan Reynolds in general. However, he's excellent in this film probably because he toned down all the snarkiness and gave a low-key performance, which was a perfect compliment to Mendelsohn's character. The two are broken people, but there's a bit of humanity and friendship between the two that makes you want to root for them as they embark on a road trip to play in a "Big Game" down in New Orleans. Check out our review of MISSISSIPPI GRIND.
WIN IT All (2017)... If you do not know about Joe Swanberg, he's an indie director from Chicago who works with a long of his acting friends on low-budget films. He wasn't a huge gambler per se, but as a producer/director/actor he was aware about how many times he gambled on himself with various projects. Of course, he did play poker in and around Los Angeles during his trips to Hollywood, so he wasn't a total noob coming into "Win It All". This is one of those films that flew under the radar, and 20 years ago, it would have been buried in the back of your local video store. But because of streaming services, it's readily available and it's slowly becoming a cult classic among the gambling community. Swanberg directs himself in the main role as a poker degen who gets asked by a criminal friend to watch a bag while he serves a prison sentence. Swanberg wonders if it's drugs, guns, or money... or a combo of all three. He finally tears into the bag and finds a stack of cash and a weapon. He borrows from the bag to play poker but goes on a losing streak. When his friend gets out of prison early, he has to go on a heater of a lifetime to win back all the money he "borrowed". Time is ticking. Check out our review of WIN IT ALL.
MOLLY'S GAME (2017)... Legendary screenwriter and show runner, Aaron Sorkin, made his directorial debut with "Molly's Game", which is based on a best-selling book y Molly Bloom. Also dubbed the Poker Princess by the tabloids, Bloom ran high-stakes games in Hollywood for some of the biggest movie stars and producers in Tinsel Town. When she got ran out of LA, Molly resurfaced in New York City where she ran games for the Wall Street types. However, eventually a criminal element (aka Russian mafia) started playing in the games, which drew the attention of the federales. Jessica Chastain played Molly, the former Olympic skier turned high-stakes hostess. Idris Elba (yes, Stringer Bell from "The Wire" fame) plays Bloom's attorney. Check out our review of MOLLY'S GAME.
While everyone is holed up at home binging on new shows and movies, there's a bunch of highly popular poker movies on Netflix to help get you through the coronavirus pandemic. The all-time classic, "Rounders", is available to stream. In addition, there's "Molly's Game", "Mississippi Grind", and "Win It All" to help you pass the time while in quarantine or lockdown.
[...] Read more…
Share this post
Link to post
Share on other sites