The World Therein
There are a lot of movies that I haven't seen. It feels as though there are more movies coming in and I'm losing more and more time each and every day in my ability to observe these movies. To be able to sit down with a nice cup of coffee and give them their proper due. To see the beauty of cinema through the dogshit dribble that seems to be all that fuels the soul. That and coffee.
I need to quit my job. I need to stop wasting so much time eating, using the bathroom, and interacting with my family. All of it a waste but the guilt that fuels my morality prevents me from giving movies my first and foremost attention. Though I did get around to re-watching a film I hadn't seen some time. Probably wasn't the smartest move to make but it looked to be the only move I had.
pretty cool poster I think
It was a particular Memorial Day in that I still didn't have a car and I had even less motive as to trying to get through the day but I figured in-between the hours of waking up from sleep and having to go back to sleep, I should probably watch a movie. The idea traveling through my body after igniting in my brain flowed through my veins with a need for a genre and the only one to fall from my tongue was a single word: CRIME. But what kind of crime?
Instantly when I think of crime the first thought that comes to mind is the Michael Mann film Heat. Goddamn that's a solid crime movie but its also a very loud crime movie with the centerpiece of the film being that famed Los Angeles shootout and I didn't want to watch something loud even though that seems to be a big trend. Big Loud Crime Movies should be its own genre as the most recent sequel to that not great but alright movie from years before had come out recently and was very loud. Mostly the loudness came from Gerard Butler and his talking beard.
I bet you guessed correctly that it was this film
Loudness wasn't what I needed and so I searched for the calm and cool. I need characters that smoked constantly and talked in conversational tones while some crime shit happens. I had just recently bought that beautiful Blu-ray of John Dahl's Red Rock West but unfortunately I bought the film during Vinegar Syndrome's Half Way to Black Friday sale and the shipping time of having just bought and now would take about 3-4 weeks according to the FAQ.
The wait wont kill me but I will admit that it was a bummer to not have the cash on hand to buy that new 4k of Billy Friedkin's Jade. A tumultuous movie where Joe Esterzhas vehemently refuses to take credit for the script that Friedkin had promised not to change a single word and did just that as well as the confusion that Friedkin had over the reception and box-office of the film since he considers it to be strong work. God, I need to go about and procuring a copy of that. Though to be honest, I did have the money but just didn't go about in buying the movie since it would have blown out my wallet and I rather get the most bang for my buck these days when it comes to movie buying.
Regardless, I had to look through the collection of movies and sifting through I came across two that sort of the fit the form of calm crime and between Rounders and Hard Eight, I decided I wasn't interested in poker at the moment but was feeling lucky on dice rolls and so Hard Eight it goes.
Now Showing; The Film as Best as I can Remember
The film starts off with John, played by the always great John C. Reilly, sitting outside a diner without a cent in his pocket when out of thin air appears Sydney Brown played by the always cool Philip Baker Hall. He offers him a cup of coffee and a cigarette for his troubles and soon Sydney learns why he's down and out. John just tried to win six thousand to pay for his mom's funeral by gambling. Though Sydney can't offer John the money to pay for the funeral, he can instead offer him a way to get back on his feet. He accepts under the condition that Sydney recognizes that he isn't a prostitute and Sydney agrees. What then sets off the first twenty minutes is Sydney teaching John the basics of the rate card scheme for hotels.
Probably an antiquated technique that probably doesn't get much traction these days since Vegas no longer uses coins and physical representations of monies inside of their casino when it comes to payments. It's all digital. All bullshit. Or maybe I'm wrong. I haven't been to Vegas in years.
John keeps this scheme going on of trading in a hundred bucks over and over again on his rate card to then get a room for the night. Sydney is a proud teacher but he keeps it close to his chest. No real emotion but giving off a feeling as though he had showed him the way.
A couple years pass and Sydney and John are professional gamblers living their days in a casino. Sydney meets a waitress by the name of Clementine, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, and the two form a sort of bond similar to that of the parental that he has with John. Their brief conversation giving off the feeling that this was the one of many that they had in the past. She leaves right when John swings by and introduces Jimmy, played by Samuel L. Jackson, who doesn't get on Sydney's good side with the ensuing conversation.
The big highlight being that Jimmy had seen Sydney back in day put a two thousand dollar bet on the hard eight. This being the numbers 4 showing up on both dice after rolling them down the table. Sydney laughs it off and their conversation goes bad and soon after, John and Jimmy head out and Sydney takes a walk around the casino.
Heading out for some fresh air, he meets up with Clementine who apparently works a side hustle being a prostitute. Sydney doesn't care much for it but he cares for John and asks Clementine up to his room to clean up. She thinks they are about to have sex but Sydney ain't interested and offers instead the bed for her to sleep it off. The next day, everything seems cool with John taking Clementine out for a day out and Sydney is just chilling until he gets a call
A real fucked up situation where Clementine doing her side hustle as a prostitute but not getting paid and then having John knock the guy out in this sleazy motel room and handcuffing him into the bed frame. Shit goes sideways fast and the more and more they tell the story to Sydney, the less patience the guy has with the two but then his heart opens when he hears that they got married.
I mean, he still doesn't care much for the situation that they put him in but his heart opens up and through his old school criminal ways, figures out a solution to the problem the best way they can. Sydney gives John and Clementine some cash to go to Niagara Falls for their honeymoon and it looks like the narrative is starting to wrap up until Jimmy reenters the movie.
Jimmy knows some stories about Sydney about his time in Atlantic City. Sydney doesn't care to hear them until Jimmy pulls out a gun and tell him that he wants money or else he'll let John know that it was Sydney that killed his father. Shot him in the face he says. Sydney agrees to pay him but only with what he has on hand and they have to go to his hotel room where the final conversation between the two occurs.
Now this conversation is a strange one. It's one that you really see or hear in crime movies because not a lot of crime movies have a character like Sydney Brown. Sure there are shades of his character in other movies but here is something wholly original.
There is no cool slick dialogue being said but what he says and the way he says it if following through of this undertone that has been present all throughout the film of you either take it or leave it. Though he sounds like he's begging for his life, its not really begging. He's talking about the situation and what the situation means for him as an individual and how Jimmy needs to understand what the money really means when he takes it. Sydney has gotta close his heart again and that's going to be the ultimate cost of this transgression but Jimmy doesn't see it that way and after they make the money exchange, Sydney goes about in doing what he needs to do.
John calls him up and thanks him and tells him that he loves him. Sydney says he loves him as well and when he hangs up the phone, its done. Sydney is back to that dude he didn't want to be but now he doesn't have to choice if he wants to survive.
He sneaks over to Jimmy's house and finds his stash of guns then waits. Jimmy comes in and without saying a word, shoots Jimmy till he stops breathing. He grabs his money and goes.
The last scene of the movie taking place at the same diner that he picked up John in the beginning. Enjoying his coffee as best as he can but then sees blood at the cuff of his sleeve and tries to cover it. Then the movie ends.
A Few Words
I remember watching this debut of one Paul Thomas Anderson a couple months after having seen The Phantom Thread
in theaters. That was a cool movie and building up the anticipation for
his debut resulted it not being as great but re-watching it now, it
really feels like something special.
A lot more of a character drama and just throwing
these character in a situation that resolves itself in such a way that
then a secret is revealed that seems to be on the edge of breaking a
man's identity. The main character of Sydney is a man with walls surrounding him. He doesn't let
anyone near that he doesn't need near but the people he does, its tough
to say what the motivations are. Does he create this paternal relationship with John out of the fact that he had killed his father? Is it guilt that is motivating this man to raise a son without a father? What about with Clementine? He does what he does out of nicety or some sense of nobility?
There's a lot of questions to be derived from the actions of this character but regarding internal monologue or some outside force being there to answer them, its nonexistent.
Its just such a well done character drama about a man who was one thing and tried to be another but got pushed back to be who he really was.
There was a mention in the summary of the Jimmy talking about Sydney making a two grand bet on the hard eight. The morning after John and Clementine go about in their date, Sydney goes to the crap tables and watches a gambler, Philip Seymour Hoffman, goddamn this movie has a great cast, a true blue lout mouth gambler antagonizes Sydney. Sydney doesn't reply and just puts down a two thousand dollar bet on the hard eight. The gambler doing all the talking and Sydney just watching him making a fool of himself. It's such a not important to the plot but says so much about the character.
When I was sifting through the collection, I came across two Jean Pierre Melville films. I held these films and felt real close to putting one of them in the Blu-ray player but they already existed vividly in my mind and I had picked out Hard Eight beforehand.
the two fantastic films in question
After watching this, its easy to see the influence of these, or at least Bob Le Flambeur more so than the other, on
this film. These similar vibrations of the criminal element with
characters negotiating their way as best they can through a destiny that
they have to play through to the end. I can't say for certain its as great as these two but at the moment I'll be lenient as say that this is just as good or at least as good as an American film can get to something as great as either one of these films.
Final Few Words Equaling a Paragraph
As can be read from the review, I liked this movie. That's why I wrote these worthless paragraphs about it. It's such a simple and solid debut film. One that any struggling filmmaker should give a watch to just see what can be done with something small and minuscule but come out with something so strong. There's no rush in the way it moves and you can tell already the techniques that would grow to be a part of this guys repertoire. The characters are solid enough to be believable but I can't just give it a complete FANTASTIC kind of rating. The music isn't there at all. Everything that hits doesn't necessarily hit as strong as the scene I was watching but other than that the movie is truly worthwhile.