“Best Gambling Movies of All Time” continues with #24. Each selection includes a new review as though I’m seeing the film for the first time.
Title and Year: Owning Mahowny (2003)
Director: Richard Kwietniowski
Actors: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Minnie Driver, John Hurt
Synopsis: True story of a Canadian bank manager whose gambling habits spin wildly out of control
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This new series began yesterday with “The Best Gambling Movies of All Time.” Meanwhile, let’s also examine “The Worst Gambling Movies of All Time.” Today, we begin with #25. Each selection includes a new review as though I’m seeing the film for the first time. Let the countdown begin!
Title and Year: My Daughter’s Secret Life (2001)
Network: Lifetime (Made-for-TV)
Actors: Elisha Cuthbert
Synopsis: A high school honors student becomes addicted to gambling then begins lying, stealing, robbing, and doing porn!
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This is a new writing series. Title this — “The Best Gambling Movies of All Time.” Today, we begin with #25. Each selection will include a new review as though I’m seeing the film for the first time. Let the countdown begin!
Title and Year: House of Games (1987)
Director: David Mamet
Writer: David Mamet
Actors: Lindsay Crouse – Joe Mantegna – Ricky Jay
Synopsis: Con artists attempt to swindle a wealthy psychiatrist
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A reunion may take the most unexpected turn in a way we least expect it.
Usually, around this time, I attend a showing of all the Oscar-nominated short films of that year held at a local movie theater. It’s fantastic. I’ve done this for the last five years or so, which means I’ve been fortunate to see many short movies that aren’t widely shown to mass audiences. Some of these amazing films last only a few minutes.
HERE’S MY REVIEW OF ONE OF THE SHOWINGS
My takeaway from this exposure is the recognition it’s a much tougher challenge to tell a story and make it compelling in just a few minutes of screen time. Sure, a two-hour movie with a big budget has an unlimited range of possibilities. But try and make the audience smile and cry in just 90 seconds.
What you’re about to see is likely to do precisely that.
The following short video was a public service announcement from Argentina released in 2015. Please watch. Even if you’ve seen this before, a reminder is always good. I promise it’s well worth your time and will melt your heart as it melted mine. The purpose of the ad campaign to create greater awareness comes as a surprise and is revealed at the conclusion.
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The Social Dilemma exposes the ways technology giants have manipulated human psychology to influence how we behave. And if you think that sounds absolutely terrifying, you’d be right. Here’s my review.
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