When talk turns to the best poker movies of all time, some bets will be placed on “The Cincinnati Kid” (1965), “California Split” (1974) and “Casino Royale” (2007), but I’ll wager that if you polled 100 poker players, from home-game amateurs to the most elite professionals, about 95 of them would choose John Dahl’s “Rounders” (1998), starring Matt Damon, Edward Norton, Gretchen Mol and John Malkovich, as the GOAT. It’s not only the greatest poker movie ever, digging deep into the details and the psychology of the game and ending on the perfect note, it’s one of the best films of the 1990s.
Since then, we’ve had a handful of quality poker movies, most notably the underrated “Mississippi Grind” (2015) with Ben Mendelson, Ryan Reynolds and Sienna Miller, and the Jessica Chastain-starring “Molly’s Game” (2017). You can now make room at the table for Luc Walpoth’s “Dead Money,” a dark, violent, fast-paced and authentic thriller set against the backdrop of the middle- and high-stakes underground poker scene.
The sharp screenplay by Josh Wilcox nails the poker lexicon yet never gets so deep in the weeds that the non-player would be lost. The straightforward, docudrama style by director Walpoth captures the degenerate-gambler mindset that is an element of the culture, and a cast of familiar talents creates a bounty of colorful schemers and dreamers.
The versatile Emile Hirsch brings a character actor’s skill set to his roles, whether supporting or lead, and Hirsch is instantly believable as a skilled poker player named Andy who loves the rush of the action as much as he loves the complexities of the game. “Poker is math, piles and piles of math,” says Hirsch in the “Rounders”-style voice-over that kicks off the story. “There are dozens of things to consider when facing a bet: range, position, stack size, player history, outs, on and on.”
Listening to a self-improvement recording on his earbuds during breaks, Andy is a regular at game in the bar owned by David Keith’s Jack, who has a serious gambling habit of his own. (When we first see Jack, he’s agonizing after losing a large bet he placed on an undercard match in women’s MMA.) After a gang of masked and armed robbers hit the game, making off with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, Andy and his girlfriend Chloe (India Eisley, doing fine work) find themselves in the middle of a bloody conflict that could result in the score of a lifetime — if they don’t get killed.
At times “Dead Money” plays out like an elevated B-movie thriller (and there’s nothing wrong with that), with Jackie Earle Haley doing his Jackie Haley psycho routine as the trigger-tempered gunman named Wendel aka Shotgun; Rory Culkin popping in as another one of the robbers, known as Uncle Lonnie aka Revolver, and Peter Facinelli doing scene-stealing work as LT, a wild-card cop and poker player who always acts as if he’s jacked up on adrenaline, or maybe something else.
Andy’s insatiable appetite for action sometimes involves “prop” bets, e.g., betting a lunk who has about 50 pounds on him that the guy can’t knock him out with one punch, and wagering $5,000 that he can hole out from beyond the green in three shots even though it’s obvious he doesn’t have much golfing experience. Mostly, though, it’s about the poker, with Andy going on a “heater” through games at a restaurant during closing hours and a country club, and finally securing a seat at a regular high-stakes game hosted by the intimidating, no-nonsense Faizel (Jimmy Jean-Louis). Every poker montage is filmed in clear and concise fashion, with realistic hands and play. Even the dealers clearly know how to deal.
The violence in “Dead Money” is brutal and consequential. (There’s also a darkly funny running joke about Jack’s nose being broken. Twice.) Almost nobody in this tale, with the exception of the dealers who are just doing their jobs, can take the moral high ground. Even Chloe, who we’re told is studying to become a doctor, has no qualms about partnering with Andy in a dangerous scheme. (She’s basically the opposite of Gretchen Mol’s virtuous Jo in “Rounders.”)
Hirsch imbues Andy with a likable but rascally charm; we’re not sure this guy is ever going to really and truly leave the game for the straight life with Chloe. He’s got poker in his blood. We might not ever get the long-rumored “Rounders 2,” but in a genre that is filled with movies that turn out to be busted hands when it comes to authenticity, “Dead Money” is a solid entry. This is a poker movie that gets it right.