Mississippi Grind (2015)
Directed by Anna Boden
Gerry is a talented but down-on-his-luck gambler whose fortunes begin to change when he meets Curtis, a younger, highly charismatic poker player. The two strike up an immediate friendship and Gerry quickly persuades his new friend to accompany him on a road trip to a legendary high stakes poker game in New Orleans. As they make their way down the Mississippi River, Gerry and Curtis manage to find themselves in just about every bar, racetrack, casino, and pool hall they can find, experiencing both incredible highs and dispiriting lows, but ultimately forging a deep and genuine bond that will stay with them long after their adventure is over.
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What critics compared Mississippi Grind to
The directors are Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, tackling their first franchise affair after a solid career making small, smart, powerful dramas (“Half Nelson” in 2006, “Sugar” in 2008, a terrific gambling flick no one saw called “Mississippi Grind” in 2015).
The movie was directed and co-written by the team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (“Half Nelson,” “Sugar,” “Mississippi Grind”), and I’m not sure if there has ever been a case of filmmakers this indie commandeering the pop-art canvas of a Marvel movie.
While Boden and Fleck do go big with Captain Marvel ’s action, they also dig deep into scaled-down moments — something the filmmaking duo had done in their past works ( Mississippi Grind and Half Nelson , namely).
Instead, the married co-directors (who collaborated on such solid indies as Half Nelson and Mississippi Grind) and their army of co-writers (five are officially given “story by” credits) have engineered a brutally by-the-numbers origin story with a patina of social importance.
Working from a story with five credited names (usually never a good thing), indie directors Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (Half Nelson, Mississippi Grind) plunk audiences right in the middle of the action.
The movie is directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, who until now have worked in the realm of quiet, sensitive indie films like Half Nelson, Sugar, and 2015’s fantastically grotty gambling drama, Mississippi Grind.
The jettisoning between the highest of highs and lowest of lows is familiar if you’ve seen any addiction movie, like Mississippi Grind or Requiem for a Dream, but it’s surprising how well Sandler pulls this off, how much hope and desperation he imbues into a character who could have easily been a caricature.