Friday Night Movie Club
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Heist should be one of the main film genres, my colleague Jesse David Foxtweetedrecently.
Comedy, drama, horror, superhero, heist.
If there was such a genre,Casinowould be its gaudy pinky ring, its operatic achievement.
Its hard to sum up the plot ofCasinoin a few neat sentences.
Two mafia guys are sent to Las Vegas, and they cavort in the city like pigs in slop.
Sam Rothstein (Robert De Niro) is an expert handicapper, sent to run ritzy hotel casinos.
Its a morality car wash.
It does for us what Lourdes does for humpbacks and cripples.
Entire days should be devoted to Ginger, and Sharon Stones stunning performance.
Stone, and by extension Ginger, just vibrates on a higher frequency.
(I profiled Stone recently and referred to it as her megawatt everything-ness.)
Sam sees the hustle before he sees her.
Shes running the craps table, arms wide, squealing with delight.
They rain down, multicolored, like confetti on a crowd of eager onlookers.
Ginger doesnt even care.
She makes eyes with Sam, and glides out the door.
What a move, Sam says in voiceover.
I fell in love right there.
And so they get married, and things go bad fast.
They are maniacal in the way they just keep misbehaving.
Sam married a woman he knew didnt love him, and paid for it every day.
Marriage was a hustle that didnt pay on Gingers terms.
Nicky is PescisGoodFellas character, ratcheted up a few dozen notches.
Love and greed and resentment become much harder to tell apart.
Desperate people strike it big, and it all turns to ash in their hands.
Ginger swaddles herself in chinchilla coats!
Sam sharpens the collars of his coral-colored suits!
This is a movie about people who insist upon every hustle, every gamble, every garish set piece.
People who then hold their hands out and ask for more.
If they had another chance, theyd blow it all the same way.
Casinois available to rent on Prime Video, iTunes, Vudu, YouTube, and Google Play.
