Hard Eight

Hard Eight (1997) begins outside a diner on the road to Reno. An older gambler sees a young man who has lost his money, buys him coffee, and teaches him how to get a free room in a casino without losing anything. They start working together. Why he is helping is not stated until the end. It is Paul Thomas Anderson's first feature, made when he was twenty six. Its title was Sydney. The studio, Rysher Entertainment, took the film away from him, re-edited it and changed the name. Anderson fought to get his own cut back, finished his version with his own money, and it screened in Un Certain Regard at Cannes in 1996. The version eventually distributed was largely his, but the title stayed Hard Eight. Philip Baker Hall plays Sydney, with John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson. Philip Seymour Hoffman has a small part, his first work with Anderson. It went unnoticed at the box office and Anderson became known with his next film, Boogie Nights. Its best quality is what it does not say. Anderson withholds the information to the end, and the character's moral account opens in a single scene. It runs 102 minutes. Good for: character driven casino films, Philip Baker Hall, and the origins of Anderson. Less good for: the pace is very slow and there is almost no plot in the first hour. Paltrow's character is thinly written. The explanation at the end feels insufficient to some viewers.