Film

Rounders

Name: Rounders
Genre: Drama, Crime
Released: 1998
Cast: Matt Damon, Edward Norton, John Turturro, Gretchen Mol, John Malkovich

Rounders is a low-lit hangout movie about the lure of easy money and the discipline it takes to walk away from it. Matt Damon's controlled cool plays against Edward Norton's live-wire recklessness, while Malkovich chews scenery as a preening Russian gangster. It's less a poker tutorial than a character study of addiction dressed up as a life skill — patient, talky, morally grey.

TMDb rating

7.0

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But The nonstop noise, shouting and anxiety-inducing pacing exhausts some viewers rather than thrilling them.

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Clive Owen's icy, detached dealer watches gamblers ruin themselves nightly, and the film's cool voice-over gives you the house's-eye view Rounders never shows.

But Deliberately flat and emotionally distant — don't expect the warmth of Damon and Norton's friendship.

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A true story of the woman who ran the underground games the boys in Rounders only dreamed about, told with Sorkin's rapid-fire wit and real affection for the outlaws.

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The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Hustler1961

Same story, different table: a young prodigy's gift for reading people gets tested against an older, colder professional, and the real subject in both is the discipline talent alone can't buy.

Paul Newman's Fast Eddie hustles pool halls with the same gifted-but-undisciplined swagger as Mike McDermott, while the older hustler Bert brings the same cold-eyed menace Teddy KGB does across a card table.

But Black and white and unhurried, with a bleaker, more punishing view of what talent costs than Rounders allows.

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Scorsese's operatic look at old Vegas shows exactly where the money in Rounders' underground games ultimately flows, with De Niro and Pesci at their most ferocious.

But Three hours long and far more violent — this is organised crime, not a friendly poker night.

The Cincinnati Kid1965no page yet

Steve McQueen's young gun challenges the reigning stud poker champion in a film that basically gave Rounders its whole template of talent versus experience.

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Swap poker for the long con and you get the same pleasure of watching skilled people outthink a room, wrapped in ragtime charm and a killer twist.

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McConaughey's sports-betting prodigy gets mentored and manipulated by Pacino in a film about the same seduction of easy money and the men who profit from other people's addiction.

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California Split1974no page yet

Altman's shaggy, loose-limbed look at two gambling buddies captures the boredom and camaraderie of the life better than almost any other film, closer in spirit to Rounders' quiet scenes.

But Meandering and plotless by design — if you want stakes and structure, this will frustrate you.

Owning Mahowny2003

Philip Seymour Hoffman plays a mild bank manager secretly embezzling millions to feed his gambling habit, a quiet, devastating portrait of addiction with none of the swagger Rounders allows itself.

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All In: The Poker Movie2009no page yet

It's the nonfiction mirror to Rounders' fiction: the same rooms, the same compulsions, the same 'one more hand' logic, but with real names and real ruin attached.

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Requiem for a Dream2000

Both films run on the addict's logic that just one more hit — of cards, of drugs — will finally set things right; Requiem just refuses to let you enjoy the ride.

Strip away the card table and Rounders' engine — chasing one more fix to fix everything — is exactly what drives this unflinching descent, shot with a ferocity Rounders never risks.

But It is genuinely harrowing and visually aggressive, offering none of Rounders' charm or humour as relief.