Film

The Cooler

A deadpan romantic dark comedy about a Las Vegas casino employee cursed with the supernatural ability to jinx gamblers. William H. Macy plays against type as a lonely man whose gift—and curse—begins to crack when he falls for a waitress. It's a strange, tender film that weds noir fatalism to genuine warmth, funny without winking at itself.

TMDb rating3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like wry, sad-sweet character studies where a lonely man's bleak job slowly turns into something tender, and you don't mind the seams showing in a modest Vegas story.

Skip it if you need brisk plotting or a clear comic punchline, since this moves at a deliberate pace and its humour is mostly quiet, with a romance that takes its time.

What it asks of you: Expect just over an hour and forty minutes at an unhurried pace, with dry, melancholy humour that rewards patience more than attention spent on plot machinery.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Barton Fink1991

The Coen Brothers' portrait of creative paralysis and spiritual rot set against a humid 1940s Hollywood. Like The Cooler, it's a film about invisible forces that break men, told with dark humour and an undercurrent of real sadness.

But Deliberately paced and deeply strange; it does not hand you easy answers or conventional catharsis.

Barton Fink poster

The Gambler2014

Mark Wahlberg's self-destructive gambler facing ruin in Las Vegas. It has the same claustrophobic casino atmosphere and the same fascination with men who cannot escape their own nature, though it's darker and more punishing.

But Bleak and repetitive by design; there's little warmth or humour to soften the spiral.

The Gambler poster

Sideways2004

A film about two men at odds with their own lives, one of them finding unexpected grace through connection. Like The Cooler, it's a romance grafted onto a character study, funny and melancholic in equal measure.

But Middle-aged male disappointment is the whole subject; if that doesn't interest you, nothing will.

Sideways poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from The Cooler

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Unfaithful2002

Both are New York/Vegas films (in spirit) about the moment when fate or desire breaks through routine, told with the same fascination for how quickly order collapses.

David Fincher's ice-cold look at desire and consequence in a marriage. Like The Cooler, it asks what happens when someone's nature collides with the life they've built, but Fincher finds eroticism and moral vertigo where Cooler found romance.

But Explicitly sexual and deeply cynical about love; if you came for warmth, you'll feel the cold.

Unfaithful poster
More like this (8)

After Hours1985

Scorsese's fever dream about a man swept into a nightmare version of downtown Manhattan. The same baroque bad luck, the same sense of a man caught in forces beyond his control, but amplified into surrealism.

But It's bizarre and tonal; some find it exhausting rather than exhilarating.

After Hours poster

Miller's Crossing1990

The Coen Brothers' Prohibition-era gangster film, all style and moral corruption. It shares The Cooler's fascination with men trapped in systems that use them up, and it's funny in a way that never cheapens the darkness.

But Dense dialogue, a plot that doubles back on itself, and a tone that shifts constantly; it demands attention.

Miller's Crossing poster

Drugstore Cowboy1989

Gus Van Sant's portrait of a Portland junkie and his crew. A character study wrapped in a crime story, funny and sad and deeply human, about men who cannot help but be who they are.

But It's slow and unglamorous, and the world it depicts is genuinely bleak.

Drugstore Cowboy poster

State of Play2009

A Washington Post journalist and a tabloid reporter uncover a murder that cuts deeper than expected. It has the same propulsive plot machinery as The Cooler, the same sense of a web closing in, but as a thriller.

But Well-made thriller that plays it safe; it will not surprise you if you've seen this kind of thing before.

State of Play poster

Lone Star1996

John Sayles' mystery set in a Texas border town, where a murder decades old resurrects the past. A character-driven plot where everyone is trapped by history, told with real affection for its people despite their flaws.

But Ensemble cast and a slow reveal; if you need momentum and a clear protagonist, you'll be restless.

Lone Star poster

Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead1995

A crime caper about washed-up guys dragged back into the life for one last job. It has the same mix of humour and desperation, the same sense of inescapable fate, though it's shaggy and more violent.

But Scattered tone and a plot that strains credibility; it doesn't quite hold together.

Things to Do in Denver When You're Dead poster

Tokyo Story1953

Both films are about luck and fate—or the illusion of them—and both find tragedy and grace in the gap between a man's hope and his circumstance. Ozu just found it decades earlier.

Ozu's masterpiece about an elderly couple visiting Tokyo to see their son, finding him distant and changed. It's a film about the gap between who we hope to be and who we are, tender and devastating, told with absolute stillness.

But It's in Japanese, it's black-and-white, it moves slowly, and nothing dramatic happens. If you need plot, don't start here.

Tokyo Story poster

Requiem for a Dream2000

The same obsession with how external systems (casino, drugs, television) warp the human will into servitude; The Cooler is the noir version, Requiem is the hallucinatory one.

Darren Aronofsky's descent into addiction across four lives in Brooklyn. It uses formal innovation to make interior corruption visible, turning the casino's machinery into the body's machinery. Devastatingly constructed.

But Punishing, repetitive, and designed to make you feel sick; it's not entertainment, it's an ordeal.

Requiem for a Dream poster

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