Director: Robert Altman
"Gambling is a disease, but it's the only disease where you can win lots of money!" - Norm Macdonald
There is a myth that people will like art about subjects they are experts about. I read a lot of Moneyball reviews that said "I loved it and I am not even a baseball fan!". For me those reviews missed the point because I disliked Moneyball and I am a baseball fan. My criticisms of the movie read like Bart Simpson's commentary on Aaahhh! Wilderness!, "The guys who wrote this show don't know squat. Itchy should have tied Scratchy's tongue with a taut-line hitch, not a sheet bend."
As someone who has spent a lot of time gambling and has had every gambling movie ever recommended to me; I tend to find gambling movies infuriating and as my expectations erode my pedantry remains fierce as ever. I decided to withhold my cynicism for California Split because of Altman's pedigree and fortunately my high expectations were met. The Hustler is the best movie about gambling I have seen, but California Split is the best gambling movie I have seen. The Hustler is about being cursed with a talent that forces you to live in a repugnant world; it didn't need to be about a gambler. California Split embraces the culture of gambling and gives a frank, non-judgmental portrayal of it that I haven't seen before.
Altman's films tend to deal with fringe characters; he casts non-traditional heroes and his overlapping dialogue makes the audience aware our heroes aren't the only people in the world. California Split uses both these techniques to great effect. George Segal and Elliot Gould are run of the mill recreational gambling addicts, sometimes they win, sometimes they lose, but regardless they are at the casino/fights/track on payday. They leave the grandstands as soon a race is finished, why stand around when you can get fresh bets in? I am so used to seeing Gould and Segal play elderly Jewish buffoons that I forgot how cool they once were; Gould's charm carries most of the film, which has a loose episodic structure, a wise choice that illustrates that most of the events of the film are run of the mill for our leads.
The loose structure allows Altman to show that gambling can actually be fun and gives the movie a lived in feel that accurately shows that when you live in a gambling culture any event, like a fight in the crowd during a boxing match, can bet bet on and every action from "Hit me!" to "I hope this gets her to sleep with me" is viewed as a gamble. Gambling is not the most tragic vice, but it is the most melancholy. Unlike other vices gambling is scalable; it's much easier to bet 10 times up as much, than smoke/drink/snort 10 times as much. Gambling's scalablity always creates a twinge of regret; even when one wins they wish they bet more or quit at their peak. California Split's strength is presenting gambling's melancholy insatiability in a film that make it seem so damn fun.
NB: I almost gave this 5 stars, but didn't want to kick off my blog with two 5 star reviews. I think California Split is a 4 star movie, but it deals with one of my favorite subjects in such a strong way that it's a 5 star movie for me. I decided to split the difference and give it 4 1/2. I hope Zombie Robert Altman will forgive me.
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