Directed by David Mamet • 1987 • United States
Starring Lindsay Crouse, Joe Mantegna, Mike Nussbaum
The Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and screenwriter David Mamet sat in the director’s chair for the first time for this sly, merciless thriller. Lindsay Crouse stars as a best-selling author and therapist who wants to help a client by making restitution for the money he owes to a gambler. After she meets the attractive cardsharp (Joe Mantegna), her own compulsions take hold as he lures her into his world of high-stakes deception. Packed with razor-edged dialogue delivered with even-keeled precision by a cast of Mamet regulars, HOUSE OF GAMES is as psychologically acute as it is full of twists and turns, a rich character study told with the cold calculation of a career con artist targeting his next mark.
Directed by Nina Menkes • 1991 • United States
Starring Tinka Menkes, Emmellda Beech
Nina Menkes’s entrancing dream vision of alienation on the margins of Las Vegas is one of the most radical and provocative independent films of the 1990s. Set amid the glittering casino lights and deteriorating ...
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson • 1996 • United States
Starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow
Paul Thomas Anderson made his feature debut with this coolly gripping neonoir, an expansion of his acclaimed short CIGARETTES & COFFEE. In one of his finest performances, Philip Ba...
Directed by Mike Hodges • 1998 • Ireland
Starring Clive Owen, Nick Reding, Nicholas Ball
A true sleeper hit, this existential thriller from Mike Hodges made Clive Owen an international star. He brings a cool reserve to the role of aspiring writer Jack Manfred, who, struggling to make ends meet, ...
