Last night in the bathroom of a bar I saw an ad for THE GRAND which is opening this weekend. Almost no one heard of this movie because it premiered in Tribeca where it got buried along with the other 1,000 films there. I think this film could have gotten a lot of great press if it had its big premiere at Cinevegas. Vegas happens in a much lighter news season and it could have gotten some better press. This to me is a perfect example of the damaging nature of Tribeca's insatiable hunger to gobble up every premiere it can.
But THE GRAND is very funny. It's a mockumentary about a poker championship. It's got lots of great talent behind it. There are hilarious performances from Ray Romano, David Cross (pictured above,) Cheryl Hines and Woody Harrelson among others. But I really like the improvised nature of the film, it works as a great gimmick here. The main characters are portrayed by people who know how to play poker and they really play the final game in front of the cameras for the movie. So it was unknown which character's back story was going to pay off in the end. Makes for good comedy, and good sport. Here's a scene:
No comments:
Post a Comment