Oscar-winning screenwriting Aaron's Sorkin's directorial debut!
MOLLY’S GAME (2017)
Writer & Director: Aaron Sorkin
Starring: Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba
Summary: The true story of Molly Bloom, a beautiful, young, Olympic-class skier who ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade.
I was surprised to find that this is screenwriter Aaron Sorkin’s (the social network!! won an oscar for best screenplay!! my idol) directorial debut!! so i was damn excited + this is one of those movies where spoilers dont really matter, since she tells you what’s up from the start.
screenplay
as expected, sorkin’s dialogue is intelligent and tense, with all the violence of a whitewater rapid and the clear-eyed emotional understanding of a mountain spring. i love the way it starts with her ruined competitive skiing career, and returns to it at the ending. he very clearly highlights that this movie is about picking yourself up when you've tripped and fallen, about the building the person you want to be from scratch, and about holding true to your principles even at personal cost. however, there were times when i thought the dialogue was a little too fast, and the dialogue combined with whatever going on visually just made for too much input at once, which brings me to:
the directing
honestly it wasnt anything special, but considering that it isn't sorkin's forte that’s fine. the jumps from present to past and back were a bit too abrupt for me, tho the links between the scenes were there. also poker itself is pretty hard to access from a general audience POV (or am i wrong idk) and featuring jargon and a fast speaking pace plus a closeup on cards shuffling onscreen is a bit much, then again its not like those were vv impt bits of info. he did try to make it accessible, through diagrams and stuff, but while pretty clean, im sure that theres a more elegant way to signify a queen full house or a king full house, particularly because that fits the movie’s aesthetic a lot better. also I might be being nitpicky but the audio when the movie cut to credits was cut off rlly abruptly,,, and it was supposed to be revelatory so i thought it would've been better to fade the soundtrack out, have a second or two of silence to just linger and then cut to credits.
But! semantics aside, watching this movie left my heart so WARM im inspired!!! molly bloom is such an incredibly strong woman, and though i know the plot is damn freakin romanticised for the sake of the movie, i feel like she’s had such an interesting life, and ive had so many takeaways from this movie i cant name them all - but heres a few: 1. breaking the law is fucking easy. its not about breaking and entering anymore, and especially when it comes to money, it can happen in a blink of an eye. one split second decision. 2. sometimes shit just happens. sometimes you dont see it coming and before you know it youre tripping on it and bruising the ground with your face. and when that happens you just gotta suck it up and push the fuck on because life is what you make of it. 3. a woman can be strong and powerful without being overly sexual, or being a manipulative bitch. and damn, molly bloom is POWERFUL.
TL;DR: 8.5/10
a brilliantly written film, so much so that the directing was almost slavishly deployed in service of the screenplay. totally worth watching!
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