Each year, Hollywood takes on a new casino topic. The trend has been alive since Bond first started heading into casinos to play baccarat in the 1960s and 70s. Throw in classics from Rain Man to The Hangover, and it’s clear that the casino is an engrained part of Hollywood.
Last year, Paul Schrader took on The Card Counter, which was released at the Venice Film Festival and garnered positive reviews. This year, it’s Russell Crowe leading the charge to bring audiences more casino-adjacent content with Poker Face.
If you want to learn more about all casino games, you can click here—in Crowe’s latest project, Poker Face, the film focuses on an at-home Texas Hold’em game. But it’s not the standard poker flick. In the past, poker movies like Molly’s Game and Rounders focused on a grander world of professional poker.
In Poker Face, audiences are treated to a brand new twist on the genre: a poker-centric murder mystery.
A High Stakes Look at a Dinner Party Gone Wrong
The premise of Poker Face is simple. A tech billionaire gets a group of friends together for a high-stakes poker game at his home… but then a dangerous killer shows up and throws a (murderous) wrench into things. This combination is stellar, as it combines the natural intrigue of poker with drama and danger.
Things don’t simply go off the tracks—secrets are revealed and plots of revenge come into focus as the characters must navigate a terrifying night. Along with leading man Crowe, Poker Face includes an ensemble cast of Liam Hemsworth, Elsa Pataky, Lynn Gilmartin, and RZA.
As the plot unfolds, secrets are revealed—and each one upends what audiences expected to happen. Throw in a series of vignettes from the past and it’s a quick-moving puzzle that has to be pieced together. Crowe himself described the filming process like painting a picture.
Russell to the Rescue
Crowe took the reigns for this project early on, scripting the screenplay and then moving into the role of director. But this took place in only five weeks of time, as the film was originally planned to be shot by a different showrunner. Crowe dubbed the previous project ‘unshootable’ before moving from Australia to the US for filming.
Originally, the film was going to be shot in Sydney and Kiama, which were meant to replicate Marin County in Northern California. But Crowe wasn’t shy about flipping the script with this new project. In fact, he decided that it would be shot in New South Wales, then rewritten as a fully Australian film—with Australian actors included.
Inadvertently, this ode to Australia became a huge part of the film. Along with a setting and cast from Down Under, the set walls in the main house include famous Australian portraits, including Arthur Streeton and Clarice Beckett.
Hollywood’s Obsession with Poker & Casinos
One of Crowe’s biggest pushes in taking charge of Poker Face was to let the film break genre boundaries. Already, we pointed out how the film combines casino themes with a murder mystery. Other famous casino flicks, like Ocean’s 11, are heist films. Rain Man and 21, on the other hand, are both dramas. The Hangoverfalls squarely into comedy territory while others like The Gambler are crime dramas.
Clearly, Hollywood loves the casino—but why? It seems like games like poker lend well for drama and intrigue. The game itself involves bluffing, which allows players to pretend they have stronger cards than they do. A successful bluffer might be rewarded handsomely for their efforts, which adds an element of mystery to the game. Viewed in this way, it’s a surprise that no other writers or directors have combined poker with a murder mystery like Crowe has with Poker Face.
