John has lost all his money. He sits outside a diner in the desert when Sydney happens along, buys him coffee, then takes him to Reno and shows him how to get a free room without losing much money. Under Sydney’s fatherly tutelage, John becomes a successful small-time professional gambler, and all is well, until he falls for Clementine, a cocktail waitress and sometimes hooker.—–Sydney is a veteran gambler in his sixties who still spends his time at the casinos. When he meets John, a loser with no money at all, he sees him as a son and tries to help him. He takes care of him and teaches him all the tricks of his work. He also helps him to make a relationship with Clementine, a young girl who works at the casino as a waitress. John doesn’t seem to be bothered by the fact that Clementine is also a hooker, but soon something happens that turns their lives upside down.
Hard Eight
If you stay in the game long enough, you’ll see everything, win everything, and lose everything.
Paul Thomas Anderson
USA