Mississippi Grind 2015

Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times: This is one of the better movies about the gambling culture in recent years. Read more

Kyle Smith, New York Post: For an addiction drama it's awfully watchable. Read more

Sara Stewart, New York Post: This low-budget indie has a unique ambiance and surprising depth, both in the performances of its two leads and the writing/directing team of Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The ambience of pool halls, honkytonks, backroom crap games and smelly racetracks where these guys live out their aimless days and nights is captured perfectly, lending a distinct air of hopelessness to their already rudderless lives. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: Discerning arthouse-goers will warm to the film's superb performances, haunting sense of place and willingness to meander, as well as its sly rumination on the mysterious interplay of fate and friendship in shaping an individual's destiny. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Mendelsohn plays Gerry as a stringy, sweaty hunk of pure desperation, while Reynolds, as the ostensibly more stable partner, demonstrates yet again that he's much more than a ridiculously pretty face. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Mendelsohn manages to make us simultaneously feel sorry for him and hope, against what seem like steep odds, that he somehow succeeds. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Even as a road movie this is pretty bland. Read more

David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter: A meandering road movie enriched by its fine-grained study of character and milieu, but somewhat lethargic and momentum-deprived in terms of narrative. Read more

Michael Rechtshaffen, Los Angeles Times: Mendelsohn and Reynolds are terrific, each wrapping himself up in the material like a well-worn favorite sweater. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: The actors flaunt craft, the script lays on the folksiness with a trowel, and scenes of local color seem to come straight from a guidebook. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: Mississippi Grind" ... may be a bit of a throwback to the lived-in, character-driven, landscape-besotted films of the 1970s, but it's less a pastiche or a homage than the cinematic equivalent of a classic song, expertly covered. Read more

Gary Thompson, Philadelphia Inquirer: The movie is a snapshot collage of flyover America, but also, perhaps, an homage to the soon-to-be-lost world of brick-and-mortar gambling. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Gambling tales are a hard sell. But this one is on a lucky streak. Great performances from Ryan Reynolds and Ben Mendelsohn. Read more

Steve Rubenstein, San Francisco Chronicle: A well-crafted and gritty tale of two compulsive gamblers ... Read more

Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Among the virtues of "Mississippi Grind" is an unpredictability that's rare in movies these days. For much of the film, it's unclear just where it's going - and that's just fine. Read more

Barry Hertz, Globe and Mail: The filmmakers know how to squeeze a lot from only a little narrative, Mendelsohn once again proves he's the reigning king of ne'er-do-wells and Reynolds has never been better. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Mendelsohn and Reynolds share great screen chemistry ... Read more

Tricia Olszewski, TheWrap: Winds up being that rare beast: the buddy comedy where you're not tired of the buddies well before the credits roll. Read more

David Ehrlich, Time Out: A sweet, shambling, supremely enjoyable road movie about two compulsive gamblers of very different stripes, it could easily be confused for one of Alexander Payne's wounded comedies, albeit one with higher stakes and a lower thread-count. Read more

Jim Slotek, Toronto Sun: A remarkably fully-realized portrait of a couple of losers, whose brand new friendship is forged over a poker table and plays out on a fool's-errand road trip through some of the most seedily-picturesque pit stops in the U.S. Read more

Simon Abrams, Village Voice: Mississippi Grind transcends its generic lovable-losers-on-a-bender plot by foregrounding exceptionally well-developed skid-row protagonists and weirdly charming dive-bar ambiance. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: We don't know what game these people are playing or where they're ultimately going, but we enjoy the ride while it lasts. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: "Mississippi Grind" winds up being an improbably satisfying, even heartwarming character study. Read more