The Poker House

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Alain E @AlainE Nov 25 This movie ideally would have been silent, so one can enjoy the excellent color photography and the young Jennifer Lawrence and ignore the ridiculous malabsorbed Charles Bukowski wannabe scenario. Do I exaggerate? Just before I stopped watching at 26:35 mark Lawrence’s mother who makes a living on her back informs her daughter, who is doing her school math homework, that it’s time to join her professionally as she is drinking her morning whiskey and snorts some cocaine. Her younger sister is in a sleepover and when she wakes up the dad in the house offers to take her for breakfast. They go to a friendly neighborhood bar where the little girl has some orange juice and the dad a Bloody Mary that he graciously offers to share with her. Enough realism for me. See more 04/08/2020 What I think of this movie or what anybody thinks about this movie is completely irrelevant to whether or not you should screen it. Of course you should; otherwise you missed something in the world of cinema. Maybe you missed Lori Petty in Point Break; well, you better go and screen that first. You'll wonder, What happend to her? Lori Petty OBVIOUSLY shoulda been a major star. Well, she was headed that way, cast as Lieutenant Huxley in Demolition Man. Two days after they started filming Demolition Man, she got fired, replaced by somebody else (who did an okay job.) So here we are many years later witnessing a stormy period in Hollywood, with Harvey Weinstein getting 23 years behind bars, and somewhere along the line Lori Petty somehow got The Poker House made. Let me try to shorten this up: There was a "test" proposed for feature films, that you count how many seconds of dialogue there was between any two women. It's almost always less than a minute total. So here's a movie shot by a woman telling a women's story -- a story from the women's POV -- and it's got a LOT of woman-to-woman interaction; drama. The Poker House is hard to watch; sorry about that. I personally can't stand Bad-Dad movies -- gratuitous bad Dad characters, in this case Agnes's dad the preacher. Nothing like that matters; watch the movie. You have to watch it if only to see what it looks like in retrospect, when a huge star that Jennifer Lawrence turned out to be is just getting started. How did Jennifer Lawrence end up in The Poker House? Simple -- who knew? See more 04/01/2016 Jennifer Lawrence best performance ever!!! How no one noticed this movie before? See more 03/26/2016 After seeing Jennifer Lawrence in " The Hunger Games " she caught my attention ever since. This film was good, the storyline is slow, but maintaining viewer interest, Jennifer Lawrence brings a good performance to the table, and it delivers good. Its a bit hard to watch, especially if you believe that its based on a true story experience, but you will remember the storyline and appreciate the strength of the main characters. As that being said I give " The Poker House " a C. See more 04/11/2015 Review: This is quite a deep drama about a young girl (Lawrence), who looks after her young sister while her drug taking mum is getting pimped out by her boyfriend. The movie follows her struggle to keep it together while her mum is holding parties in her house with various men coming in and out of her house. She's also an inspiring basketball player who wants to make a better life for herself but her day to day life at home, with hardly anything to eat, really gets her down. The acting from a young Jennifer Lawrence, was great and she made her character seem very realistic. The storyline was quite deep and emotional and you can't help but feel for these young girls who really don't get any love from there mum. I didn't quite get the story about Chloe Grace Moretz but she also put in a great performance, at such a young age. Its a shame that you don't get to visually see how Agnes's life turned out, especially as it's based on a true story, but it's a watchable, small movie which got its point across well. Watchable!  Round-Up: I think that the main problem with this film is that we have seen this type of story, many times before. The main draw to the movie, for me, is the fact that that Jennifer Lawrence is in it and I haven't really seen her play a role like this before. It does show that the girl can really act and that she can do other roles away from the famous Katniss in the Hunger Games. Although the movie was only made 7 years ago, Lawrence and Moretz look extremely young and it's amazing how far they have come since this movie. Selma Blair, whose been in the Hellboy franchise and Legally Blonde, played the drug taking mum quite well and she also had some emotional alongside Lawrence. Anyway, the movie is a decent watch but it's quite predictable, with no frills. I recommend this movie to people who are into their emotional dramas about a young girl whose trying to find a way out because her mums on drugs and gets pimped out by her boyfriend. 4/10 See more 02/12/2015 "The Poker House" is the directorial debut of Lori Petty and the first leading role for Jennifer Lawrence. I would like to start by saying that Jennifer Lawrence kills in her role as Agnes. This lady is now such a force to be reckoned with in Hollywood and she still has a very long career . Because I am such a fan of Lawrence's people kept asking me to watch this movie. I must say the acting was great. Selma Blair plays a prostitute that lives in her whore house with her daughters and an abusive pimp named Duval. Blair was very believable in her role and a very young Chloe Grace Moretz was great, cute, and extremely likeable as the here sisters. You care and feel for these girls and you really root for Agnes to get out of the "Hell" she is living in because of her mother. The problem I had is I felt that there was too personal of a connection with the director and the tone of the film really shows that. This is not a movie for everyone. There are some really disturbing scenes in this movie. For a directorial debut, I thought this is a perfect film to grab peoples attention, and talent is showcased all the way around. See more Read all reviews

The Poker House

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