Grinders

Mediocre surface depiction
This movie is good in that it seems a realistic depiction of real poker players. It is non-fiction. The main protagonist is trying to make a living while unemployed. It addresses the hardship of insecurity for his family, but does not go into the detail I would have wanted. How much does he actually make? What is the variance of his income? How does this variance impact he and his family? Watching the struggles of this one character might have been dramatic and revealing. The film spends too much time on the story of a poker room owner who is being blackmailed for extra rent. This is time that could have been spent examining the lives of actual poker players. The film also talks about one poker player trying to get on a poker reality show, but does not follow up to let us know how well he did. I would have liked to learn a lot more about the characters and how poker playing affects their lives.





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