…flop-houses, flop-sweat and a general air of flailing macho camaraderie are all California Split has got going for it, but it’s more than enough…that lack of showy Hollywood pizzazz is what makes this celebration of the low-life so great…

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 19, 2024

Every winning streak has to end, but California Split has a helluva run.

| Aug 3, 2024

It features Altman's trademark free-flowing, overlapping dialogue, liberal use of tracking shots and a sympathetic eye for those trapped in this seedy, dangerous side of life.

| Original Score: B | May 22, 2022

Altman is pursuing... the pure romanesque, but what it gives rise to is a picaresque universe in keeping with the new times. It therefore has none of the usual mythology or pathos that has for so long structured the rhetoric of films about gamblers.

| May 3, 2022

It is enough to say that [Altman's] cards add up to a royal flush.

| Nov 2, 2021

The underlying sentiment is that men... are more fun, better sports, firmer friends, and more steadfast lovers [than women]. As in the westerns and the gangster films we're always aware that it's a fantasy -- but the feeling is that it's a wistful one.

| Sep 22, 2021

...a distressingly erratic endeavor that nevertheless boasts its fair share of captivating, spellbinding elements.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 31, 2021

The conclusion falls a little bit flat, but getting there is much more than half the fun. The parts add up to much more than the whole, and it's enjoyable.

| May 19, 2021

Altman shapes an entertaining film on a familiar theme: Wanting something very badly until you finally get it.

| May 19, 2021

An often hilarious reassurance to Altman's many admirers that the gift of wry and perceptive humor has not deserted him.

| May 19, 2021

"California Split" is a work of art and Robert Altman's best movie.

| May 19, 2021

Altman's funniest, most satisfying film since "MASH."

| May 19, 2021

What you get... is a sacrifice of feeling and a lack of coherence.

| May 19, 2021

Altman is always at his best in capturing the reality of a given situation. His film is gritty and tough and has so much of the feeling of the inside of a gambling den one can almost smell the cigaret smoke and taste the flat beer.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 19, 2021

The pace rarely flags.

| Dec 12, 2019

'California Split' perfectly captures the denigrating, excessive and addicted environments of the game, and never exalts it. [Full Review in Spanish]

| Aug 23, 2019

The movie suffers from Altman's apparently ever more unshakable idiosyncrasies. Foremost among these is the notion that life is a series of tragicomic whimsies -- that it is, somehow, sadly cute.

| Feb 10, 2019

California Split has never been heralded as one of the key Altmans. But the few things it does - friendship and disappointment and the drab and desperate thrill of the gambler's life - it does superbly.

| Dec 9, 2014

The Odd Couple of poker films

| Original Score: 76/100 | May 3, 2013

Funny as hell.

| Original Score: A- | Jan 12, 2013