It's a terrific film, but it came and went in cinemas before many people could discover it.

| Nov 30, 2018

A loose, funky character study of two guys who can only frame their station as "can't win" and "can't lose," and can't really imagine a life that's anywhere in between.

| May 3, 2016

This one defies easy expectations, right up to its strange (in a good way) ending. The blues soundtrack is excellent, too.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 11, 2015

It's a sketch of a film, but more than workable as a vehicle for Mendelsohn at his delicate, tragicomic best.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 10, 2015

Mendelsohn seems at ease on the razor's edge that divides the radiant from the wretched.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 25, 2015

From its unshowy script on down, Mississippi Grind is content to rumble along as a character piece, keeping its storytelling loose and unpredictable, like a repeat flick of the dice.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 25, 2015

Eschewing familiar vistas, Fleck and Boden take us on a tour of boarded facades and crumbling casinos light-years away from the glamour of Vegas or Atlantic City.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 25, 2015

Mississippi Grind is a rarity: an American movie about gambling that actually acknowledges that when you stay up all night in a badly lit room, your skin is likely to become very clammy and blotchy.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 23, 2015

The film earns major points for giving Ben Mendelsohn a proper, meaty character to tussle with, no longer psychotic second banana or madballs deus ex machina.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 23, 2015

A flimsy road movie about two mismatched gamblers.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Oct 22, 2015

It is a watchable if faintly baffling movie, never anything other than well acted, conspicuously without allegiance to any conventional three-act screenplay structure.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 22, 2015

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.

| Oct 8, 2015

The combination of Reynolds and Mendelsohn makes this a sure bet...

| Oct 8, 2015

It's as if the Scarecrow and the Tin Man got lost and wandered down the Mississippi River, drinking and gambling and stumbling into and out of various troubles, not worrying about their brains or their hearts, just wishing for a little bit of luck.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 7, 2015

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.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 2, 2015

Even as a road movie this is pretty bland.

| Oct 1, 2015

This is one of the better movies about the gambling culture in recent years.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Oct 1, 2015

Mendelsohn manages to make us simultaneously feel sorry for him and hope, against what seem like steep odds, that he somehow succeeds.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 1, 2015

For the most part, their odd coupling works, each character propping up the other until their paths must inevitably diverge.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 1, 2015

"Mississippi Grind" winds up being an improbably satisfying, even heartwarming character study.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 1, 2015