ThoughSorkin has his fair share of unremarkable releases,like the underwhelmingBeing the Ricardos,much of his work is celebrated exactly for the liberal use of "Sorkin-esque repartee," a style that continues to influence fully fictional and reality-based entertainment alike. It stars Jessica Chastain, Idris Elba, Kevin Costner, Michael Cera, Jeremy Strong, Chris O'Dowd, Joe Keery, Brian D'Arcy James, and Bill Camp. Rich men went home with their pockets light of cash but full of stories. Show more 2 hours, 9 minutes Last on Sun 27 Mar. "It saved my butt," says Bloom. Jeremy Strong Dean Keith. After reaching out to many wealthy New Yorkers, Molly finds enough players for several weekly games. In real life, Molly began . "I was on the U.S. MOLLY'S GAME is a true crime drama starring Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba about Molly Bloom. The $3,000 in tips comes straight from her memoir. ""The feds first found out about it because a guy [hedge fund manager Bradley Ruderman] in my LA game was running a Ponzi scheme. J.C. MacKenzie. The connection between the names is clear, although the movies tweak does remove some of the history from the location. [33], On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 82% based on 309 reviews, with an average rating of 7.10/10. Mollys Game explores the world of underground poker, following the true story of Molly Bloom, as she transforms from Olympic-level skier to hostess of the most exclusive poker club in the world, to FBI target. role name; Molly Bloom: Jessica Chastain: Charlie Jaffey: Idris Elba: Father: Kevin Costner: Player X: Michael Cera: Dean Keith: Jeremy Strong: Douglas Downey: Chris . Iconic screenwriter Aaron Sorkin makes his directorial debut with this biopic, which is adapted from Bloom's memoir.~Jack Rodgers Features Building an Empire Cast & Crew Director Aaron Sorkin Writer Aaron Sorkin Cast Jessica Chastain Molly Bloom Idris Elba Charlie Jaffey Kevin Costner Larry Bloom According to Mollys book, Maguire was a terrible tipper, amazing player, and awful loser. At this time, she becomes increasingly addicted to drugs, as the games have taken their toll. However, like in the movie, Maguire really did call Molly to gleefully inform her she had lost the game. This seems to be in line with the tasteless persona of "Player X" in the Molly's Game movie. Affleck wrote the check., (Reps for Maguire, Meyer, Affleck, Damon and DiCaprio did not return requests for comment. The Viper Room, part-owned by Johnny Depp between 1993 and 2004, was a famous celebrity gathering point; it is where River Phoenix died from a drug overdose in 1993. Yes, 'Molly's Game' is based on a true story. Poker was blowing up big and we found young, wealthy guys who wanted to play with Tobey, said Curtis. "I have a network, and I have a lot of lessons," says Molly. At the end of the night, she could count her profits alongside Tobey who almost always won.. She becomes his office manager, and is soon involved in running his underground poker games at "The Cobra Lounge". -Vice, In 2014, Bloom, who was 36 at the time, was cleared of a number of the charges she was facing and was sentenced to one year probation, 200 hours of community service, and a $1,000 fine. Here is the true story of what happened, including some details Mollys Game leaves out. Discover the MBTI personality type of 7 popular Molly's Game (Movies) characters and find out which ones you are most like! More books than SparkNotes. If what Houston told me was true, Tobey owned Houston now, and they must have both known it. He told The Post that the actor tried making her bark like a seal [for a $1,000 chip]. a man whom she gives the pseudonym Dean Keith. As Chastains Bloom points out, this is usury. Affleck is a notorious gamblerthe guy was allegedly kicked out of the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas in 2014 for counting cards at a blackjack table. [2] It was also the closing film at AFI Fest on November 16, 2017, replacing All the Money in the World. On Tuesday nights from 2005 until 2009, bold-faced names including Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio and The Notebook director Nick Cassavetes flocked to The Viper Room or Beverly Hills Four Seasons Hotel to play. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans and finally, unbeknownst to her, the Russian mob. Creditors placed a lien on his home. This is yours, he said, holding it out to me. And when your movie is based on the memoir of the same name by Molly Bloom, who ran a real-life underground poker scene for the wealthy elite in the late 2000s, it isnt very hard to convert that speculation into something tangible. . U.S.A. Curtis claims Bloom was not the mastermind she purported to be and that she was primarily there to deflect attention so that he and Maguire could win millions without spooking their pals. Obviously Molly Bloom did hire lawyers, but Charlie Jaffey is a fictional character. Im going to make ten million this year on poker! Tobey once exclaimed, not knowing that I knew that Houston had told me about the alleged arrangement they had. Her brother, Jeremy Bloom, was a two-time Olympian freestyle skier who was also a professional football player for the Philadelphia Eagles and Pittsburgh Steelers. Aaron Sorkin, who is a skilled writer and known for adapting famous films such as To Kill A Mockingbird in 2018, wrote and directed Molly's Game. That's how they found out about this game. The film is absolutely worth your time. He owed $500,000 to Salomon and the same sum to a few other players. I recognized in that instant that this is not an opportunity that a girl from a small town in Colorado gets. I pulled him aside to show him the board. Not only does it deal with her career shift from a sportswoman to an underground poker empress, but it also dramatises the FBI investigation into her activities. J. And then, the feds started secretly following me and listening to our conversations." Unbeknownst to Maguire, Curtis had a long career as a sleight-of-hand expert, scamming high-stakes games in LA. The FBI arrests Molly to leverage her confiscated money and her freedom . He had taken to criticizing me about everything under the sun, especially how much I was making in my role. A lot of films in this biopic category play with a lot of creative licenses, and yes, there was some of that in terms of how he dealt with certain composite characters, but the rest was all true.. And that was when I crossed over and broke a federal law. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, 'Babylon' review: Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie dazzle in this familiar showbiz tale, Comic book insider reveals John Malkovich as villain in canceled 'Spider-Man 4', Spider-Man fans respond to homophobic line cut from classic film, Andrew Garfield got stoned to Tobey Maguire: 'He's my Spider-Man'. And as A-Rod took in the glamorous, well-appointed poker game I was running, a game that happened to have millions of dollars in chips on the table, the posturing started Alex Rodriguez was watching it all, and having a great time. She's working on developing localized co-working spaces for women in an effort to build community. In Mollys Game, both sides of his persona are on display. Apart fromthe way almost allof Aaron Sorkin's movies andTV shows are either directly based on true stories or loosely adapted from the experiences of real people, Sorkin is also known for his trademark use of perfectly-written quickfire dialogue, as popularized by TheWest Wing's "walk-and-talk" scenes. I know! he said. Rent 3.49. [26] The film was previously slated to be released on November 22, 2017, before being moved to the Christmas date in October 2017. Much of the positivereviews of Molly's Game can be attributed to how Sorkin carefully chose the changes he made to the real story, such as how the only thing the moviechanged about the club owner who first launched Molly into the world of underground poker is his name. She begins cocktail waitressing and catches the eye of producer Dean Keith (Jeremy Strong), who finds her smart and capable. [DiCaprio] is a guy worth $80 million and he didnt want to put up the $5,000 buy-in. Though the dialogue in Sorkins film is a bit preachyits Aaron SorkinMollys Game is the perfect vehicle for his idiosyncrasies: Sorkin and poker are a match made in heaven. Hey, yo, did that Jennifer Lopezs ass have cellulite on it, or was it nice?. Her players included Hollywood royalty, sports stars, business titans . Molly Bloom (born April 21, 1978) is an American entrepreneur, speaker, [1] and author of the 2014 memoir Molly's Game. Like in the film, she tried to learn as much as she could about poker through internet and personal research. Maguire and Curtis arranged things with club co-owner Darin Feinstein. Many famous and wealthy individuals, including movie stars, investment bankers, and sports players, are involved in Dean's game. There's poker, the Russian mafia, the Italian mafia, celebrities, and sports. Whats legacy, anyway? Two who did were Cirque du Soleil founder Guy Lalibert and hedge-fund manager Brad Ruderman. Derek spoke with Matthew Biel of MedStar Georgetown University Hospital about rising teenage unhappiness and what we can do to fix it, allegedly kicked out of the Hard Rock Cafe, The Ploys and Tactics Behind Oscar Campaigning. The website's critical consensus reads, "Powered by an intriguing story and a pair of outstanding performances from Jessica Chastain and Idris Elba, Molly's Game marks a solid debut for writer-director Aaron Sorkin. Hailing from Queretaro, Mexico, she is a graduate of the University of East Anglia's English Literature with Creative Writing program. You can almost picture him on the sidelines, in a turtleneck sweater, gleefully reacting to folded hands and rivers. Instead of attending law school immediately, Molly takes a year off and moves to LA. Her only ally was criminal defense lawyer Charlie Jaffey, who learned there was much more to Molly than poker. Molly had nothing to do with anything, Curtis said. Another minor timeline difference comes down to her books role in the movie, another fictional insertion from Molly's Game director Aaron Sorkin. Curtis offered to pay back the principal and then give Maguire 10 percent of his winnings for the next year. Outside of outliers like Rounders and Casino Royale, poker themed films generally result in a rather forgettable experience. Here's who he really is. This prompted her to take a percentage of the pot in order to operate as the bank, a move that caught the attention of the Feds. She often found herself being stiffed cash she was owed. Like in the movie, her boss fired her from his game, so she decided to utilize the contacts she made to start up a poker game of her own. Kevin Costner and Michael Cera co-star. Molly's assets are seized, and she returns home to live with her mother. Sorkin stated that "the casting of Jessica and Idris in the two lead roles is any filmmaker's dream come true, they're two of the greatest actors of their generation, paired for the first time, and their chemistry will be electric. Her fathers overbearing insistence on excellence, her skiing career and accident, and her start as a waitress make appearances both in Blooms memoir and in interviews with the ex Poker Princess. Molly is approached by the Italian mafia, who offer their services to extort money from non-paying players. It was a popular celebrity hangout and is famous for being the location where actor River Phoenix died of a drug overdose on Halloween morning in 1993. In particular, she hopes to please the most successful player, a film star named Player X, by attracting new players to the game. He owned 100 percent of his downside and was only realizing 50 percent of his wins, and he was the only one at the table who was playing for his mortgage. According to the true story, another actor took control of the weekly game, and Bloom writes that Maguire was the one who called her and giddily informed her that she had lost the game, as "Player X" does in the movie. In real life, his name was Darin Feinstein, a co-owner of The Viper Room who brought Molly on as an executive assistant. His character is inspired by Darin Feinstein and he starts out as Molly's employee. The movie even nods at this association by stating Player X had once portrayed a superhero; Maguire famously played Spiderman in the mid-2000s trilogy. As Curtis told the Observer, he believes Maguire used his famous friend to get big fish to come to the table: Tobey was basically paying their entry fee, and using Leo as a lure to get these billionaires like Alec Gores and Andy Beal to come to the games.. I was embarrassed, but I was also angry. Molly Bloom, a beautiful young Olympic-class skier, ran the world's most exclusive high-stakes poker game for a decade before being arrested in the middle of the night by 17 FBI agents wielding automatic weapons. Related:Jessica Chastain & Idris Elba Intrigued By IT Sequel Fan-Casting.