Aaron Sorkin is one of my favorite writers, so I was excited for his directorial debut. He has a distinct style, and beforehand I read that he was actively toning down his signature features. So there was not as much “walk and talk” as one would expect. But it was chock full of fast paced witty dialogue and the occasional grandstand.

That being said, I loved it. From the opening skiing scene, I was hooked. You can say as much as you want about Sorkinisms, but the first scene may have changed my life. Molly in voice over narrates her skiing injury, saying-“It happened because I hit a pine bough and I hit it so precisely that it simply snapped the release on my bindings. Right in that moment I didn’t have time to calculate the odds of that happening because I was about to land pretty hard on my digitally remastered spinal cord which is being held together by spare parts from an Erector Set. None of this has anything to do with poker. I’m only mentioning it because I wanted to say to whoever answered that the worst thing that could happen in sports was 4th place at the Olympics — seriously, f*ck you.” HAIL TO THE DIALOGUE KING.

Molly Bloom is a pretty fascinating subject, and Chastain is a powerhouse. I am not sure how much of the movie is based exactly off real events, but it feels believable and edgy. Is there anything more exciting than combining high power celebrities and gambling? I have mentioned before, I would be a terrible criminal, so I am fascinated by any activity that is “technically” legal. And that is how Molly’s weekly poker game started. My favorite portion of the movie was in LA, prior to the stress of mobsters and FBI raids. Michael Cera is an awesome Player X (Tobey Maguire), and the cast of characters was colorful.

Idris Elba was great as Molly’s attorney and the moral high ground. I am glad this is going well for him, he had a rough year. Last thing I am going to mention is the late appearance of Kevin Costner. Without going into too many spoilers, I felt that it wrapped everything up in too neat of a bow, and wished that Molly could have pushed through some of her “father issues” without Costner literally showing up and putting it all out on the table. But all in all, Molly’s Game was awesome. Let’s see what comes next in the Sorkinverse. 9/10