Mississippi Grind

Mississippi Grind (2015) — a road-trip drama directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck — is streaming online on iFILM. Ben Mendelsohn plays Gerry, a middle-aged gambler whose losing streak has calcified into a personality. Ryan Reynolds is Curtis, a younger player who seems to attract luck the way Gerry repels it. They meet at an Iowa card table and decide to drive south to a high-stakes game in New Orleans.

The drive takes them through racetracks, dive bars, and casinos scattered along the Mississippi. Sienna Miller and Lía Seydoux appear at stops along the way. But the film is less about poker than about what Gerry is running toward — and whether Curtis, who seems to have everything together, is hiding something of his own.

Boden and Fleck shot Mississippi Grind in a register that recalls 1970s American indie filmmaking — unhurried, light on score, heavy on faces. Mendelsohn carries the whole thing on his shoulders and barely raises his voice once. Stream Mississippi Grind (2015) online on iFILM.