Loading AI tools
2017 American film From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Abe & Phil's Last Poker Game is a 2017 American comedy-drama film directed and written by Howard L. Weiner and starring Martin Landau, Paul Sorvino and Maria Dizzia. It is about a character named Dr. Abe Mandelbaum, played by Landau, who is placed in a retirement home while incapable of managing his wife's decaying health.
| Abe & Phil's Last Poker Game | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical poster | |
| Directed by | Howard L. Weiner |
| Screenplay by | Howard L. Weiner |
| Produced by | Howard L. Weiner |
| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Terrence Hayes |
| Edited by |
|
| Music by | Steven Argila |
Production company | Long Road Film |
| Distributed by | Gravitas Features |
Release date |
|
Running time | 85 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
It was the first feature film by Weiner, a neurologist. It debuted at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival, before Landau's death in July 2017. It received mixed reviews, with some positive assessments of Landau's performance.
Abe & Phil's Last Poker Game was the first feature film written and directed by Professor Howard L. Weiner, a neurologist. Weiner stated that in medical school, he made his own music videos about The Beatles, and viewed cinema as another medium to pursue truth.[1] He forwarded the screenplay to an Emerson College cinema instructor, who saw promise in it and gave him advice.[2]
Weiner's son, television writer Ron Weiner, contacted producers and had some scenes shot in Los Angeles. It was filmed over five weeks.[2] Howard Weiner also produced it for Premiere Entertainment.[3]
Landau chose to take the role, saying "It was unusual, and it kept unfolding in unpredictable ways".[1]
The film screened at the Tribeca Film Festival under the title The Last Poker Game, the only directorial and writing debut of a septuagenarian at Tribeca that year.[1] Martin Landau attended the spring festival, for his last film released before he died in July 2017.[4] A trailer was published in November 2017 ahead of the January 12, 2018 theatrical and video-on-demand release.[5]
As of February 18, 2018[update] the film has a 67% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 9 reviews.[6] Metacritic also gave it a score of 48, indicating "mixed or average reviews".[7]
Pete Hammond, writing for Deadline Hollywood, assessed it as "not only a touching, funny, quite raunchy (especially in its depiction of senior sex) dramedy, it is exceptionally well made".[2] Variety critic Joe Leydon assessed it as "low-key and deeply felt", and hailed Landau for his best performance since 1994's Ed Wood, commenting Landau's death could also influence viewers' perspectives on him playing a character close to death.[8] Ben Kenigsberg in The New York Times criticized it for "flat direction", adding Weiner at least incorporated his medical expertise, "however awkwardly presented".[9] The Hollywood Reporter's John DeFore called it "tepid" but said Landau "delivers with dignity in an uplift-oriented project".[10] In the Los Angeles Times, Michael Rechtshaffen judged Landau "effective" but said the film was on "a wobbly line between melancholic and mawkish".[11]
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.
