THE RED CARPET ROLLS OUT IN LAS VEGAS JUNE 12th through JUNE 21st
The 10th annual CineVegas Film Festival, to be held June 12 – 21 at the Palms Casino Resort and the Brenden Theatres. The tenth installment of the Sin City festival presents work from innovative, uninhibited and renegade artists. Offering a selection of world and U.S. premieres of narratives and documentaries, advance screenings of high-profile films, the best new independent films, a Mexican cinema sidebar, and a program of shorts and features from Nevada filmmakers.
“Over the past ten years, CineVegas has evolved into the festival we have always wanted it to be: an exhilarating, one-of-a-kind experience for film lovers and an intimate, supportive environment for innovative films and filmmakers, as well as a dynamic launching place for studio releases,” said Artistic Director Trevor Groth. “This year’s program continues our history of championing films that take risks, challenge audiences and push the artistic limits of filmmaking. We are also excited to introduce a documentary competition for films that have the same outlaw spirit as the features we show. Las Vegas has the resources to celebrate these unique films as no other place can and for our tenth anniversary we look forward to cranking it up to an 11.”
Larry’s Las Vegas recommends this event for locals and tourists alike who want to experience the ‘CANNES FILM FESTIVAL’ without the massive expense.
The CineVegas 2008 lineup includes:
JACKPOT PREMIERES
A collection of highly anticipated world premieres
Big Heart City
Director: Ben Rodkin (USA, 2007)
An indolent gambling addict attempts to pick up the pieces after the unexplained disappearance of his pregnant girlfriend.
Dark Streets
Director: Rachel Samuels (USA, 2008)
A stylish noir fever dream of blues music, seduction, and murder set in a visually dazzling fantasy of the early 1930’s.
Happy Birthday, Harris Malden
Directors: Juan Cardarelli, Ben Davidow, Nick Gregorio, Eric Levy and Matthew Sanchez
(USA, 2008)
Harris Malden has an obvious secret. He fakes his facial hair.
Memorial Day
Director: Josh Fox (USA, 2008)
A wild Memorial Day weekend takes an unexpected turn in this brutally thrilling roller coaster ride through over-exposed national obsessions.
She Unfolds by Day
Director: Wolf Belgum (USA, 2008)
What began as documentary becomes fiction. What began as fiction becomes a study of nature.
South of Heaven
Director: J.L. Vara (USA, 2008)
A man returns home from serving his country, and must search for his missing brother who is caught up in a crime spree in the Wild West.
Your Name Here
Director: Matthew Wilder (USA, 2008)
America’s greatest science-fiction writer (Bill Pullman) awakes to discover himself, like one of his characters, trapped in an alternate reality … and then another … and another … and….!
PIONEER DOCUMENTARIES
Documentary features capturing subjects who defy odds and expectations.
Beautiful Losers
Director: Aaron Rose (USA, 2008)
Feature documentary film celebrating the independent and D.I.Y. spirit that unified a loose-knit group of American artists who emerged from the underground youth subcultures of skateboarding, graffiti, punk rock and hip-hop.
Chelsea on the Rocks
U.S. Premiere
Director: Abel Ferrara (USA, 2008)
A portrait of New York’s legendary Chelsea Hotel.
The End
Director: Nicola Collins (USA, 2008)
Against the background of the East End of London England, first time filmmaker Nicola Collins explores the fascinating complexity of the lives of her father and his friends; infamous criminals that shaped their war torn environment into a violent underworld.
Hi My Name is Ryan
World Premiere
Directors: Paul Eagleston and Stephen Rose (USA, 2008)
Hi My Name is Ryan, about Ryan Avery, a lad on a madcap quest to make his life awesome through punk rock performance art, motorcycle helmets and prosthetic mustaches.
LAST CUP: Road to the World Series of Beer Pong
World Premiere
Director: Dan Lindsay (USA, 2008)
A documentary that follows four individuals as they compete in the 2nd Annual World Series of Beer Pong.
Lost in the Fog
World Premiere
Director: John Corey (USA, 2007)
A cantankerous owner and his blue collar colt earn the right to take on horse racing’s finest but the equine gods intervene at the last minute to turn this would-be fairy tale upside down.
LA PRÓXIMA OLA
Highlighting the next wave of Mexican films and directors
Año uña (Year of the Nail)
Director: Jonás Cuarón (Mexico, 2007)
A love story between a Mexican teenager and an older American woman who meet one summer in Mexico.
Cochochi
Directors: Israel Cárdenas and Laura Amelia Guzmán (Mexico, 2007)
Set in the Sierra Tarahumara of northwest Mexico, Cochochi recounts the humble story of two Raramuri boys and their efforts to find a lost horse.
Déficit
Director: Gael García Bernal (Mexico, 2007)
Actor Gael García Bernal’s directing debut is infused with an infectious, youthful energy, voyeuristically following his complex characters at a house party just outside of Mexico City.
¿Dónde están sus historias? (Where Are Their Stories?)
Director: Nicolás Pereda (Mexico, 2008)
In order to save his grandmother’s property, a small-town man must move to the big city and face a new reality, estranged people and an impenetrable legal system.
VEGAS UNCOVERED
A special section of documentaries about the city and the people behind the scenes
Where I Stand
World Premiere
Director: Scott Goldstein (USA, 2008)
Anthony Hopkins narrates the untold story of newspaper publisher Hank Greenspun, whose “Where I Stand” column changed the face of Nevada and the nation.
DIAMOND DISCOVERIES
The best new independent films available for U.S. distribution
Explicit Ills
Director: Mark Webber (USA, 2008)
Young love, drugs and poverty collide in the city of Philadelphia creating a beautiful tale of hope and the power of coming together.
Finally, Lillian and Dan
Director: Mike Gibisser (USA, 2007)
An awkward, little love story.
Goliath
Director: David Zellner (USA, 2008)
A recently divorced man tries to find the one aspect of his marriage that still matters to him: his missing cat, Goliath.
Go-Go Tales
Director: Abel Ferrara (USA, 2008)
With a bump-and-grind soundtrack, a terrific (and pulchritudinous) cast and a delightfully improvisatory flow, Abel Ferrara’s strip club comedy, starring Willem Dafoe as the failing club’s indefatigable showman, interweaves multiple storylines with terrific panache.
Visioneers
Director: Jared Drake (USA, 2007)
One day, repressed people begin exploding. Like the rest of the population, George Washington Winsterhammerman tries to ignore the epidemic and live his usual life, but then he suffers his first symptom: a dream.
Wellness
Director: Jake Mahaffy (USA, 2007)
An independent feature about a man trying to succeed in a business that doesn’t exist.
SURE BETS
Advance screenings of high profile independent studio films
The Black List: Volume One
Director: Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (USA, 2008) 22 living portraits by leading African Americans on race, struggle and the seeds of success.
Choke
Director: Clark Gregg (USA, 2007)
A wickedly colorful dark comedy starring Sam Rockwell about mothers and sons, sexual compulsion and the sordid underbelly of colonial theme parks.
Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ With the Godmother
Director: Billy Corben (USA, 2008)
The true story of multi-millionaire cocaine dealer Charles Cosby, who soon learns that he’s in way over his head.
The Cool School
Director: Morgan Neville (USA, 2007)
The story of Los Angeles’ legendary Ferus Gallery and the birth of the West Coast modern art scene.
GONZO: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson
Director: Alex Gibney (USA, 2008)
A fast moving, wildly entertaining documentary looking into the uncanny life of national treasure and gonzo journalism inventor Dr. Hunter S. Thompson.
Hank and Mike
Director: Matthiew Klinck (USA, 2008)
Pink. Pissed. Unemployed.
Help Me Eros
Director: Lee Kang-sheng (USA, 2007)
A young stockbroker is left penniless after a stock market crash and soon indulges in a world of erotic and psychedelic pleasures.
The Last Mistress
Director: Catherine Breillat (USA, 2007) Set in 19th century France, The Last Mistress chronicles the love affair between a tempestuous Spanish mistress and a distinguished, well-bred French man.
Momma’s Man
Director: Azazel Jacobs (USA, 2008) A 30-something man stays in his parents’ downtown loft on a business trip, and finds excuses to stay after his consulting job is finished, instead of returning home to his wife and newborn.
The Rocker (Opening Night Film)
Director: Peter Cattaneo (USA, 2008)
The Rocker tells the story of a failed drummer who is given a second chance at fame. Robert “Fish” Fishman is the extremely dedicated and astoundingly passionate drummer for the eighties hair band Vesuvius, who is living the rock n’ roll dream until he is unceremoniously kicked out of the band. Twenty years after his rock star fantasies are destroyed, just when Fish has finally given up all hope, he hears that his nephew’s high school rock band, A.D.D., is looking for a new drummer. They reluctantly make him the newest member of the band, giving him a chance to reclaim the rock God throne he’s always thought he deserved, and taking the young band along for the ride of their lives.
The Great Buck Howard (Closing Night Film)
Director: Sean McGinly (USA, 2008)
Law-school dropout Troy Gable (Colin Hanks) answers an ad for a “personal assistant to a celebrity performer,” not knowing that the performer is Buck Howard (John Malkovich), a “mentalist” infamous for his 61 appearances on The Tonight Show, who has been reduced to a has-been magician in need of a pretty big trick to get him out of this slump.
AREA 52
An underground collection of cult and midnight movies for the most hardcore fans
The Juche Idea
Director: Jim Finn (USA, 2008)
A film about a South Korean video artist who comes to a North Korean art residency to help bring Juche cinema into the 21st century.
Mock Up on Mu
Director: Craig Baldwin (USA, 2008)
A dense, obsessive found-footage “collage narrative” that braids the threads of post-war California culture - Aerospace, Beatniks, and New Age spirituality - into a conceptual Chinese finger-trap ensnaring L. Ron Hubbard and Lockheed Martin’s evil fingers.
Schoof
World Premiere
Director: Giuseppe Andrews (USA, 2008)
A force named Schoof began its rampage of Earth in a slow, subtle manner and in the end, it will take a scientist, a willing test subject and a group choral to save the galaxy.
Them!
Director: Gordon Douglas (USA, 1954)
The earliest atomic tests in New Mexico cause common ants to mutate into giant man-eating monsters that threaten civilization.
NEVADA FILMMAKING FEATURES
Features produced in Nevada or by local filmmakers
Primo
World Premiere
Director: Francisco Menéndez (USA, 2008)
Three cousins (primos) separated as young boys during the civil war in El Salvador, journey to Las Vegas due to their grandfather’s failing health. Now the reunited cousins must overcome a love triangle, a lethal gambling debt and familial revenge.
Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake
Director: Michael Albright (USA, 2007)
A documentary about Sonic Youth shot by seven high school students in Reno, NV on the 4th of July.
Women in Boxes
World Premiere
Directors: Phil Noyes and Harry Pallenberg (USA, 2008) The first and only documentary that discloses the secret lives of Magic’s Better Half: the Magician’s Assistant.
NEVADA FILMMAKING SHORTS
Short films produced in Nevada or by local filmmakers
The 7th Claus (Director: Nick Simon, 2008)
Growing up Vegas (Director: Amber Beard, 2007)
Jack The Ripper (Director: Jonpaul Lewis, 2007)
Lactose Intolerant (Director: David Christenson, 2007)
One Two Punch (Director: Timothy L. Anderson, 2008)
Passenger Seat (Director: Mike and Jerry Thompson, 2007)
Wedding Day (Director: David Schmoeller, 2008)
The Festival will also feature a selection of student films from the CSN and UNLV programs as well as a “SHORTS PROGRAM”. Short films that embody the creative nature of independent filmmaking. Some will be shown before features, while others are combined to make feature-length programs.
Book your “CineVegas 2008” experience here at LARRYS Las Vegas and enjoy this historic and memorable event.
Interesting, isn’t it? That in most sports or games, you are admired and get congratulations and accolades for being a good player. Not so in Las Vegas!!
In fact in Las Vegas, and the other gambling meccas of this world, being a good player can likely get you barred from the games, harassed, even told you are never to come back on a property.
Larry asked for accounts from our readership regarding any recent wins, and the stories surrounding them. Well I just had the biggest single session win of my short blackjack career and that was immediately followed by my first barring from a game. There are some lessons out here for all players in our audience. But let me share the gist of the story first.
It all started at the airport - yes, that’s true! It started there because between my shuttle and my flight was a two hour layover and I spent that time in an airport bar drinking and playing cards on my laptop. So by the time I got on the plane I had a pretty good buzz going. Then on the plane I had some drinks during the flight. Then when I got to McCarran Airport, I had another strong drink at Wolfgang Puck’s Express while waiting on my bags. By the way, that’s a really nice place to have a drink and fancy food while you’re hanging in the Vegas Airport!
So, hey … we go to Vegas to party, right? Well partying is what I was doing! So I get unpacked and sit down at the double deck blackjack game at my (former, as you’ll see..) favorite casino. I order a free double-whiskey and coke (Crown Royal!) and start playing. I’ve worked hard and followed the advice we give here on Larry’s Las Vegas about basic strategy and blackjack. I’m not a card counter but I do pay attention to the cards, and if I see a whole bunch of 4’s, 5’s and 6’s come out for a couple of hands, I’ll darn sure push out a big bet! Also, I’m not afraid to bet big and to double down and split big. I know that’s the only way to win at this game! And getting schnockered deluxe always helps - a little liquid courage as they say!
Well the next thing you know, I’m not even sure how it happened, but suddenly I have a big stack of pink $500 chips in front of me. I’m up by $6500! I decide to quit, but I sit there to finish my next drink … and heck, I can’t resist the game, and I jump back in. I’m betting big, up to $1000 on a single hand by then, going down to maybe $100 or $300 at minimum. I’m having a big ol’ time, drunk as hell, gambling big… and WINNING! There is another player, that has appeared at my table, that seems very interested in me. He only plays when I play, and asks a lot of questions, which I answer in drunken friendliness. I never did determine if that person was a casino shill or detective … probably not … but it’s entirely possible. The casinos definitely do things like that to winning players.
Soon I’m up by about $10,000!! Wow … this game is great! This is my single biggest winning session ever. I’m so drunk and having so much fun, I barely notice all the suits gathering around my table taking an interest in my game. I’m just about to push out another bet, when all of a sudden, a little sawed-off banty rooster type in a cheap suit and a bad haircut jumps out of the pit and starts screaming at me… “That’s it! I’m tired of sitting here babysitting you! No more double deck for you!” He’s shaking his finger at me and says, “And I BETTER NOT SEE YOU PLAYING DOUBLE DECK HERE AGAIN!!” “Jeez!” I say, “I wasn’t trying to piss anyone off!?” “You just can’t play anymore double deck,” he says. I nod my head, gather up my chips, and move to the next table over, where that have one of those evil continuous shuffle machines. I hate those things, I’m very suspicious of them, but in my drunken state I just feel like spiting this guy … so I sit down and gesture to him like, “Is this OK?” He nods, and the dealer deals to me.
Well I bet $300, lose, bet $500 lose, then I decide, well what the heck, and I bet $1,000! I get a 9 and a 2, double down on the 11 making $2,000 bet on the hand. Lo and behold - a beatiful King of Spades gets laid upon my 11, making me 21 to the dealer’s 18 - a $2,000 win! I looked over and smiled at the pit critter with the napoleon complex and he was steaming mad… smoke was practically coming out of his ears, and he slammed his hand down on the pit clerk’s station! I just shrugged and said, “See, double deck or not doesn’t really matter … I move over here and win anyway! I’m just on a lucky streak tonight!”
So I picked up my chips, now about $11,400 or so, and went and cashed them at the cage. I had to fill out a cash transaction report, because Lord knows we wouldn’t want me to have an extra $10,000 that the federal government didn’t steal from so they can buy votes from welfare recipients or meddle around in other countries with it!
So… let’s look at a couple of things here …
1) I wasn’t really counting cards. I did not have a mathematical advantage on the house. I did not have a guaranteed winning edge. I thought this was obvious, by the way I was playing, and that it wouldn’t matter to them if I won since it was mostly just luck and good guessing. Good guessing, just like winning in baccarat - you put down the big bets when you have a hunch that you’re going to win. Noticing small cards for a couple of hands is not counting and does not give you a mathematical edge on the casinos. I thought this mattered to them, but ….
I WAS WRONG! It doesn’t matter to a lot of these “sweat shop” type casinos HOW you are winning, they just don’t want you to win!
2) If you play well, and you win, expect to get a lot of heat (pit attention, scowls, unpleasantness, shuffle-ups, etc., etc.) especially at the low-end sweat shops like this place, regardless of whether you actually have some advantage on them or not. They don’t really want a lot of action in some of the older, more run-down properties! They don’t want to lose … PERIOD … to ANYONE …. at ANY TIME!! Especially, for some reason, at table games.
Don’t let anyone tell you differently. I knew from hundreds of hours of computer simulations and blackjack practice, that I was capable of a good-sized win like this $10,000 plus session. I thought some of the casino personnel at this place were my friends, I had asked “What if I win, say 10 or 20 thousand? Will they care? I don’t want to wear out my welcome!” and I was told, “Oh, no! No, no… don’t worry about it… it happens all the time… they know they’ll get their money back from you if you play enough !” Well that turned out to be total HORSEHOCKEY and the fact is, that my little $10k win DID bother these people … I later found out I was permanently banned from playing their double deck game, which is the only fair game at this place. The others are either continuous shuffle machines or pay 6/5 on blackjack. Both are highly disadvantageous to the player and are not fair games … they don’t want you to have even a CHANCE to win on their table games and I think that’s very true of many, many casinos.
3) Keep your wits about you. Notice if you are getting lots of heat. I thought I was in a safe a friendly place, I didn’t think a little win mattered considering how much I had lost there over time, but I was wrong. If I had been more sober, I would have figured out that I was about to get backed off and stopped playing way before that happened.
Now, in some places, you may not really care. If you’re winning, and you don’t care what they think, keep playing as long as you are winning until if and when they back you off. Those winning sessions are rare enough that you need to get the maximum you can out of them to have a chance of staying at least somewhat even. But if you care about the place, like I used to care about this place, then keep your sessions short. Leave before you get backed off or barred. This keeps your playing life alive at that shop and keeps you earning comps.
4) Realize that the casinos, for whatever reason, treat table games and especially blackjack it seems, differently than they treat slots or video poker, or what have you. If I had won $10,000 playing slots …. why hell, they’d be publicizing it, taking my picture with handfuls of cash and putting it up on a “winner’s wall”!! They’d be saying “Congratulations! We love winners! Hooray!” But win at blackjack and you’re automatically a suspect. You must be “doing something” !!?!? Go figure. I personally don’t get what the difference is, other than that slots have a higher house edge, and don’t involve skill at all. They don’t like skill, any kind of skill, period. They want you to sit and play like an idiot and deposit your chips in their rack like you’re the casino’s little ATM machines. You aren’t supposed to win and if you do, they don’t want to play with you. Especially, again, at the older, run-down kind of sweat shop properties.
We’re looking into publishing some articles about playing Video Poker for comp purposes. For some reason, because it’s a machine, the casinos treat VP differently than blackjack - even though a skilled VP player can get that house edge way, way down there and maybe even find some machines with a slight player advantage. But because this falls under the slot side of the house, they treat it differently than blackjack.
5) Realize that, casino personnel are not your friend and that some casinos are completely willing to cut their nose off to spite their face. You may be a good customer. You may be showing a clear lifetime profit with them. You may have plenty of losing sessions and paid hotel and restaurant charges with them and feel like you are a good customer. You may have great relationships with the casino’s dealer, wait staff, pit personnel, and hosts - well guess what?
HAVE ONE WINNING SESSION AND NONE OF THAT MAY MATTER !!!!
I know! It doesn’t make any sense does it? Throw away a lifetime profitable customer because he or she gets lucky one night, or shows skill but not a mathematical advantage at a card game …. it really doesn’t make good business sense does it ??? Guess what … THEY DON’T CARE if it makes good business sense. Most of the effort they put into “counter catching” and “countermeasures” and so forth and so on, has been shown to make poor business sense. It’s not profitable for the casino to shuffle up all the time. It’s not profitable to move the cut card shallower in the deck, etc., etc. It’s not profitable to offend or lose hundreds of blackjack players that lose to the house (and their wives, friends, etc.) just to prevent that 1 in 1,000 that can actually play with an advantage. It’s just not! Again, let’s emphasize this… THEY DON’T CARE about the bottom line business sense of it. You’re beating them one night, and THEY JUST DON’T LIKE IT, it has to be because “YOU’RE DOING SOMETHING” even if they don’t have a clue as to what that might be or if you have an actual advantage. You’re winning, they’re losing, it’s not supposed to be that way. So get rid of you. That’s the attitude of the typical uneducated, no business sense, old school casino assistant manager or shift manager.
Realize, the people in these positions at the older or mid-to-low level properties aren’t exactly the cream of the crop, OK? They didn’t get there because they have an MBA from a top B-school! No, they came up from the bottom and they still have a bottom-feeder attitude. Realize this, and use it to your own advantage in observing and dealing with these types.
Now one last thing… let me contrast this experience with some of the other properties in town, properties we’ll be promoting to our readers here at Larry’s Las Vegas.
I recently was comped a whole weekend, room, food, and beverage at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. i played a LOT of blackjack there. There were several times when I bought in for, say $1200 and worked it up to $5000 or more, with the same type of betting and playing that got me banned at the “unnamed” casino in my story above. Guess what? The Hard Rock didn’t bat an eye at me. They don’t sweat piddly 4-figure action. They have actual big players there! There was never a dealer change, a shuffle-up, a lot of heat, or anything like that. They were extremely friendly and professional. And you know what? I enjoyed playing there so much, that I lost most of my winnings back just from playing so much. I didn’t even really mind very much, because they made playing with them a nice experience. They made money on my play. A lot of very professional casino people there, and guess what?
Not one uneducated little banty rooster in the bunch!
Until Next Time, Good Luck at the Tables …
- Sid
