Hard Eight

The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps

One of the best films of the year.

Los Angeles Times John Anderson

Anderson, who makes as impressive a directing debut as has been seen in some time, creates a perfectly modulated mystery that doesn't even feel like one. It's a character play, and Hall, Reilly and Paltrow are so convincingly damaged they take on the properties of fine china.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Impressive for its lean and unblemished storytelling, but even more so for its performances.

Variety Joe Leydon

Four excellent lead performances, vividly evoked ambience and a masterfully sustained mood of quiet desperation mark Sydney as an impressive piece of work.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Movies like Hard Eight remind me of what original, compelling characters the movies can sometimes give us.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

The role of Jimmy is one of Mr. Jackson's scarier characters, and this brilliant actor inhabits all four corners of his jittery, avaricious personality. When he and Sydney finally clash, the movie makes its darkest, cleverest turn into film-noir nightmare.

Washington Post Kevin McManus

Paul Thomas Anderson shows off the same sort of quirky smarts that Joel and Ethan Coen did in "Blood Simple."

ReelViews James Berardinelli

There's something almost hypnotic about the way Hard Eight develops -- even in its slowest, most tedious moments, it keeps our attention.

USA Today Mike Clark

We accept the sincerity and altruistic motives of the aging loner he (Philip Baker Hall) portrays in this consciously spare Nevada-set sleeper. [13 March 1997, p. 8D]

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Writer-director Paul Thomas Anderson crafts a plot of manipulation and chance, in which some zigs and zags are more convincing than others. Still, his feel for scuzz, for people living at the raw extremes of appetite, is palpable.

Austin Chronicle Russell Smith

Hall, one of our least appreciated great actors, is mesmerizing as Sydney.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The plot is bare-bones stuff, weak in story line and bereft of motivation.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Ultimately, the material is so familiar that it's hard to work up any enthusiasm for another trip though the seamy underside of glittering gaming life.

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

Noirish thrillers live or die by their plot twists and dialogue -- talk literally being cheap compared to action shots. Unfortunately, the script by first-time filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson fails on both counts.