Forgotten Film Friday: The Cooler

A retrospective by Brooks Rich

This is one of those films I just can't believe isn't more well known. It is one of the best modern films about Las Vegas and also one of the best Neo-noirs. The early 2000s was a weird time for film and during that transition from the '90s a lot of indie films like this popped up. The Cooler is one of my favorites form around that time, not only for it's take on Neo-noir but for it's subversion of the Vegas/gambling genre.

William H. Macy plays a man named Bernie, a professional cooler whose bad luck is used to stop the winning streak of someone on a heater at one of the tables. He cools the table as it is. When he falls in love with a waitress, played by Maria Bello, his luck begins to change and he loses his ability to cool tables, putting him in the crosshairs of his shady bossy, a chilling Alec Baldwin.

Macy is one of our best actors and I feel he doesn't get the recognition he deserves. He should have won an Oscar for his performance in Fargo and he should have been nominated for this film. The only Academy Award nomination this film got was for Alec Baldwin, who is good in this, and any accolades for acting for The Cooler went to Baldwin or Bello. Awards of course aren't everything but ignoring Macy's performance on any level just seems wrong. He is so good at playing a hapless schmuck and Bernie seems to be a role he was born to play.

Director Wayne Kramer, who wrote the film with Frank Hannah, paints a picture of a bleak Vegas that is pushing its away towards the future. The old school Vegas is on it's way out, being replaced by modern ways of making the casinos wins. This isn't glamorous Vegas like in Ocean's Eleven. This is the scummy and dark side of Vegas, populated by reprobates and the people they control. Baldwin is an old school Vegas bad guy, suave yet cruel, who is friends with his employees only if they are making him money.

The Cooler is streaming on Hulu and Amazon right now. Check it out.

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