Hard Eight

Hard Eight is a 1996 American crime thriller film written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow and Samuel L. Jackson. There are also brief appearances by Robert Ridgely, Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Melora Walters. The film, originally titled Sydney, was Anderson's first feature; Hall, Reilly, Ridgely, Hoffman and Walters acted in Anderson's subsequent films. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Sydney (Philip Baker Hall), a gambler in his 60s, finds a young man, John (John C. Reilly), sitting forlornly outside a diner and offers to give him a cigarette and buy him a cup of coffee. Sydney learns that John is trying to raise enough...