When I received an email asking me if I wanted to watch a brand new independent film starring John Travolta, Gina Gershon, and Lukas Haas, my first instinct was to say no. When I was told I might be able to interview Gina Gershon, I said sure, and watched Ives’ HIGH ROLLERS. What follows was my experience:
This film isn’t good, you guys, but I did watch the whole thing, not only because I had to. It’s a caper, and once I get into a caper, I can’t walk away. I’ve got to know if and how they’ll pull it off. I think that’s universal. That said, this is not a good caper.
The film opens with Travolta as Mason with Gershon as Amy on a beautiful beach, looking out at the crystal blue water. They are gathered with their friends and team to watch two of their own tie the knot, but before they can both conclude their “I dos,” attack helicopters descend, accompanied by SUVS filled with masked mercenaries. They are held at gunpoint and Amy is taken. In a blink, the baddies are gone and the team is unharmed - you know, like mercenaries are wont to do. Next, Mason is giving chase in his muscle car in a poorly edited road piece, concluding in a crash that likely accounts for the film’s entire budget.This is followed by the team grouped around a table while Mason exposition dumps their accolades for the sake of the audience.
They are contacted by the kidnappers and offered a job in exchange for Amy’s freedom - to gain access to a safe owned by a ruthless shrimp baron (?) in the penthouse of his New Orleans hotel/casino. The gang get to work with false identities as HIGH ROLLERS, all descending upon the casino, charming the staff and owner to gain an invite to a private poker game. Everything goes according to plan until it doesn’t, leading to Mason heading back to his room to calmly grab his nickel-plated handgun. We’re then treated to a prolonged shootout in a stairwell and a prolonged shootout in a shrimp factory with Mason’s gunmetal black handgun (?) before the film’s unusual and abrupt ending. I’ll let you discover that for yourself, but if you’ve seen WAYNE’S WORLD, it’s the third ending.
The film suffers from many maladies, but it gets a few things right, too. Gershon manages to shine in her few scenes with what she’s given, and Travolta turns on the old charm here and there. Some of the cinematography is impressive, capturing the grandeur of American non-Las Vegas casinos (if you’ve been to both kinds you know this is a very particular aesthetic). The action is all flat, very few character choices make any sense, the transitions are virtually nonexistent, and Lukas Haas is here, too. I occasionally felt lost by some of the narrative choices, which I alternated between being impressed and flabbergasted by, until I discovered five minutes before my interview with Gina Gershon that HIGH ROLLERS is a sequel to Ives’ CASH OUT. Turns out there was a whole movie’s worth of knowledge that I was missing out on. Knowing that now, will I watch CASH OUT? Well, a gambling man wouldn’t take that action, if you take my meaning.
I was careful in my interview with Gina Gershon not to linger on HIGH ROLLERS too long lest I be asked to verbalize a judgement call on the film. That suited me just fine as Gershon’s wider career is worth exploring far more than this flash in the pan. We discussed the whiplash of public and critical sentiment regarding SHOWGIRLS and “that” scene in William Friedkin’s KILLER JOE. (I will not be taking questions about that - you literally must see it and experience it for yourself.)
Eric McClanahan - Hello, Gina. How are you?
Gina Gershon - I’m good, thank you. How are you?
EM - I’m well, thank you so much. So we’re talking about the film HIGH ROLLERS, which I just found out five minutes ago is actually a sequel. I was watching the film and when it’s revealed that Shawn is Mason’s brother I thought “Was I supposed to know that?” Then I find out it’s a sequel and you are playing a recast Amelia Decker; tell me about stepping into that role?
GG - Well, I kind of feel like you do, a little bit. I haven’t even seen the finished product. I tried to watch a cut but the sound wasn’t working so I thought “Okay, well this is interesting.” I never saw the first one. I watched it to kind of catch up, but mostly I was just interested because I hadn’t worked with John [Travolta] since FACE/OFF so when they said “Hey do you wanna do this?” I read it and it seemed [good] and I really adore him and thought it would be fun to work with him again. So I asked “Am I the same person?” [in regards to Decker’s character] and I think they just weren’t really even talking about it so I just kind of went into it like I knew what was going on.
EM - That’s the best way to do it.
GG - Yeah, so your guess is as good as mine, Eric. So I went “All right!”
EM - So you were enticed with the prospect of working with John again yet in the film you two get separated immediately and you have a very singular storyline. Tell me about carrying Decker through her crisis.
GG - Well, yes, as you say, right at the very beginning I get basically kidnapped by “the baddies” and I’m just trying to survive. I think it’s one of these situations where I know how these guys work, I know how John[‘s character Mason] works - we met through work, so I know he’s very capable, his character - and, so, you know, you just try to survive and hope for the best.
EM - Well, this was a very physical role, as well, so was that a draw for you? To do something physical and keep that muscle trained?
GG - Yeah, I always love doing stunts and doing physical work, I think it’s really fun. And I liked that she wasn’t some damsel in distress; she’s perfectly capable of handling herself in that sort of situation. I like that. That she wasn’t just sort of “Oh my God, when am I going to be saved?” She takes matters into her own hands, and knowing that these guys are coming for her, she has faith in her husband. It takes teamwork, I guess.
EM - Exactly. And I think that’s a good message to take from the film. So while I’ve got you here, let’s talk about some of your legacy work. SHOWGIRLS is now a cult classic - how does that feel, these many years later, to see people embracing that film?
GG - You know, they were really embracing it much sooner, but it was kind of a moment of frenzy back then when the reviews and the press and everyone just turned against it, although secretly people were really saying “I love this movie!” It was curious because it felt like more of a cultural pressure to say “Okay, we all have to hate this movie now.” It was weird, and hey, listen, if you don’t like the movie then you don’t like the movie but then those people who were writing bad reviews, within like a year, they would come back to speak to me about something else saying “You know, I really like SHOWGIRLS.” Okay, so why did you write that you didn’t like it? Did you have to? Did you feel peer pressure? To me, that was more interesting than anything else. Listen, I had problems with the movie. I just watched it again recently and I actually liked it a lot more; I understood it more.
EM - It’s almost societal, like “Don’t you know you’re supposed to hate Nickelback and SHOWGIRLS?”
GG - [laughs] Are people supposed to hate Nickelback? I didn’t know that.
EM - They were, but not anymore. Now it’s not cool to hate Nickelback, but for a while there you were expected to.
GG - I’ll tell you, I’ll forever love the people, someone like Quentin Tarantino, when everyone was going against it, will come out with this big huge article saying “I love SHOWGIRLS! And these are the reasons why…” And I always appreciate, whether it’s about SHOWGIRLS or whatever it is, people that just speak their truth and they don’t go with the mob mentality. It was kind of an important, weird lesson - like this is so strange, why are people saying “Oh no, it’s terrible. It’s terrible. But secretly I really like it.” S,o okay, why don’t you just say you like it?
EM - Maybe SHOWGIRLS has more to tell us about ourselves than it does about anything else.
GG - It’s a cautionary tale about going with the mob mentality or just choosing to see things for yourself and decide for yourself. Because you can’t really believe anything that anyone’s telling you or what you’re seeing or what you’re hearing or what you’re reading in today’s world, anyway, so you have to really make these decisions for yourself.
EM - Yeah. Let’s talk about another controversial film - KILLER JOE, directed by the great William Friedkin whom we lost a couple of years back. I remember the first time I watched that movie I was blown away by its visceral nature. Tell me a bit about performing in that film.
GG - Oh my God! Well, I feel so lucky to have gotten to work with him, because he really was an incredible director. It’s a funny story because I remember that it came across my table years ago as a play and I read it and thought “God, the writing is incredible!” But then you get to that one scene that’s so infamous -
EM - And you think “That’s all anyone is going to take away from this film.”
GG - I literally was thinking “I can’t do this eight times a week.” I don’t think, mentally, I could do this. It really freaked me out. So when it came [to me as a movie], he worked so incredibly, almost like it was a play, so you really had to know what you were doing. You were really lucky if you got two takes of anything. You just have to come prepared, know what you’re doing, and do it, ‘cause they were long takes. For “that” scene I just said “I don’t want to talk about it. Just tell me where you want me, just the basics: where the cameras are going to be, where are we going to be. We’re doing this once and that’s it.” I couldn’t - I couldn’t think about it, because if I did I’d get too weirded out. I just had to be in it. And even to this day, I get kind of nauseous when that scene comes up; I really have a hard time watching it. I find myself turning away, and I don’t turn away easily when it comes to movies. So, yeah, it was a trip! Everyone was so good - it was really like doing a movie on steroids.
EM - That sounds about right. So, going back to HIGH ROLLERS being a sequel - if this crew gets roped into another adventure, would you sign on again?
GG - It depends on the script. It depends on everything surrounding it. It was a really nice crew! I liked the crew a lot. So I’d say sure but you know you don’t say sure until you read it. You’ve got to see what’s going on with it. Why? Do you think there will be another one?
EM - Like I said, I didn’t know this one was a sequel until five minutes ago, so anything can happen.
GG - Exactly, who knows? I don’t know. I don’t know anything. I’m in that state of mind today of “what’s going on?” I have no idea what’s going happening.
EM - Yeah, I’m kind of waiting for the world to tell me what’s up.
GG - Yeah, it is one of those days. Feels like that.
EM - Well thank you so much for taking the time to talk to me today. I really enjoyed this conversation and I look forward to talking to you again soon.
GG - Take care of yourself. Bye.
CASH OUT 2: HIGH ROLLERS is available now on all major streaming and Video on Demand retailers.
Until next time, take care of yourselves.
-McEric, aka Eric McClanahan-
