Casino

Director: Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese

1995 / 178min / DCP

Scorsese’s operatic recounting of how organized crime built a gambler’s paradise out of the Nevada desert in Las Vegas. Stars Robert De Niro as expert handicapper “Ace” Rothstein and Joe Pesci as mob enforcer Nicky Santoro, the maniacal muscle who does Ace’s dirty work, both sent west to head operations at the Tangiers Casino—which makes money hand over fist, until an impetuous, street smart hustler named Ginger (Sharon Stone, in a magnificently frayed performance) drives a wedge between the two men. A film as extravagant as the gaudy milieu it depicts, and a savagely funny depiction of moral rot amidst obscene opulence.