150 Word Review: 'California Split' (1974)

Wild cards

Photo: Columbia Pictures

There's a surprising moment of intimacy between charming, down-on-their-luck gamblers Elliot Gould and George Segal right after their meet-cute at a poker hall in California Split.

They both survive a beating from a thug who thought they were card cheats, and later, in his dingy bathroom, Gould applies warming shaving cream to Segal's bruises. They become besties quickly, brainstorming get-rich-quick schemes.

Robert Altman's 1974 bromantic dramedy is a sad tour of rock bottom in 1970's Los Angeles, where the sun shines equally on the living and the dead. Altman is sympathetic to these lowlifes and their friends, including Gould's roommate/lover, a sex worker mentoring a lonely young woman.

Gould and Segal are both tender and terrifying as a pair of bumbling, bigoted slobs with broken noses chasing a high that can only be found at the summit of a winning streak or in the pits of a losing slump.

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Random Ranking

Top 5 Robert Altman Movies

5. 'Gosford Park' (2001)

4. 'Popeye' (1980)

3. 'McCabe and Mrs. Miller' (1971)

2. 'The Player' (1992)

1. 'Nashville' (1975)

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