Fast Game, Fast Money: the Grifters Of New York

Next time you're wondering what the hell all of those cardboard boxes are doing on the streets of New York, you'll know: they're abandoned places of business--makeshift card tables for itinerant grifters. Writer/director Pericles Lewnes takes his video camera (camouflaged) out to the mean streets of the Big Apple, where posing as a homeless man he surreptitiously records the dealers, shills, and lookouts--grifters all--who practice the shell game and 3-card monte on unsuspecting passersby. Lewnes provides sardonic voice-over as we see instances of shills (who pretend to be innocent players and hustle newcomers to take a chance), listen to a professional grifter describe his trade ("on Wall St., we clean `em up..."), and meet John Dodge, a sleight-of-hand expert, who shows viewers exactly how the card dealer and shell game operator ply their trade, and why the player (or "mark") can never win. The hand is definitely quicker than the eye. Part "how-to," or rather how-not-to, and part documentary, Fast Game, Fast Money is an eye-opening exposé which offers a few good laughs (and some groans) in a fairly artful presentation. And, personally, I think this is a step up for director Lewnes, whose last film I watched (half of) was Redneck Zombies. Recommended. (R. Pitman)