Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck's faux-hearty picaresque tale, about two gamblers on a road trip from Iowa to New Orleans, strains after atmosphere and only feigns a shaggy-¬dog free-spiritedness... Under their direction, Mendelsohn tips his hand and Reynolds channels the hangdog machismo of another cinematic Ryan—namely, Gosling. The actors flaunt craft, the script lays on the folksiness with a trowel, and scenes of local color seem to come straight from a guidebook.
Richard Brody
October 6, 2015