We’ve all been in that scenario when we have to get our arms on some huge cash…and quick. Filmmakers Ben Ducoff and Ammon Carmi take us into the seedy world of the underground card room of their comedy/thriller, Yaniv.
Bernstein (Ben Ducoff) is a passionate highschool trainer within the Bronx. In cost of the college’s theater program, this yr’s manufacturing of Little Shop of Horrors is about to be shut down attributable to district price range cuts. Bernstein wants $10,000 and quick.
As luck would have it, Bernstein stumbles throughout the unique New York Yaniv Club run by Mendy (Adam B. Shapiro), the Hasidic Jewish proprietor of the North American Table Games company. For the uninitiated (like me), Yaniv is a gin-style sport performed for cash, the place 4 gamers are dealt 5 playing cards, and like gin, decide up and discard playing cards in your hand every spherical. The objective is to have a hand of lesser worth than seven. Now add a dozen guidelines to screw with getting there, and you’ve got Yaniv.
Overhearing Bernstein’s plan is his fellow trainer, Jonah (Eli Bos), who tells Bernstein he shall be destroyed as Yaniv just isn’t a sport of luck however monitoring your opponents’ progress. Over the years, Jonah has grow to be a high-skilled card counter, and Bernstein begs Jonah to go together with him to the sport, and he’ll stake him. To keep away from any look of collusion on the desk, Jonah should be disguised as a religious Hasidic Jew with a Homburg hat, full beard, and payot to finish the disguise.
“As luck would have it, Bernstein stumbles throughout the unique New York Yaniv Club…”
Yaniv is paying homage to an indie model of Rounders (a film that spurred my playing dependancy and the most effective 5 years of my life). Taking place over a single night time, Yaniv accomplishes two targets. The first is to immerse us totally into the underground world of Yaniv. Don’t be mistaken. This sect of ultra-orthodox Judaism is critical concerning the sport, the cash, and the honest play. This isn’t your mom’s month-to-month sport of Bridge. The adrenaline flows fiercely on this sport of luck and technique, and even the looks of dishonest can result in dire penalties.
Like Rounders, Yaniv is about Bernstein, a trainer who loves his college students and is prepared to go the additional mile to return via on the promise of manufacturing a highschool musical. His motivations are pure, and his ardour is full. When issues go incorrect, it’s his scholar on his thoughts.
Balancing off Bernstein’s ardour is Jonah’s reinvigorated playing dependancy. Having lived a “sober” life together with his spouse, Emma (Rachel Luciani), and their unborn little one, Bernstein had no thought the beast he was about to unleash his good friend.
Of course, there’s a love curiosity for Bernstein in Deb (Annabel Steven), who helps Bernstein put together for the college’s manufacturing. I solely carry this up because the filmmakers make use of an ingenious low-budget indie trick that solutions the query, what do you do when you possibly can’t afford the music proper for a Broadway play…you rewrite the musical.
Yaniv is a enjoyable and humorous thriller with quite a lot of coronary heart. Ducoff and Carmi take us on a enjoyable journey right into a world nobody exterior New York knew existed. The pair balances this enjoyable with a way of hazard, conserving this comedy grounded sufficient to take its plot critically. There’s additionally a solid of “wacky” characters in Mendy and the Rebbe (Amnon Carmi) to maintain us on our toes.
Though I wished to get a way of how the high-paced sport of Yaniv is performed from a strategic standpoint (like Rounders…sorry to maintain bringing this up), the story of a trainer risking his life for his college students wins out in the long run.
