Logging

Film:  The Gambler

They don't make films like this anymore.  Small dramas.  I guess it just goes on TV.  I miss them.  This isn't quite as good as The Verdict or Thief, but is hunts in the same waters.  TV goes on for too long and inevitably will become contrived or require spinning off into different characters.  There are rare exceptions, of course, but let's not discuss those.

Then again, they are remaking the film.  So what the hell am I talking about?

UPDATE:  Thinking about the career of James Toback.  Strange one, right?  I haven't seen most of his stuff, but consider this:

The Gambler (1974) - Writer
Fingers (1978) - Writer/Director
Love and Money (1982) -Writer/Director/Producer
Exposed (1983) - Writer/Director/Producer
The Pick-up Artist (1987) - Writer/Director
The Big Bang (1989) - Writer/Director
Bugsy (1991) - Writer
Two Girls and a Guy (1997) - Writer/Director
Black and White (1999) - Writer/Director
Harvard Man (2001) - Writer/Director
When Will I Be Loved (2004) - Writer/Director
Tyson (2008) - Writer/Director/Producer

What would you call such a filmography?  There is no linear progression from this-to-this-to-this, like with many filmmakers.  No big hits.  No big breakouts or comebacks.  He goes from different forms - screenwriter to writer/director, back to writer, to documentary.  There are big time gaps and then little ones.  Movies no one watches or talks about and then medium hits that are occasionally referenced.  There is "James Toback" element to all the films, though, as if this is vital and perhaps important to the selling of the movie (as opposed to Irving Thalberg or Robert Towne or others who have 'mysterious' uncredited influences on tons of movies).

Just strange - almost because I never hear anyone even talk about James Toback - but the name seems to mean something.