The first teaser for Molly’s Game—the directorial debut of Aaron Sorkin—has dropped, and you might want to make sure you’re sitting down before you get to its shocking reveal.
Molly’s Game centers around the person who, for a decade, ran the country’s most exclusive high-stakes poker game, a game whose players included some of the richest, most famous, and most powerful men in the world. And, that person, that very same person who ran that super-exclusive poker game, was (gasp) a 26-year-old woman. I know, right?! Who would’ve thought a woman could run a poker night? To paraphrase John Francis Donaghy, a female poker game organizer is an oxymoron, like “liberal government” or “female scientist.”
GIF from the teaser by Slate
Of course, this is just a teaser for a trailer of a movie, but the big “26-year-old woman” reveal is laughable and feels like Hollywood patting itself on the back. The movie very well may be fun and compelling. However, it’s notable that a constant critique throughout Sorkin’s career has been over his inability to do justice to gender dynamics and his female characters in general (see: The Newsroom). Oh, and there was also that whole controversy over Sorkin kicking one of The Newsroom’s female writers, Alena Smith, out of the writers’ room, because she objected to part of the show’s campus rape episode. Oh, and then there was that thing he said at the Writers Guild Festival last year.
Welp. I’m sure Molly’s Game will be fine.
The first official trailer for Molly’s Game will be released sometime tomorrow. The film itself is slated to release on Nov. 22, at which time who knows what other astonishing truths might be revealed.
