[Image](https://www.filmaffinity.com/ve/filmimages.php?movie_id=169413)
Russell Crowe continues to break new ground as a provocative auteur with Poker Face, a smoky neo-noir that plunges the viewer into Sydney's underworld.
Shannon Murphy's cinematography endows the grim setting with a seductive intoxication that threatens order but awakens desires that are equally disturbingly human.
Crowe proves a towering anti-hero, a charming rogue and an unhinged wild card armed with an incisive wit.
But Liam Hemsworth arouses sympathy as the prodigal son embroiled in paternal sins that are not his own.
[Image](https://www.filmaffinity.com/ve/filmimages.php?movie_id=169413)
As their fates intersect amid moral darkness, Crowe lays psychological traps in every stylised twist as he probes the fragile codes of masculinity.
Though some may quibble with its ambiguity, Poker Face validates Crowe's risky vision, blurring the lines between sympathy and repulsion as life does to keep the audience's eyes furrowed and guessing.
A 21st century Chinatown without handles, Poker Face demands and rewards re-watching to unfold its complex soul. A masterpiece for the new outsider era.