21 | Denster Project

Ben Campbell is a young, highly intelligent student at M.I.T. who strives to succeed. Wanting a scholarship to transfer to Harvard School of Medicine to become a doctor, Ben learns that he cannot afford the $300,000 tuition as he comes from a poor, working-class background. But one evening, Ben is introduced by his unorthodox math professor to a small but secretive club of five students, Jill, Choi, Kianna, and Fisher, who are being trained by Professor Rosa to count cards at blackjack.

Inspired by the true story of five students
who changed the game forever.

My Two Cents

21 is one of those slick, entertaining films that makes you feel smarter just by watching it. It mixes math, ambition, and temptation into a Vegas-set thrill ride that’s easy to follow but still engaging. It’s not trying to reinvent cinema. It just wants to entertain you for two hours, and it does that pretty well.

I first watched this on October 9, 2016, and I’ve gone back to watch it several times since.

It’s stylish, engaging, and moves at a steady pace, even if it leans into familiar storytelling beats. t’s the kind of movie you won’t overthink but you’ll definitely enjoy while it lasts.

“Every card had a value. A high card, minus one. A low card, plus one. The rest, zero. I was studying all day, every day. But it wasn’t physics, chemistry and engineering. I was back to simple math, used in ways I could never have imagined. The team had a system. And to go unnoticed, we created a whole new language. Words were numbers, and numbers were words.“
Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess)