3. Hard Eight (1996) - Taunting At The Craps Table
The first collaboration in what would become a lifelong friendship between Hoffman and director Paul Thomas Anderson is a short, single-scene appearance in Hard Eight. The film follows Philip Baker Hall's gambling fixer Sydney as he meets a young man and helps him get his life straight. One night in the casino Sydney quietly stands at the craps table opposite a loud, boisterous young drunk who figures himself a gambling pro, and the exchange that follows is one of the simplest, best scenes in a very good film. Hoffman's character has no name and appears nowhere else in the film, but inside a single scene he manages an incredible shift in emotion, from cockiness to awe to embarrassment to humility all in the span of three short minutes.
