After a run of bad luck, John (Steve Buscemi), a compulsive gambler, runs away from Las Vegas towards a normal job and life. Taking a nondescript position in an auto insurance company in Albuquerque, he tries to get ahead in the straight world, amid the ever-present temptations of scratch-off lotto tickets.
But fate leads him back towards Las Vegas and temptation when John’s boss, Mr. Townsend (Peter Dinklage) asks John to accompany his top fraud debunker, Virgil (Romany Malco) on an investigation of a dubious car “accident” near Vegas. Before leaving, he becomes involved with his eccentric co-worker Jill (Sarah Silverman), a dalliance that has the potential to become a real relationship.
Soon John is on the road with Virgil, where they encounter a series of offbeat characters, including a wheelchair-bound stripper (Emmanuelle Chriqui), a nude militant (Tim Blake Nelson), a park Ranger (Jesse Garcia), and a carnival human torch (John Cho). While Virgil is the supposed leader of the investigation, it’s John who begins to finally assert himself, pushing the case closer to a conclusion.
Through the journey, John’s confidence builds, and he realizes that he can’t escape his gambling addiction by running away. It’s only when he returns to Vegas that he finds himself on the path to breaking free.
First time writer/director Hue Rhodes’ Saint John of Las Vegas is a wild and funny journey through the literal and figurative desert and into the mind of a gambler who has to discover that there’s more than one way to hit the jackpot in life.

Opens in Toronto on Feb. 5

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