The Card counter

The Card counter
Original title:The Card counter
Director:Paul Schrader
Release:Cinema
Running time:109 minutes
Release date:10 september 2021
Rating:
William Tell, a former military man turned poker player, is a loner and a mute. He travels the casinos fleeing a past that haunts him. He crosses paths with Cirk, an unstable young man obsessed with getting revenge on a high-ranking officer with whom Tell once had a falling out. As he prepares for a decisive tournament, Tell takes Cirk under his wing, determined to steer him away from the paths of violence he once knew too well...

Mulder's Review

Discovered during the Deauville American Film Festival, the new film written and directed by Paul Schrader is a perfectly mastered thriller. Known as one of the best screenwriters (Taxi drive (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The mosquito coast (1986), City Hall (1996)) he has built a solid filmography as a director by approaching police dramas (Blue collar (1978), Hardcoe (1979), American Ggolo (1980), the fantastic (Cat people (1982)) and especially violent thrillers in which he excels (The Canyons (2013), First Reformed (2017)) The Card Counter easily stands out as one of his best films and places at the center of the story a former military interrogator from Abu Ghraib consumed by the past and who has turned into a professional poker player.

William Tell (Oscar Isaac) is released from prison after serving time for torturing detainees at Abu Ghraib. A loner and a maniac, he has learned many things in prison, including counting cards. Not wishing to be dependent on anyone, he became a nomadic gambler and earned his living by traveling from casino to casino, not wishing to win much so as not to be noticed. He seems unable to rebuild himself psychologically from his past as a torturer and pours out his heart in his diary to exorcise his demons. However, his meeting with a young teenager, Cirk (Tye Sheridan), whose father was, like William Tell, a torturer at Abu Ghraib and who committed suicide, will challenge his way of life. Cirk is driven by his desire to get rid of Major John Gondo (Willem Dafoe) who was responsible for his father and William. William takes Cirk under his wing and joins a poker circuit in order to win enough to help free the young man from his obsessive quest for revenge. William's quest for redemption through poker is aided by a brilliant financier named Linda (Tiffany Haddish) who sees in him an excellent poket player. Unfortunately, things will not go as planned.

If The Card Counter is an excellent thriller, it is thanks to the script and the inspired direction of Paul Schrader who conceives cinema as a real visual and deep exploration of the human soul. It would be interesting to compare this film to his previous film First Reformed as it seems to follow the same mold and inspiration. Fascinating and disturbing at the same time, this film gains in intensity by the presence of an excellent cast like Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and in a minimalist supporting role Willem Dafoe. 

As in his previous films, the director and screenwriter Paul Schrader conveys in his films a bitter observation of the American society. In this case, The Card Player does not hesitate to denounce the malpractices of the American army and especially to point the finger at the immunity of certain protagonists seeing in their power a way to exercise intense psychological torture (some images of the film are unbearable to watch). The war in Iraq, which was at the center of his previous film First Reformed, is again at the center of the story and shows the director's critical look at an America that seems to have lost its bearings. It is also interesting to see that in most of Paul Schrader's films there is the important theme of obsession and people who seem ready to do anything to succeed in whatever they undertake.

If the Card Counter is gripping and also totally immersive it is because it shows that Paul Schrader has lost none of his sense of observation and that writing is at the very center of his art. He delivers here not only impressive characters eaten up by the past but also gives these actors enough material to allow them to give their best. In this respect, Oscar Isaac and Tye Sheridan, used to Hollywood blockbusters, reveal here real new strong facets of their acting.  Their duo at the very center of the story appears as a relationship between a substitute father and a son consumed by the past. The result is a perfectly mastered and captivating film that we can only advise you to discover.

The Card Counter
Written and Directed by Paul Schrader
Produced by Braton Pope, Lauren Mann, David M. Wulf & Martin Scorsese
Starring Oscar Isaac, Tye Sheridan, Tiffany Haddish, Willem Dafoe, Ekaterina Baker, Amye Gousset
Music by Robert Levon Been & Giancarlo Vulcano
Cinematography : Alexander Dynan
Edited by Benjamin Rodriguez Jr. 
Production companies : HanWay Films, LB Entertainment
Distributed by Condor Distribution
Release date : September 2021 (Venice), September 10, 2021 (United States)
Running time : 109 minutes

Seen on September 6, 2021 at the Centre International de Deauville

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