The Card Counter (2021) Dir. Paul Schrader

From Taxi Driver to First Reformed, writer-director Paul Schrader has specialised in psychologically damaged and lonely male protagonists and it continues here in his new crime drama.

Oscar Isaac plays William “Tell” who has learnt card-counting whilst in prison, and on his release bets small amounts to stay under a casino’s radar. Despite his friend La Linda (Tiffany Haddish) offering a large stake he sticks to his self-imposed rules but not before crossing paths with young hot-head Cirk (Tye Sheridan).

Cirk tells how he lost his family owing to the actions of Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe). And he reveals his knowledge of Tell’s secret that he took the fall for the abuses committed by Gordo at Abu Ghraib prison during the Iraq war.

Isaac does well with the moral darkness that perpetually permeates all of Schrader’s film work and Sheridan is the perfect quarrelsome foil who searches for a partner in crime to enact revenge but also perhaps a much-needed father figure.

The gambling takes mostly second fiddle to a broken man trying to avoid further violence – whilst encouraging Cirk to do the same – and a security convention, high-rolling money and “USA” chants from one of the blackjack players all act as symbols for Schrader’s real malaise.

A dirty, seedy but extremely watchable parable on the “American Dream” trope, Schrader doubles down on familiar themes he’s hit before.

Yet The Card Counter uses a brilliantly introverted Oscar Isaac performance and cold but meaningful cinematography to further explore the internal and global values of the modern United States and the effects on its discarded citizens.

★★★★

Michael Sales