'The Card Counter' Review

Counting cards can be broken into four simple steps: Assign a value to every card, keep a “Running Count” based on the values of the card dealt, use this information to calculate the count per deck, and change your bets as the true count rises. These fundamental principles are introduced in the opening scene of Paul Schrader's 'The Card Counter'. Paul Schrader is an acclaimed screenplay writer ('Taxi Driver'/'Raging Bull') as well as directing, most notably, 'First Reformed'. Starring Oscar Isaac in the leading role and supported by Tiffany Haddish and Tye Sheridan, 'The Card Counter' hooks the viewer in with its intrigue and leaves the viewer with more than enough complex ideas to ruminate on.

Oscar Isaac portrays William Tell who also goes by “Will Tell,” whose name alludes to both the classic fable and the act of giving away the strength of one's cards in poker. The audience is made aware that he is an ex-special ops soldier who, for reasons later revealed, was given a ten-year prison sentence when he was working in Iraq. The film opens with Tell recently leaving jail, having served his term, and spending his time gambling, using card counting skills he acquired in prison. He lives by his gambling philosophy to bet small and win modestly to avoid detection from casino managers. But Tell doesn’t enjoy gambling for a living, despite his profound success. To Will, gambling is a vice, which is why he spends his days living isolated from the rest of the world and confined within a cell of his creation, whose bars are made of all the actions from his past he has been trying to forget, and the guilt and regret he carries with him at all times. The man behind the "poker face" is purposely ambiguous, but, as the film unfolds, more and more is revealed, forming the image of an imperfect man and the secrets he keeps hidden.

Eventually, Will stumbles upon La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), a "stable runner", a mediator for a group of investors who back gamblers for a portion of their winnings, and Cirk (Tye Sheridan), the son of a military vet who served with Will and whose own guilt compelled him to kill himself. Cirk has a proposition for Will: to abduct the military contractor who trained the torturers, who got off scot-free, and give him a taste of his own medicine. Hearing this, Will takes Cirk on the road with him, hoping to raise enough poker winnings to get Cirk out of debt and to impart sufficient life experience to subdue Cirk’s urge for violence. As Tell makes a series of choices, whose ultimate aim only becomes clearer to us as the film progresses, Cirk and La Linda’s presence in his life also affects him, altering his journey in unexpected ways and eventually offering him another choice that might just lead him towards redemption.

From this description, the film's central focus is less about poker and more about a man with a tough exterior, who keeps his "poker face" on even when he’s not playing, contrasted by his true identity hidden beneath the surface. Oscar Isaac portrays this perfectly by balancing the emotional intensities of his character and the eerily composed persona that he feigns. Proving incredible commitment to the character, Isaac excels at showing us as little emotion as possible when Tell goes through the motions of his everyday life, only to let it all out at key moments in the film. Likewise, Tye Sheridan embodies Cirk with confidence and shows a young man who might not have experienced as much as Tell, but who’s just as real and multi-dimensional. Tiffany Haddish imbues La Linda with a disarming ardor that makes us instantly like her, and her encapsulating, larger-than-life personality exists to protect her emotional vulnerabilities.

Additionally, the cinematography by Alexander Dynan is otherworldly. He gives the casinos and the faceless motels an almost crepuscular glow, so the whole film has a slightly vampiric atmosphere. The flashback sequences are vivid and traumatic, which is reflected in the fish-eyed lens of the camera that conveys feelings of angst and nervousness. There is also a multitude of shots that convey different meanings about the current state of characters and how they are transforming over the runtime through off-centered frames and slow pan-ins.

Ultimately, 'The Card Counter' is a complex film, and one that asks you to be patient as each plot fragment forms a broader picture, one after the other. But it’s also a rewarding watch, offering a compelling mystery to solve, a series of incredibly human characters, and more than one unexpected twist that suddenly alter the pace of the film, demanding our attention with a script that contains enough intrigue to draw us in, enough surprises to keep us hooked, and enough clever developments and witty quotes to make us ponder life’s big questions. I encourage everyone to watch ‘The Card Counter’ and experience Paul Schrader’s filmmaking first hand and if you do let me know your thoughts.