William Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk. But keeping Cirk on the straight-and-narrow proves impossible, dragging Tell back into the darkness of his past.
I had a little trouble following the story, and I thought it was somewhat dark. I am sure there is an audience for this kind of production, but I struggled to make it to the end. On the plus side, Oscar Isaac did a good job portraying his part.⭐⭐⭐
A confused mess... Spoilers towards the end are flagged.
The main storyline is only driven by a strange decision by an older man to invite an obviously mentally unstable 20 something year old man on an all expenses paid road trip across America... For reasons, the mentally unstable man then decides, as any guy in his early 20's when propositioned to be escorted across country in a car by a virtual stranger as a Piaf companion, he says yes... The whole movie is spent guessing at the relationships, one minute the mentally unstable kid is "an insolent little prick" the next he's "a good kid that needs help". You see the love interest saddened by the fact the main character regards her, essentially a stranger, as a friend but then just goe...
FULL SPOILER-FREE REVIEW @ https://www.msbreviews.com/movie-reviews/the-card-counter-spoiler-free-review
"The Card Counter is a protagonist-driven narrative focused on a hauntingly captivating redemption arc intensely elevated by an exceptional lead performance from Oscar Isaac. The actor ends his remarkable year interpreting a complex, mysterious character with who viewers must connect in order to truly enjoy Paul Schrader's layered storytelling.
From the effective flashbacks and rich narration to the unexpected final plot developments, the writer-director tackles guilt and moral responsibility in a somewhat convoluted manner with a few pacing issues.
Despite a rather expository first act too centered on gambling information, this...
I'm not quite sure what I was expecting - but this rather meandering drama left me leaving the cinema asking what or whom this film was for? Oscar Isaac ("William Tell") is a gambler - a successful, under the radar kind of fellow - with a military past steeped in trauma. He encounters a young man "Cirk" (Tye Sheridan) with whom he has something in common - both men have suffered at the hands of his former CO "Gordo" (Willem Dafoe). The older man, wishes to temper the anger and lust for revenge of the younger, and takes him under his wing. Except, well, he doesn't really. He takes him on tours of the poker games, shares his winnings, introduces him to his fixer "La Linda" (Tiffany Haddish). That, though, is all he seems to be offering the yo...
Its fitting that The Card Counters protagonists last name is Tell. Not because he has one (as played by Oscar Isaac, he doesnt have a poker face so much as he is perennially inexpressive), but because writer/director Paul Schrader (unusually phoning it in) lazily favors telling over 'showing.
One would think that the dude whos written or co-written arguably the top four Martin Scorsese films could come up with something better than a glorified poker tutorial, complete with visual aids.
To put it in perspective, consider Robert Altmans infinitely superior California Split, in which We dont need to know anything about gambling to understand the odyssey [the protagonists] undertake to the tracks, to the private poker parties, to bars, to...
A quintessentially Paul Schrader-esque movie. It certainly is not everyone's cup of tea. It's very dark and it's all in the head. Having friends, though, who survived Vietnam and another who still suffers PTSD from Iraq, I rather enjoyed this psychological drama. It brings a sense of closure to true atrocity of war.