Oscar Isaac

Tiffany Haddish

Tye Sheridan

Willem Dafoe

Alexander Babara

Bobby C. King

Ekaterina Baker

Bryan Truong

Dylan Flashner

Adrienne Lau

Joel Michaely

Rachel Michiko Whitney

Muhsin Fliah

Joseph Singletary

Kirill Sheynerman

Amia Edwards

Britton Webb

Amye Gousset

Billy Slaughter

Shane LeCocq

Olivia Peck

Rob Eubanks

April Alsbury

Marlon Hayes

Alireza Mirmontazeri

Fran Robertson

Brittney Souther

Kate Lyn Whitaker

Luca De Massis

Justin Hazen Williams

Lisa Madonna

Robert Levon Been

Giancarlo Vulcano

Megan Gorley

Ryan McCormick

Bennique Blasini

Steven M. Blasini

Ben Wilkins

Colin Rogers

Jared Orlando

Beau Emory

Dane Butler

Susan Shopmaker

Dina Juntila

Anders Erdén

James Swarbrick

Kathryn M. Moseley

Catherine Boily

Tiffany Boyle

Philip Burgin

Santosh Govindaraju

Patrick Hibler

Martin McCabe

Patrick Muldoon

Stanley Preschutti

Elsa Ramo

Jeff Rice

Jason Rose

Mick Southworth

Kyle Stroud

Elton Tsang

Paul Schrader

Garin W. Sparks

Angela Gail Schroeder

Julie Toche

Ben Burrell

Christine Brandt

Ned Yousef

Daniel Rivette

Brian Philpot

Adam Horwitz

Jawed Berni

Jonathan Arthur

Braxton Pope

Lauren Mann

William Olsson

Ben Rodriguez Jr.

Alexander Dynan

Martin Scorsese

Lee Broda

David M. Wulf

Ashley Fenton

Sam Birdsong

Michael Blank

John Carchetta

Chase Coleman

Dillon Ellefson

Chris Finney

Murray Foretich

Jeremy Grannan

Claire Gryce

Brooks Johnson

Jacob Kirkwood

Janette Luttrell

Kevin S. Mitchell

Kelly D. Mills

Hunter Nelson

Caleb Rimmer

Layne Robinson

Robert St. Laurent

Selina van den Brink

Dwain Walters

Dionne Wynn

Precious Dorhan

Kathy Mills Lynch

Molly Moonanne Sanders

John Foss

Urbanie Lamas

Micah Young

Marty Jedlicka

MarSchelle Walker

Eric S. Johnston

Luis Cotallo

Martin Czembor

Jed M. Dodge

Jared Jaynes

Michael McMenomy

Antony Metaxakis

Joe Sanchez

Stella Valente

Cher Foley

Matthew Morgan

Alene Padilla-Tiller

Tim Masick

Joe Monge

Drama

Thriller

The Card Counter

Redline Entertainment

LB Entertainment

Enriched Media Group

One Two Twenty Entertainment

Saturn Streaming

Astrakan Film AB

Grandave Capital

Sweden

United Kingdom

United States of America

English

casino

gambling

motel

iraq

military prison

flashback

revenge

murder

atlantic city

torture

poker game

biting

interrogation

cynical

guilt

gambler

ex soldier

character study

haunted by the past

meditative

detached

hopeless

grim

somber

reflective

incarceration

dreary

introspective

panama city

provocative

violence

critical

tense

bitter

antagonistic

cruel

foreboding

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 goes with it for reasons. This whole movie is driven by weird decision after weird decision, like the inclusion of card playing, despite the name it is nothing more than a plot moving device to explain why this weird decision has a slightly different background to the previous weird decision.

All in all I feel the writer tried to do too much and as a result produced very little but confusion
**Spoilers below .... Spoilers below**

In the end I felt like the main protagonist just deciding to take turns with the antagonist torturing each other just for reasons... Ok movie... Now it's my turn.

Manuel São Bento

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 is a must-watch movie of the upcoming awards season. Beautifully shot, excellent performances, and a story that will stick with you after it ends."

Rating: B+

CinemaSerf

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 young man - a shell upon which he can become a bored, barnacle!. That's when I found myself looking at my watch. Towards the end, the plot takes a swing for left field that is not only sad, but also a precursor to an ending that is frankly really quite poor. The dialogue is strained, and though Haddish easily wins on the star front here, the rest of the cast sort of loll around in a soporific haze of emotional baggage that really is quite dreary to watch. Maybe I just wasn't in the mood, but looking around me in the cinema - plenty of other people seemed to wondering why they hadn't gone to see "Spencer" too...

It’s fitting that The Card Counter’s protagonist’s last name is Tell. Not because he has one (as played by Oscar Isaac, he doesn’t 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 who’s 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 Altman’s infinitely superior California Split, in which “We don’t need to know anything about gambling to understand the odyssey [the protagonists] undertake to the tracks, to the private poker parties, to bars, to Vegas, to the edge of defeat and to the scene of victory. Their compulsion is so strong that it carries us along” (Ebert).

But there is no compulsion in The Card Counter; Bill Tillich, aka William Tell, is not a gambler out of weakness (like Jimmy Caan in the also superior The Gambler), but out of convenience: he is good at it – to the point that not only is he debt-free, but can afford the luxury of paying others’ debts. He’s unqualified to do anything else, but then there’s nothing he’s interested in doing.

According to Bill, “The smartest bet for a rookie is red/black at roulette… You win, you walk. You lose, you go. It’s the only smart casino bet.“ It may be smart, but hardly riveting stuff. Who could possibly ever be interested in the story of a gambler who knows when to fold'em?

Thus, Schrader resorts to stealing a page out of 80s pro wrestling’s playbook: namely, Middle East-related cheap heat in the form of an inexplicable subplot dealing with the torture and abuse of Abu Ghraib prisoners in Iraq. Now, there’s a gamble that doesn’t even come close to paying off.

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.

The Card Counter( 2021)

He's Playing the Hand He Was Dealt.

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A review by itsogs

Written by itsogs on Sun Oct 03 2021

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