The Card Counter

Taxi Driver. American Gigolo. Light Sleeper. Autofocus. First Reformed. The Card Counter. You can't deny a certain theme runs through the films Paul Schrader writes. He does like the men he writes about to be damaged and Oscar Isaac's intense but likable William Tell is as broken as broken can be. 

La Linda (Tiffany Haddish) gives all the gamblers in her stable pet names and one of her favourites is Minnesota Fats, an overweight Asian player she runs into from time to time. She's named him after the card player from The Hustler but she's got it wrong, there was no card player in the Hustler and professional gambler William informs her she's getting mixed up with The Cincinnati Kid. These early name drops of films about card sharps and pool sharks might fool you into thinking you're about to see a film about the inner workings of America's gambling dens but The Card Counter is ultimately interested in a far darker American past-time. 

On one trip to a casino William sneaks into see a security seminar talk by retired Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe, Schrader's muse) and it's here he meets Cirk Baufort (Tye Sheridan), a young man with grudge against the military man. Because of his former army life William's interest in Gordo intersects with Cirk's but he doesn't want the younger man to ruin his life so he begins to work with La Linda to make enough money to set Cirk straight. He has the skills to make a mint as we see during informative card counting explanations sure to make real life casinos furious but as the old saying goes - If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.

Unsurprisingly The Card Counter is a dark one. A deep dive into the psyche of a man haunted by what his country made him become. He can't get away from it. He spends his days and nights in casinos so he doesn't have to think. It's made him an expert but he never enjoys it, it's not about the money. He's like Taxi Driver's Travis Bickle, another man so broken by wartime experience that he just numbs himself with his work. He never stays in the same place for long, living out of a suitcase and motel rooms, always on the run, haunted in his sleep by his past, heading down that well-worn Schrader highway of self destruction until a chance encounter gives him a shot at something different, a chance to be a positive in someone's life instead of a negative.

It's an easier watch than you'd think for such a dark subject.  It's traumatic, queasy, horribly familiar flashbacks aside there's a nice, easy chemistry between it's lead trio; friendly/romantic between William & La Linda and paternal between him and Cirk. There's an enjoyable, naturalistic flow in their conversations, things are hinted at but not pushed towards, there's no need for forced drama. Three people with darkness in their rear view mirrors, enjoying their present while screeching towards...... Not everything gets answered as the film ends and there's no reason it should with Schrader's writing and direction leaving plenty of blanks for us to fill in. Then elsewhere he's blunt as hell, one of Tell's perennial opponents being a player dressed in a suit made up of stars and stripes who's prone to shouting "USA" when he wins. Try as he might, he cannot outrun the country that made him.

The Card Counter is in cinemas now. It's tough going and won't be to everyone's taste but it's a fine watch.