The Card Counter

Name: The Card Counter
Genre: Drama, Thriller
Released: September 10, 2021
Duration: 109 min
Rating: 77
Cast: Alexander Babara, Amye Gousset, Billy Slaughter, Britton Webb, Calvin Williams

2021

METASCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 48 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 67 Ratings

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6.6

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6.6	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 67 Ratings

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The Card Counter: Justify What We Did

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Movie Details & Credits

Focus Features | Release Date: September 10, 2021

Starring: Alexander Babara, Amye Gousset, Billy Slaughter, Britton Webb, Calvin Williams, Ekaterina Baker, Hassel Kromer, Joel Michaely, Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe

Summary: William Tell (Oscar Isaac) is a gambler and former serviceman who sets out to reform a young man seeking revenge on a mutual enemy from their past. Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk (Tye Sheridan), a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute hisWilliam Tell (Oscar Isaac) is a gambler and former serviceman who sets out to reform a young man seeking revenge on a mutual enemy from their past. Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk (Tye Sheridan), 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. Gaining backing from mysterious gambling financier La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), Tell takes Cirk with him on the road, going from casino to casino until the unlikely trio set their sights on winning the World Series of poker in Las Vegas. But keeping Cirk on the straight-and-narrow proves impossible, dragging Tell back into the darkness of his past.… Expand

Director: Paul Schrader

Genre(s): Drama, Thriller

Runtime: 109 min

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Critic Reviews

100

Richard Roeper

Sep 9, 2021

With spectacularly haunting original songs by Robert Levon Been of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club accompanying the journey, Schrader expertly captures the equal parts exciting and depressing worlds of casinos, where the slots are always jangling and the bar is always open. Read full review

Justin Chang

Sep 9, 2021

Scene by scene, it pulls us into a world that coheres not just through plotting and dialogue, but through the sharp rhythms of Benjamin Rodriguez Jr.’s editing, the hard shimmer of Alexander Dynan’s images and the humdrum precision of Ashley Fenton’s production design. Read full review

Oliver Jones

Sep 10, 2021

It’s not for everybody, and it’s far from perfect, but you’ll be hard-pressed to find a more thrillingly necessary use of the filmmaking form this year. Read full review

Chris Evangelista

Sep 2, 2021

The element that keeps The Card Counter truly alive is Isaac, who turns in one of the best performances of his career here, using his eyes to convey things dialogue never could. To watch him work here is something special, even if the movie as a whole can't ever quite match his intensity. Read full review

Chris Vognar

Sep 9, 2021

Schrader’s characters are haunted (please see “First Reformed” if you haven’t). They’re also deeply moral, not in a dime-store virtue kind of way but in the sense that they struggle mightily to do the right thing. In the end they’re painfully human, which is why they keep resonating after the lights go up. Read full review

Owen Gleiberman

Sep 2, 2021

Part of the beauty of poker is that it doesn’t represent anything. It’s just a game. The Card Counter is a good game that forgets it’s a game by working so hard to be a statement. Read full review

Hanna Flint

Nov 3, 2021

While there are some atmospheric and absorbing moments, all involving Isaac monologuing or close-ups on his face depicting stormy thoughts brewing underneath, Schrader ultimately abandons his gambling subplots in favour of a two-fold ending that is both anticlimactic and empty. Read full review

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User Reviews

AREVALOAREVALO

Sep 10, 2021

Outstanding movie that explains the origins of PTSD, the Abu Ghraib prison scandal, the origins of the debacle in Afghanistan, etc. Well timed for the US exit from Afghanistan.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

davemelbourne58

Sep 12, 2021

Like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, the war has scarred Oscar Isaac's card counting poker/blackjack player William Tell. He is a loner traveling up and down the East Coast winning small pots at poker games in B & C level casinos, and stays off the griad as best as he can. Tiffany Haddish'sLike Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, the war has scarred Oscar Isaac's card counting poker/blackjack player William Tell. He is a loner traveling up and down the East Coast winning small pots at poker games in B & C level casinos, and stays off the griad as best as he can. Tiffany Haddish's character sees him at various tournaments and is intrigued. Someone out of William Tell's militay past seeks him out and William Tell see's the opportunity as a chance @ redemption. Sadly, things don't always work out the way we hoped. Fascinating character study. Great cast, directing and script… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

JLuis_001

Sep 16, 2021

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. To judge this film in the first instance as a simple poker film, is basically to degrade it.
However, this is an element that Paul Schrader in my opinion cannot balance with the other and much deeper storyline that is part of it.

Putting the cards on the table, The Card Counter is a film that has enough elements to easily stand out, but it's also a film that never seeks to risk anything. Even with the darker tone it gets as it progresses.

Basically we're seeing two very different stories at the same time, that never manage to combine themselves properly.
The two involve the character played by Oscar Issac but they're so different that there are constant drops in terms of tonality and atmosphere.

His character is a lonely man that lives driving from one casino to another, being basically invisible earning a living.
He earns little while risking little.
So far, everything is generic, even the necessary explanation of how he does what he does, because obviously we need the character to let us know his intelligence and to explain to us, because apparently we cannot intuit that he's counting cards.

Until then, that's the life his character leads in his present.
But what about his past and the glaring evidence that he suffers from emotional and psychological trauma? That's the other plot that the film introduces.

It turns out that he's a former military who participated in the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib.
He appeared in the photographs that were taken with the prisoners, and when these were made public, he was one of those who had to pay for the broken dishes of his country's politics, ending up in Leavenworth.

The two stories themselves feel completely alien to each other, and in my opinion I think Paul Schrader never manages to balance them properly. Between the scenes at the card tables and the flashbacks that show glimpses of what happened at Abu Ghraib, there's a clear disconnect in tone.
And the elegant and solid but restrained performance of Oscar Issacs also fails to balance both sides.
And it's inevitable to ask yourself: Am I watching a poker film, or am I watching a political criticism film about torture?

The story leads the character to eventually confront what he clearly seeks to repress by living the way he lives, but Paul Schrader does not make it clean or cathartic, much less emotional.
Perhaps it gives some kind of absolution for the character, and along the way he seems to find something else, but unfortunately for The Card Counter, the message doesn't get across in a more powerful and convincing way.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

imthenoob

Jul 17, 2022

The Card Counter tries so hard to capture the magic that made First Reformed so good without trying to be its own unique experience. Isaac does a great job as the lead and is the only reason to really give this movie a shot. I feel like the movie explores too little, features some ratherThe Card Counter tries so hard to capture the magic that made First Reformed so good without trying to be its own unique experience. Isaac does a great job as the lead and is the only reason to really give this movie a shot. I feel like the movie explores too little, features some rather uninteresting characters, and ends up in a pattern of predictability that makes fall flat at times. I expected better.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

benjanzen

Nov 25, 2021

thought the Card Counter was excruciatingly patient and slow paced, making it a drag to sit through. It’s an uninteresting story populated by undeveloped and flat characters. Though it picks up some steam as it goes along, I never quite found myself invested.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

InTrippyEntropy

Sep 20, 2021

Oscar Isaac plays a former Army interrogator who is playing with the idea of getting revenge on a cruel man from his past. Isaac is great as always. I can't say the same for Tiffany haddish. She doesn't quite, but almost ruins every scene she's in. When it comes to Comedy, she's the best.Oscar Isaac plays a former Army interrogator who is playing with the idea of getting revenge on a cruel man from his past. Isaac is great as always. I can't say the same for Tiffany haddish. She doesn't quite, but almost ruins every scene she's in. When it comes to Comedy, she's the best. But when it comes to drama, she's too twitchy and doesn't seem to know which way to play a scene. This movie is so low-key that it barely has a heartbeat. What we want to see is a story arc where a man who has come to terms with his bad deeds, slowly convinces himself to do justice to a bad man. But most of the movie concerns itself with his quiet life as a card counter. And his relationship with the young man who is pushing him to violence. It's not bad. But you lose interest about halfway through.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

MetaVince

Jun 21, 2022

Utter garbage! Do Not Waste Your Time. It's a travesty that reviewers went ape shipt over this crud...

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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