Review | The Card Counter movie review: Oscar Isaac plays a professional gambler in Paul Schrader’s haunting redemption drama
- Isaac is a soldier with a dark past who thrives on the order and discipline of his modest gambling career, until his regimented life starts to unravel
- Schrader – whose notable script credits include Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver – has been here before, but his film is no less bleak or powerful for that
3.5/5 stars
Oscar Isaac stars as a professional gambler who takes on a young protégé (Tye Sheridan) to work the US east coast casino circuit in Paul Schrader’s sombre tale of atonement and redemption.
Far removed from the glitz and glamour of Ocean’s Eleven or Casino, The Card Counter’s world is a dour one of weekly poker meets and drab motel rooms, where the stakes are low and the returns modest at best for Isaac’s card counter and his fellow players.
Tiffany Haddish, in a rare foray outside comedy, also appears, as does regular Schrader collaborator Willem Dafoe.
Executive-produced by Martin Scorsese – who brought many of Schrader’s finest screenplays to life, most notably Taxi Driver and Raging Bull – the film follows the quiet and unassuming William Tell (Isaac), an ex-con who taught himself to count cards while serving eight years in a military prison for an unspecified crime.
Since gaining his freedom, Tell travels from city to city, earning a comfortable living at low-key casinos.
