Few filmmakers have packaged their thematic sensibilities as clearly asPaul Schrader. Simply put, you know what to expect in Schrader’s twisted cinematic world —prepare forlonely men reckoning with their moralityand the bleak future of humanity entirely. He has relied on a recurring set of ideas and motifs so much as of late that he created an unofficial trilogy of “Man in a Room” psychological dramas, beginning withFirst Reformedand ending last year withMaster Gardner. In between these two curious and spellbinding character studies isThe Card Counter, Schrader’s most familiar and relatively conventional entry in the spiritual trilogy. But don’t assume that the 2021 film pulls any punches. Elevated by an exceptional performance byOscar Isaac,The Card Counterdepicts a lonely man longing for redemption amid a state of hopelessness.Schrader may have been playing the hits, but sometimes, the hits are what the heart desires.
Paul Schrader’s “Man in a Room” Series Continued with ‘The Card Counter’
After years of creative inertia, it appeared Paul Schrader’s best days were behind him. In 2018,theTaxi Driverwritermade a soaring comeback withFirst Reformed, theEthan Hawke-led drama about a priest tormented by his responsibility to raise awareness of global warming. The film is quite possibly his best effort as a director. To follow up his late-period masterpiece,Schrader returned to a similar well, exploring themes of guilt, salvation, and the undying duties of an independent manstill conflicted with the allegiances of a soldier.The Card Countercenters around William Tell (Isaac), an ex-military-enhanced interrogator at Abu Ghraib living an incognito life as a low-stakes poker player. Tell’s expertise as a card counter draws the attention of La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), who leads a team of gamblers backed by investors for a portion of their winnings. He is lured back into his past life by Cirk (Tye Sheridan), a discharged military officer who recruits Tell to exact revenge on Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe), who Cirk blames for destroying his family and livelihood as a result of his participation in torture programs.
William Tell is a fascinating case study of someone inscrutable but completely unambiguous in his desires and aspirations. He shelters himself from the noise of the outside world, but he is not a hedonist, evident by his discipline to only gamble on minor stakes. Tell is not trying to go for broke, but instead,he pursues the satisfactory sensation of control in an unpredictable game of luck.Underlined by Tell’s unsettling narration, he possesses the cold, calculated precision of a world-class contract killer. Having learned how to count cards in a military prison, Tell approaches gambling as a psychological exercise of reading the faces of his opponents. The setting and subject may have just been an excuse for Schrader to pay homage toRobert Bresson’sPickpocket, a film about a petty thief committed to mastering the art of pickpocketing as a means to escape the harsh realities of the world.Schrader’s creative DNAis so indebted toPickpocketthat he has, to put it nicely, “borrowed” the film’s ending for his own films inAmerican Gigolo,Light Sleeper, andThe Card Counter.
The Troubled Production of ‘The Card Counter’ Is Reflected On Screen
The Card Counterwas a low-budget production,evidenced by the inordinate number of executive producers (including his frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese)and production companies listed in the opening credits. Filming was hindered by the COVID-19 outbreak, which shut down production in March 2020 after a crew member tested positive. A livid Schrader, an unfiltered voice on social media,posted on Facebook, “I would have shot through hellfire rain to complete the film. I’m old and asthmatic, what better way to die than on the job?” he wrote, antagonizing his “pussified” producers who shut down production.
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William Tell, amid the glitz and glamor of Atlantic City and the World Series of Poker, operates in the shadows, mirroring the low-budget production of the film that barely scraped by. As blisteringly displayedthrough Isaac’s stillnessand dead eyes,there is a simmering rage that persists on the screen, matching Schrader’s deep-seated frustrations with filming going by the wayside. For Tell, no catharsis is found at the poker table. He is cast off from a society he deems broken. The gambler expresses an internal wrath due to his traumatic past of torturing prisoners in Iraq. When Schrader talks candidly about thedrastically altered movie industry, bemoaning the commodified nature of the studio system, one senses a personal connection between the protagonist and the director. Like the character, Schraderfeels alienated by his industry.Their respective trades — card counting for Tell, filmmaking for Schrader —are more self-serving spiritual exercises.
Oscar Isaac Excels as a Lonely Poker Player Looking For Salvation
With his spellbinding turn as William Tell,Oscar Isaac proved he was one of themost daring actors working today.Embodying Schrader’s disturbed worldview is an acquired trait, one that requires a lack of sentimentality but is nonetheless pensive. His protagonists are inflicted with ablack hole of wistful thoughts about their humanityand the hopelessness of the world. Isaac soulfully portrays a haunted ex-soldier who lives in a bubble to free himself of his demons. Upon checking into a hotel room, he removes all the decorations off the walls and drapes the room in white sheets,immersing himself into an empty void as he writes in his journal like any Schrader protagonist.Despite being a free man, Tell still inhabits the life of a prisoner. Whether he adopts an incarceration mindset implicitly or explicitly is up for debate, but this disposition underlines the corrupt nature of his soul.
His relationship with La Linda and her troupe of gamblers is strictly professional until the last remnants of humanity spring to life once they begin expressing a faint romantic interest.Tell straddles the line between total nihilism and desperate attempts to cling to some form of salvation.He isn’ttrying to reform himself, but rather, he hopes his winnings at high-stakes poker tables can pay off Cirk’s college debt and send him on the righteous path away from bloodthirsty revenge. Paul Schrader’s characters, from Travis Bickle inTaxi Driverto Reverend Toller inFirst Reformed,humbly accept that their lives are unsalvageable.Since these characters are spiritually minded, they seek redemption by rescuing someone or something; Iris inTaxi Driver, the environment inFirst Reformed, and Cirk inThe Card Counter. Two years later, withMaster Gardner,Schrader discovered some semblance of hopeand resolution in theJoel Edgertoncharacter. InThe Card Counter, a film Schrader struggled to even get off the ground,the writer-director showed his unfiltered pessimism.
The Card Counter
The Card Counteris available to stream on Peacock in the U.S.
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