Paul Schrader dives into the world of poker, but not only. The Card Counter, discovered in Venice and Deauvillle proves that the 75-year-old filmmaker, screenwriter of Taxi Driver, has lost none of its bite. “ In general, my films are about a guy, alone in a room, who wears a mask – and that mask denotes his profession. It can be a taxi driver, a dealer, a gigolo, a pastor, and I confront this character with a major obstacle, personal or social ”, he confides in the file. Press.
The hero of this new film is a professional gamer played by Oscar Isaac, trying to forget the atrocious acts he committed to Abu Grahib but is overtaken by his past and the son of a former fighter played by Tye Sheridan . War, revenge, poker and redemption make this film very hard and rich in suspense.
In war as on the green carpets
The reconstruction of the scenes in the prison military prison testifies to the mastery of a virtuoso filmmaker. Paul Schrader gives the viewer the impression of following the heroes in grim settings as in a sequence filmed in virtual reality. The subjective camera, which adopts the point of view of the soldier, brings a very anxiety-provoking side to these passages, reinforced by a brilliant performance by Willem Dafoe as a sadistic officer. The acts of torture taking place between these walls are all the more traumatic when you only notice them, which leaves a lot of room for the imagination.
The struggle between the mutic player and the drunken kid with hate increases the tension. The Iraq veteran who has become an enemy of a violence he has practiced too much tries to dissuade the young man from making arms speak. The deadly atmosphere of the places where poker competitions take place. The strength of the film is to make the sequences of violence and that of the card game as exciting, leaving the audience no respite. Line-cut staging and writing make The Card Counter a major work highlighting the collateral damage of conflicts and questioning such fascinating notions as responsibility and guilt.