The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

Discussions of specific films and franchises.
Message
Author
User avatar
tehthomas
Joined: Thu Sep 22, 2016 1:45 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#51 Post by tehthomas » Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:10 pm

I was able to successfully log-in just about 9 minutes after the hour and question
SpoilerShow
the credits over the green felt were just wrapping up -- is there a scene or anything before the credits begin?

User avatar
skilar
Joined: Sat Jul 20, 2019 11:45 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#52 Post by skilar » Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:23 pm

criterionsnob wrote:
Thu Sep 09, 2021 8:39 pm
Does it have the Property of Focus Features watermark through the whole film? Kind of a dealbreaker for me.
Unfortunately it did.
tehthomas wrote:
Thu Sep 09, 2021 10:10 pm
I was able to successfully log-in just about 9 minutes after the hour and question
SpoilerShow
the credits over the green felt were just wrapping up -- is there a scene or anything before the credits begin?
Nope, just nine minutes of coming attractions.

User avatar
Persona
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:16 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#53 Post by Persona » Fri Sep 10, 2021 5:17 pm

Went to the theater today and fell in love with this movie. It is very much a combination of many Schrader movies and obsessions while still feeling like something I have never seen before. I was entranced by it. The opening credits sequence alone let me know I was in for something distinct. This isn't quite Schrader's best writing or overall storytelling but the direction is nearly as assured and commanding as First Reformed's. And whatever the narrative shortcomings, Schrader writes an incredible character in Tell and finds a really potent and rich metaphor between the practical ugliness of gambling and American mundanity and the atrocities that the nation is built on. And then the personal toll all of that takes on those individuals who take true self-inventory.

Oscar Isaac is so good. His performance is admirably internal but when called upon to let it out, he scorches the screen. One scene I was crying just from the sheer force of what he was portraying.

There are quite a few things you could nitpick and it did feel like a couple scenes or some connective tissue was missing in the third act, which I still liked a lot and actually found quite powerful in its own odd, slightly incomplete way. Schrader's twilight era as a filmmaker is a simultaneously bleak and gracious place.

I hate that trailer for what it gives away and how poorly it conveys the film. If you haven't seen the trailer, please avoid it before watching the movie.

My favorite movie of the year so far.

User avatar
Never Cursed
Such is life on board the Redoutable
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:22 am

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#54 Post by Never Cursed » Sat Sep 11, 2021 7:38 pm

If First Reformed was all about the misery that comes of spiritual torpor (to borrow the word that Toller uses to describe it), here's Schrader's sociopolitical analogue to that. There is probably no better movie to have been released on the eve of the 20th anniversary of, well, today, as this is a visceral and thorny psychological account of how that event (never once even directly referred to but looming over all the action) and its consequences didn't just ruin the country, but also created an inescapable sense of disillusionment and cyclical violence extending from those that dictated policy in the early 2000s to those that have no memory of the attack. Every quirk of Oscar Isaac's character, from his pleasureless pursuit of gambling to his compulsion to "sanctify" his shitty motel rooms by draping sheets over all the objects within, is part of his method of coping, a way of sustaining a punishingly pure mental blankness so as to ignore the guilt of being an ant-sized participant in a vile event. Even the places that Tell inhabits reinforce the symptomatic necessity of his routines - Persona touched upon this a bit before, but I loved Schrader's willingness to film most of his movie in locations (invariably pomo stripmall/casino/prison architecture) that are hideous in their modern-ness. Alongside Schrader's material, they feel reflective of 2000s moral vacuity even though the actual artistic designs date back to the 1990s.
SpoilerShow
The sole exception to this architectural oddity outside of the lovely grace note of the light-show park is Dafoe's comparatively tasteful house, which is made appalling when one realizes it was purchased with blood money. When we finally venture inside and see that Isaac has done his sheet-wrapping thing to the living room, it feels like an incursion of Isaac's expression of purity into an awful place.
Isaac is of course excellent, and it will be an embarrassment if he doesn't get nominated for an Oscar on the strength of a scene towards the end where he puts on and immediately sheds all of his defense mechanisms, but more and more my favorable thoughts on the performances in the film gravitate towards his foils as played by Tye Sheridan and Tiffany Haddish. The performances of these two have seemed to bristle with at least a couple more critical viewers (in no small part because they don't really gel with what Isaac is doing) but I think they're great perfs nonetheless, and awards attention for both would be more than welcome. It's true that Haddish's performance doesn't really match the tone of the film (she seems like she's very consciously restraining herself from going broader), but that works overall given how she serves as a sort of philosophical opposition to Isaac: she's external, cheeky, and provocative where he's introverted, serious, and uninterested in further conflict. It isn't too difficult to see why Tell would be attracted to this character - she's someone who can live comfortably and expressively in a broken world.
SpoilerShow
The final scene with the two is visually a rip-off of both Light Sleeper and Pickpocket, sure, but the same images and motifs are used in a colder and more conclusive fashion (in that it is doubtful that Haddish will visit again). And for those who thought the final shot of First Reformed was too bombastic (myself not included), the last image here is much subtler but no less powerful.
Tye Sheridan's character, on the other hand, was the one that resonated with me the most personally: this is exactly what a Gen Z version of one of Schrader's lonely men would look like, what the lonely young men my age look like, right down to the mostly passive petulance and the obsession with the parts of the internet that allows someone to stalk and gain a superficial asocial understanding of others. (I had to laugh when the character brought up his passion for Google Street View, because I know multiple men my age who have, for reasons neither I nor they can explain, spent hours on Google Street View taking virtual "walking" tours of places they've never been). I don't even know if I have a full grasp on all the ways the two were pushing my buttons in this case, but good on Schrader for doing his research and good on Sheridan for selling it. It's honestly difficult for me to think of an actor who could have done more with the role - the closest that comes to mind is Barry Keoghan, but his roles have been much more active-aggressive
SpoilerShow
where this one requires someone who can sell the passivity/clumsily repressed desire to kill until he makes a final, fatal misreading of Dafoe (because he relied too heavily upon that same superficial understanding of the guy gleaned from the 'net without reasoning his plan through!)

User avatar
DarkImbecile
Ask me about my visible cat breasts
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#55 Post by DarkImbecile » Sat Sep 11, 2021 9:14 pm

Now that others are seeing it, help me resolve an unsettled debate:
SpoilerShow
How do you interpret Tell's serious wounds after he emerges from torturing Gordo? Did you see these as self-inflected penance — "nothing excuses what we did" — or think that he and Gordo took turns on each other (perhaps under very carefully controlled conditions so Tell would never lose control of the situation)? Or just that Gordo fought him at some point?
Also, I'll be curious if any of our resident medievalists might have some deeper interpretations of the significance of Isaac's character's adopted name, or can point to other relevant connections others might be missing. The superficial interpretation I'm capable of making with limited knowledge* is fine, but I wouldn't be surprised if Schrader seeded some other significant ideas into the film...
*Show
My memory of the myth of William Tell is that a tyrant forced him to shoot an apple off his own son's head with a crossbow, and that he did so successfully but took a second bolt with which to kill the tyrant as well if he had missed. Schrader's Tell attempts to use his own particular skill set to save the boy he cares about, but fails, and actually uses his second bolt (cutter) on the film's tyrant.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#56 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Sep 12, 2021 12:00 am

First, Never Cursed, absolutely excellent writeup. I didn't love the film as much as you, but this is exactly the kind of post that makes me love this forum, coming back 24 hours after a viewing to appreciate elements I didn't yesterday, particularly Sheridan's perf which I've completely flipped on now (not Haddish's though).
DarkImbecile wrote:
Sat Sep 11, 2021 9:14 pm
Now that others are seeing it, help me resolve an unsettled debate:
SpoilerShow
How do you interpret Tell's serious wounds after he emerges from torturing Gordo? Did you see these as self-inflected penance — "nothing excuses what we did" — or think that he and Gordo took turns on each other (perhaps under very carefully controlled conditions so Tell would never lose control of the situation)? Or just that Gordo fought him at some point?
SpoilerShow
I thought it was pretty obvious that they took turns- you can hear each actor's distinct shrieks of pain being different before the fast-forward to sunrise. Though it's entirely possible that Tell self-inflicted his own wounds and Gordo was in a submissive position to take his, that doesn't really make sense given that Tell is holding him at gunpoint (rather than tying him up, for instance), so when Tell would hurt himself, Gordo could surely have found a way to best his opponent.

It doesn't really matter though- because Tell is engaging in self-inflicted penance by initiating and participating in this ritual. He leaves the card game, where he could finally beat Mr. U.S.A., the embodiment of everything he hates external to himself and Gordo and their world; he leaves Haddish, the embodiment of possibility for him in a new life; and he refuses the opportunity to simply kill Gordo and either reclaim these opportunities (I love how we see a cut back to the table, with Tell's chips still going strong entered for blinds, offering some hope he may return when he's done). He has chosen to reject these "passionate" alternatives, unsurprising since he has diagnosed himself undeserving of passion in any extreme from the outset. He opts to be imprisoned, whether he dies by Gordo's hands or in a literal prison. I don't even view the final shot as one of empowered connection that is possible even without touch, but rather that the glass is a prison separating possibility. Tell has deliberately taken action to make this happen, and holding that moment for the credits doesn't so much signify the endlessness of the intimacy as it does reinforce the tragedy of its futility.

User avatar
Persona
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:16 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#57 Post by Persona » Sun Sep 12, 2021 2:09 pm

Yeah, Never Cursed good write-up, and blus I agree with your take on the climax and the ending at the same time that I think the ending, well... let's just say that, like First Reformed, it invites different emotional perspectives even if the text itself is less ambiguous than First Reformed's ending. I love that.

Haven't been able to shake this movie a bit, as the richness of its central metaphor and the many parallels that the movie draws just continue to grow in depth, nuance, implication, and power in my mind. I feel like Focus has marketed this movie all wrong but do have to give them credit for being brave enough to release it the day before the 20th anniversary of 9/11. What an insane and perfect choice.

There are a number of shots haunting me, and there is one moment in the movie that out of context or in a different movie would have been completely perfunctory, but in my showing drew an audible gasp. The psyche behind First Reformed and now this are so immersive that, as Scott Tobias said on Twitter, it's like you are trapped in exactly the place Schrader wants you to be for the blows to land. You become desperate for the grace notes, and though paltry they are there, unusual and beautiful, made greater by the pain and the deep shadows of an inescapable past--both of the personal and the collectively political--that totally enshroud them.

Haddish was a somewhat counter-intuitive casting choice, and yeah there is some stiltedness from her playing against her natural performing tendencies... But in the end I found her an inspired pick because the movie takes the time to develop a weird but interesting chemistry with Tell that felt real to me, and because the openness and expressiveness of Haddish's face plays in such nice contrast to Isaac's performance here and becomes a rather affecting vulnerability for her character. There were at least three shots where the camera is looking at her and feeling for her. When Tell walks away in that one casino and the shot dollies back from La Linda, yeah, her face said so much.

Also agree with Never Cursed about Tye Sheridan's performance. His character should have come off insufferable but I think Sheridan played him just right, a careful balance between misguided and wrongheaded but also just a young man grasping for some reason to exist.

I loved the soundtrack and was fascinated by how Schrader uses these original songs by Robert Levon Been first as almost this brooding ambient invocation and then lets that gradually evolve into more fully formed lyrical expressions of Tell's internal state as that state itself slowly opens up more.

I don't want to say much about a certain nightmare, but God, what risky and potent filmmaking. As the cards themselves play out, the past dictates the future. Our distorted reality tears into the classic redemption arc trope that this film seems to parlay. If it eats at the third act in a way that makes it feel somewhat disconnected and feverish, that almost feels an apt impression of those times where we look at our world's brokenness and wonder how this can be our reality--the one we've inherited, the one we've made, and the one we will have to live with, always.


User avatar
Red Screamer
Joined: Tue Jul 16, 2013 12:34 pm
Location: Tativille, IA

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#59 Post by Red Screamer » Mon Sep 13, 2021 1:17 am

This is ludicrously stiff and heavy-handed, veering at times into a cartoonish version of its author's work, as late works by obsessive filmmakers tend to. Unlike the director of First Reformed, the Schrader of The Card Counter has little control over his material, particularly in his carelessness with character and performance, which are maddeningly inconsistent from scene to scene and flimsily based on movie conventions more than anything substantial. Still, the movie kinda got under my skin. Schrader has his moments as a stylist; Isaac creates the majority of his performance using only the left side of his mouth; and, to repeat something said better upthread, the contrast between depressingly fake-looking spaces—casino bars, motel rooms, conference centers—and the film's serious sense of moral anguish is effective, if not original. If nothing else, this gets points for political directness and its attempt to be the least glamorous poker movie ever made (other audience members at my screening were grumbling about a refund as the credits rolled). But as a Schrader movie it's mostly been there, done that with diminishing returns.

User avatar
Drucker
Your Future our Drucker
Joined: Wed May 18, 2011 9:37 am

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#60 Post by Drucker » Mon Sep 13, 2021 4:11 pm

I'll echo the positive reception a few others have had. It surely doesn't have the immediacy of First Reformed. With that said, I found most of the characters compelling. Isaac's performance is superb, but Sheridan is great as well. I'm just going to spoiler my thoughts just in case.
SpoilerShow
In Sheridan, Schrader paints a very fair and accurate picture of a young man who is living his life via the phone. Never Cursed's comments above are spot on, with the character displaying a completely superficial understanding of life. I felt that Isaac has contempt for this character, and almost envy at the way he's never had to face the things he has. In Isaac's world, he is in complete control of all of his outcomes. He can choose to live a regimented life and abstain from sex, and keep on the straight and narrow, or he can allow himself to lose control (there's a comment he makes about going off the deep end, I forget exactly where, I believe the room confrontation scene.) But I basically see it that Isaac is in control of whether or not he is in or out of control. He's aware of the consequences of having sex and competing in bigger tournaments. He's opening himself up to the possibility of losing the perfect, regimented life, and therefore losing control, and he is okay with it. This also explains why he doesn't seem angry at other people for ending up a scapegoat in the Abu Grahib scandal: ultimately, if these things happened, they are his fault, and he can exert enough control to ensure they don't happen again. One last example being his initial prison confrontation where he eats the guy's meal, seemingly an effort to make an early confrontation at prison to show he is a 'tough guy'. Though he picked on someone bigger than him, he seemed to maintain control of the situation, and felt that he could control the overall outcome as well.

All that to say: Sheridan's character is a nice contrast to Isaac, but though he's less intense and surely pales in comparison to Isaac's performance, his haphazard slackerishness is an excellent compliment to Isaac. Both of these men are stuck in a way they cannot change, and I really enjoyed the portrait Schrader painted of them.

User avatar
DarkImbecile
Ask me about my visible cat breasts
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2013 6:24 pm
Location: Albuquerque, NM

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#61 Post by DarkImbecile » Mon Sep 13, 2021 9:28 pm

Richard Brody likes it, and provides an answer to my question above

User avatar
Persona
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:16 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#62 Post by Persona » Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:04 pm

While a bit broad in some ways, Brody's review does a really great job of describing the film's power. It's a shame Focus doesn't have this in more screens because I am really starting to believe this is an essential American film for this moment. 20 years since 9/11 and I am not sure another narrative film has come close to painting the portrait this one does of the spiritual rot in our country connected to that event--both to the history and hubris that lead up to it and the fall-out that came from it. And the way the film plays the micro in the macro, the personal guilt and trauma within the inhumanity of our political machine.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#63 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Sep 13, 2021 10:10 pm

Drucker wrote:
Mon Sep 13, 2021 4:11 pm
SpoilerShow
In Isaac's world, he is in complete control of all of his outcomes. He can choose to live a regimented life and abstain from sex, and keep on the straight and narrow, or he can allow himself to lose control (there's a comment he makes about going off the deep end, I forget exactly where, I believe the room confrontation scene.) But I basically see it that Isaac is in control of whether or not he is in or out of control. He's aware of the consequences of having sex and competing in bigger tournaments. He's opening himself up to the possibility of losing the perfect, regimented life, and therefore losing control, and he is okay with it. This also explains why he doesn't seem angry at other people for ending up a scapegoat in the Abu Grahib scandal: ultimately, if these things happened, they are his fault, and he can exert enough control to ensure they don't happen again. One last example being his initial prison confrontation where he eats the guy's meal, seemingly an effort to make an early confrontation at prison to show he is a 'tough guy'. Though he picked on someone bigger than him, he seemed to maintain control of the situation, and felt that he could control the overall outcome as well.
SpoilerShow
I'm on board with some of that, but Isaac declares pretty early on in his narration that he views everything as a prison, whether a literal prison or casinos or the outside world, and all facets of life ultimately force him and others to be powerless. So he adopts a mindset where he can issue control and have a routine, some sense of freedom but always knowing that the spaces he occupies, the systems he is a subject of, are ruling his existence. It's a very existentialist reframing, but not necessarily an optimistic one of empowerment. Isaac has resigned himself to a life of staying afloat, coasting in a Sisyphean purgatory without a cathartic avenue to repent his sins, which is so much worse for him with that trauma than, say, dying would be if he could only achieve some ounce of spiritual purging. He's a walking ghost, a dead man, and he doesn't engage in sex etc. not because he's thinking of consequences that would disrupt his "perfect" life, but because he believes he is undeserving of passion in any form (big wins, romance, highs of any kind), and is disinterested in becoming "passionate" again.

This is also likely in part because the "passion" he is familiar with was changed from the innocent positivity of being a "ladies man" in the service to the cruel intensity he experienced as a torturer, so it makes sense that he would be negatively conditioned to avoid passion. He also admits that he used to fantasize about revenge after Sheridan mentions his plan of killing Gordo, but due to the acceptance over his powerlessness and the trap of passion, Isaac has chosen an existence that is safer for himself against that outcome but also in absolute surrender to the impossibility of any true release in this oppressive world. He's living a faux-spiritual existence under the conception that there is no spiritual existence possible for him, perhaps anyone, in this land barren of meaning. In the end, when he's finally able to confront Gordo and engage in an actionable demonstration of flagellation and self-destruction, that seems to be a cathartic win, or as close as he'll ever get to it.

However, I have no idea how the prison confrontation could be read that way. Isaac was being provocative to receive flagellation. He states that he wished/wondered if the guy would "finish the job" and I interpreted that scene as Isaac wanting to be hurt, or maybe even killed, because of his inert state of being helpless against the cleansing his psyche needs. I don't see how it's fitting within his character to be pragmatically considered the Tough Guy (or how not fighting back would do that), but it is fitting for him to be pragmatically designing a social situation where he can control the outcome of indirectly hurting himself in creative ways.

User avatar
Persona
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:16 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#64 Post by Persona » Tue Sep 14, 2021 5:32 pm

SpoilerShow
Today I've been thinking about the part early in the film where we push in on Tell's closed eye as he falls asleep and then see that warped, hall of mirrors Abu Ghraib nightmare. And then late in the film, after Tell receives the text from Cirk, and he is in that bathroom with the infinite mirror effect and very similar colors and lighting (brown and amber) to Abu Ghraib. And the scene ends with that shot holding on Tell's eye. Then, of course, what happens after.

User avatar
Bumstead
Joined: Sat Sep 24, 2016 12:25 pm
Location: Dubai

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#65 Post by Bumstead » Tue Sep 14, 2021 9:53 pm

It's doesn't have the clarity of FIRST REFORMED, but Schrader has perfected his own LIGHT SLEEPER (1992). His obsession with remaking PICKPOCKET notwithstanding; while the Bressonian apotheosis is freedom through love, Schrader is pining for Kierkegaard’s personal responsibility. William Tell is a walking zombie until he “tilts”: accepts both the sacred (grace) and the profane (sex, violence).

CARD COUNTER is hard to shake off. Its power keeps growing. I've also been trying to figure out the *real* ending. Curious what others think:
SpoilerShow
The Leavenworth prison at the end is practically empty. Its only inhabitant seems to be William Tell. He is in his cell reading a book when the guard comes to take him to "Grace" (Tiffany Haddish). As Tell exits the shot, the camera tracks in towards his empty bed, and lingers on it a little longer than necessary. Was this whole sequence real, or a dream/fantasy? Did Tell *survive* the harrowing mutual torture with Gordo? I'm not a doctor, but those broken hand/fingers wouldn't have healed...so cleanly. I've been thinking, like FIRST REFORMED, perhaps the ending might be more ambiguous. Does Tell find his peace/love/Grace in death?

User avatar
Never Cursed
Such is life on board the Redoutable
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:22 am

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#66 Post by Never Cursed » Tue Sep 14, 2021 11:39 pm

BumsteadShow
I mean, it's a Schrader script, so there's always the possibility of that reading, but as with all the other Schraders this applies to, I think the end here is much more powerful if taken at face value. I thought the loneliness in prison/lingering on the bed was just a small touch meant to make Tell's sense of isolation really sink in.
DruckerShow
I agree with TWBB regarding the prison scene: it was, fairly unambiguously I think, an attempt by Tell to achieve a suicide by cop (by prisoner?). It's the only scene where we see him after his work at Abu Ghraib but before he's figured out how to cope. I took the scene as an illustration of how terrible the guilt makes him feel if he doesn't have his (symptomatic) handle on it.

User avatar
Persona
Joined: Wed Mar 07, 2018 1:16 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#67 Post by Persona » Sat Sep 18, 2021 7:53 am

I guess a screener of this leaked which is a shame because the theater experience actually added a lot to this for me, surprisingly. The nightmare scene and then the tense emotional reactions of the audience to a couple scenes/moments was a vibe I hadn't felt in a theater or movie viewing for a long time.

Then again I know there are some people who really wanted to see this with no showings near them, plus a pandemic, so I guess I'm glad they've got some way to see it.


User avatar
DeprongMori
Joined: Fri Apr 04, 2014 1:59 am
Location: San Francisco

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#69 Post by DeprongMori » Mon Sep 27, 2021 5:18 pm

Echoing Bumstead, a question on the ending, and thoughts about why it might be more ambiguous than it appears.
SpoilerShow
Following his 911 call to report a homicide, the badly bloodied Tillich with horrendously broken fingers is next shown whole in the same USDB military prison where he had previously spent 8.5 years, and having a visit from LaLinda. Two things appear to point to the ending taking place within the imagination of the protagonist, much like Taxi Driver and First Reformed. First, his wholeness, but more significantly that he was being incarcerated in the same military prison of his past. This murder was a civilian crime and he would have served his term in a civilian prison.

This could simply be sloppiness on Schrader’s part, but given that this type of ambiguous ending is common in his work, I expect that is not what is going on here. I believe it to be a deliberate narrative choice. Did others come to the same conclusion?

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#70 Post by swo17 » Sun Oct 24, 2021 5:36 am

What's the significance of the title to the film's larger themes? I mean, for all that the film focuses on blackjack, it could have started with Oscar Isaac eating a sandwich and been called The Man Who Once Ate a Sandwich. But it does go to the effort of explaining how to count cards, calling blackjack "a dependent game," suggesting you should bet bigger when your odds are better, and defining an equation for the "true count" with the number of remaining decks in the denominator. In other words, if more low value cards have been dealt throughout most of the game, then the closer you get to the end, the bigger your bet should be. Just some late-night math thoughts...

User avatar
Never Cursed
Such is life on board the Redoutable
Joined: Sun Aug 14, 2016 12:22 am

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#71 Post by Never Cursed » Sun Oct 24, 2021 10:50 am

I took it as a formal, neutral statement of Isaac’s identity, the thing Schrader would call his “mask” (see also: Taxi Driver, American Gigolo, etc). He doesn’t really do it in front of the camera, but that doesn’t really matter, since it’s more that it’s the thing that got him into higher-stakes gambling, the bridge between the two milieus in which he has lived. I’d say the significance is that it marks the transition point between those two points in time.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#72 Post by swo17 » Sun Oct 24, 2021 1:31 pm

That's a good point I hadn't considered, thanks

User avatar
Finch
Joined: Mon Jul 07, 2008 5:09 pm
Location: Edinburgh, UK

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#73 Post by Finch » Tue Nov 23, 2021 8:18 pm

BD from Universal on Dec 14

Image
A High-Stakes World - Featurette
Original trailer
Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles for the main feature

User avatar
tolbs1010
Joined: Wed Oct 21, 2020 7:01 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#74 Post by tolbs1010 » Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:18 am

Finch wrote:
Tue Nov 23, 2021 8:18 pm
BD from Universal on Dec 14

Image
A High-Stakes World - Featurette
Original trailer
Optional English SDH and Spanish subtitles for the main feature
Immediate candidate for the 'Worst Blu Ray/DVD Covers Thread'.

The film is equally lame. It's like Schrader had two separate ideas for films and slammed them together without providing much depth, feeling, or continuity to either of them. The card scenes AND the defense-contractor torture/greed narrative feel stale and secondhand. I couldn't even enjoy it as a character study because the characters constantly act in ways that strain credulity and the actors aren't very credible in the roles. I've never seen Oscar Isaac look so unsure and uncharismatic before. Tiffany Haddish? It doesn't work, and the lack of chemistry in her scenes with Isaac emphasizes it. Tye Sheridan comes off best in the most believably-drawn role in the film.

The final scene provided the most entertainment value because it is so hilariously bad. I wasn't the only one that chuckled at its straining for emotion/significance. Actually there were a few groans. All in all, a very disappointing return to the theater after 3 years away.

I can't think of a filmmaker that has a wider standard deviation than Paul Schrader. When he's bad, he's really bad. I say that as a fan who has seen nearly all of his films.

User avatar
therewillbeblus
Joined: Tue Dec 22, 2015 3:40 pm

Re: The Card Counter (Paul Schrader, 2021)

#75 Post by therewillbeblus » Wed Nov 24, 2021 1:05 am

tolbs1010 wrote:
Wed Nov 24, 2021 12:18 am
Immediate candidate for the 'Worst Blu Ray/DVD Covers Thread'.
Isn't it just a cropped version of the original poster?

Post Reply