With the very dark “The Card Counter”, ends in a beautiful way a year 2021 during which he will be illustrated on all fronts (blockbuster, animation, series …). And it should still be the same in 2022.
A silted blockbuster. Nicely macabre animation. A series that broke our hearts. And a film noir from black, without the slightest hint of hope. To say that Oscar Isaac’s 2021 has been a rich year is an understatement, from Dune to Scenes from a Marriage to The Addams Family 2.
Passed by the festivals of Venice then Deauville, The Card Counter allows him to close this exercise in style. Directed by Paul Schrader, screenwriter of Taxi Driver, the feature film is striking with its darkness and its breaks in tone, like this stroll with dreamlike accents in a garden where colored lights contrast with the atmosphere of the story. Or the nightmarish sequences in Abu Ghraib prison.
In the midst of all this, Oscar Isaac plays a former military turned poker player, who takes under his wing a young man hungry for revenge (Tye Sheridan). A dry thriller that is based in large part on the charisma and the poisonous charm of its main performer, whose voice brings us into the story. And in the world in which it takes place.
“He evolves in this timeless environment, crisscrossing casinos, playing cards and waiting for something to finally happen”, explains Paul Schrader about his main perspnnage. “In poker you can play for days and days before you get that long awaited hand. You can hope to get lucky every two or three weeks, but most of the time this game is about waiting.”
The good news is, we might not have to wait very long to see Oscar Isaac on the big or small screen in 2022.
