As a screenwriter, Paul Schrader made a name for himself in the film industry early on: After he wrote the template for Sydney Pollack’s “Yakuza” and Brian De Palma’s “Black Angel”, the big one followed in 1976 with his script for Martin Scorsese’s work of the century “Taxi Driver”. Breakthrough. As a result, Schrader primarily sat down in the director’s chair himself to film his own screenplays – and for the most part remained true to his “Taxi Driver”.
Exceptions such as “Cat People” or “Mishima” confirm the rule, but as a rule the works of Paul Schrader revolve around lonely, guilty men who despair of themselves and the world – and are therefore on a death-wishing search for redemption.
After Schrader was able to make an impressive comeback in 2017 with the Oscar-nominated “First Reformed”, after being treated as a persona non grata in Hollywood for a long time, “The Card Counter” started in German cinemas in March of this year.
The complex poker thriller with “Moon KnightStar Oscar Isaac, Tiffany Haddish (“Lady Business”), Tye Sheridan (“Ready Player One”) and Willem Dafoe (“Spider-Man: Far From Home”) will be released on May 27, 2022 – really shortly after the cinema release – on Blu-ray and DVD. The film is currently available as VoD on Amazon Prime Video.
» “The Card Counter” on Amazon Prime Video*
» “The Card Counter” on Blu-ray and DVD at Amazon*
William Tell (Oscar Isaac) perfected the fine art of card counting. Not only as a hobby, but also to somehow keep his inner demons under control. The former Elite-Soldat has taken on a debt that once landed him in prison for ten years. After his release, he begins touring the States as a poker player, following a strict routine.
In order not to draw attention to himself, he consistently keeps the stakes low – until he finally meets the young Cirk (Tye Sheridan). The two have a common enemy and Cirk wants to recruit the former soldier for his revenge plan. William, on the other hand, sees the young man as his chance for forgiveness. Together with the opaque agent La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), he wants to play for big money for the first time – but the past cannot be shaken off so easily…
+++ Opinion +++
While “The Card Counter” gets a good 3.5 out of 5 stars in the official DashFUN review, I go several steps further: For me, the new film by Paul Schrader is THE masterpiece of 2022 so far and all other films that await me this year have to measure up to the disturbingly beautiful gem that only the “Taxi Driver” author can deliver in this form.
What is impressive about “The Card Counter” is how virtuously Paul Schrader expresses ambivalences in almost every scene and balances the ambivalence of the characters, which becomes more apparent by the minute. This leads to “The Card Counter” delivering really extreme punches in the pit of the stomach, but in the next moment also reviving a bittersweet poetry that genuinely goes to the heart.
Paul Schrader’s look into the abyss, into a battered soul, played exceptionally well by Oscar Isaac, which strives for redemption but can no longer function without suffering and pain, does not amount to the commonplace of a sad, self-pitying masculinity. Schrader digs deeper and, in an extremely subtle way, moves the suppressed violence in the heart of America more and more oppressively into the center of the action.
It captivated me, depressed me and in the end, perhaps the most memorable of the cinema year, deeply touched. Anyone who likes demanding, haunting, precisely written adult cinema should definitely not miss “The Card Counter”. 2022 (maybe) won’t get any better.
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