The Card Counter
★ ★★ ½
Paul Schrader did it to me again. He has written and directed a film that you think is one thing and is completely different. Yes, The Card Counter is about a professional gambler, but not really. Rather than experiencing tension from card games and poker chips, you start emotionally investing in the troubled past and psychology of Oscar Isaac's William Tell. The discrepancy between Tell's past and his present world seems a bit out of sync at times, but Schrader has also enjoyed messing with an audience's expectations. The pace of this is slow and steady, and that will lose a lot of folks, but it does keep you guessing though you're not necessarily surprised by the end result. Isaac, Tiffany Haddish and Tye Sheridan are a trio I would have not normally grouped together, but their chemistry oddly works in this very odd world.
