The Card CounterA broken bone doesn't set on its own. It can't just be ignored or concealed, or the wound will remain indefinitely. The Card Counter is a neo-noir thriller about an ex-military ex-torturer since turned amateur gambler named "William Tell" (Oscar Isaac). After being released from a military prison after eight years owing to his role as a torturer in Abu Ghraib, Bill exists in a state of psychological limbo, comprised of a singular routine: going from city to city and making a little money as a gambler to keep afloat. That all changes when he is approached by Cirk (Tye Sheridan), the son of a former soldier who worked alongside Bill, who tries to recruit him for a mission of vengeance against the man who trained Bill and Cirk's father as torturers: Major John Gordo (Willem Dafoe).
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Written and directed by Paul Schrader, The Card Counter is emblematic of his body of work, populated by intense loners seeking meaning in a world where they no longer belong. This can be seen as far back as his screenplay for Taxi Driver and most recently in his introspective vision of a troubled priest in First Reformed. Bill begins narrating his story from prison, and shares how he never expected to find comfort in a life of incarceration. In this prologue, he begins to analyze and understand just how a deck of cards works, and in a way it serves as his "bible". He starts to view the world through the lens of chance and beating the odds. He is later able to perform magic tricks with his cards for Cirk while describing the best hand of poker he ever saw, and he has a mathematically precise value system for how to ensure that he never loses money while gambling. Because of his acumen, he is approached by a handler who runs a "stable" of professional gamblers; her name is La Linda (Tiffany Haddish). Bill initially refuses her offer to place him with a "backer" so that he can go pro, and he claims that he prefers to operate "under the radar"; this is until Cirk tells Bill about his plan for revenge. Cirk blames Gordo for his father's suicide and his abusive upbringing, and Bill takes this to be evidence of how the amoral work he did abroad continues to haunt him and others. Bill desperately seeks control in all aspects of his life, even if it makes him a slave of that same state of existence. He doesn't gamble for pleasure; in fact, there seems to be little to nothing that gives him any sense of enjoyment. It is difficult to say whether Bill gambles as a kind of self-imposed penance, or as a cynical manifestation of how he sees odds and variables as nothing more than another aspect of a world that is dominated by chaos. Living in hotel rooms, Bill has a peculiar habit of wrapping the furniture in pristine white sheets bound with twine, as though the sight of anything out of place would give him discomfort. It's as though he might be happier if he were still in prison...perhaps that's where he thinks that he truly belongs.
There is the idea of a "buddy" film in The Card Counter after Cirk enters Bill's life. Bill believes that he can discourage Cirk from ruining his own life by trying to kill Gordo, who Bill knows to be a professional soldier and more than capable of defending himself from some angry kid with a half-baked scheme. Bill discovers that Cirk has some school debt after dropping out of college, and that his widowed mother also has taken on a lot of debt after fleeing her abusive relationship with Cirk's father. So Bill's plan is to win enough money to essentially buy Cirk happiness, and hope that it will be enough to make him forget about his mission. Subsequently, Bill changes his mind about La Linda, and Bill enters the World Series of Poker for a set period of time--one year. There are instances when Bill tries to be a father figure to Cirk and even bond with him, like when he tries to take Cirk to visit the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth so that he can understand the high cost of destroying a life firsthand. But something has shut down in Bill...something maybe lost from when he succumbed to Gordo's vile training. Gordo preyed on Bill's need for recognition as a young soldier, and enticed him to debase himself and brutalize prisoners because Gordo could see that deep down, Bill needed acceptance as a pupil or as a surrogate son. Bill's failure to connect with Cirk has to do with the unspoken doubt that he has in himself, so the tenderness he tries to show always seems a bit hollow. By all accounts, Bill cannot forgive himself. Each day of his life is the same as before, and even brightly lit casinos are transformed into purgatory rather than a place full of excitement. Winning or losing means nothing to Bill. He passes from one place to another like a ghost, and his past casts a constant pallor over his life after prison. In some ways, The Card Counter resembles Paul Thomas Anderson's first feature, Hard Eight, although that film balanced humor and comedy against the seediness of vice and crime. Any small bit of humor that creeps in has more to do with absurdity, as is the case with the outlandish, American-flag clad gambler called "Mr. U.S.A." (Alexander Babara) and his entourage, who Bill has to play against in his poker tournaments. The Card Counter is more of an examination of the trauma that follows a life of brutality, in war and at home. Cirk has already suffered tremendously before he approaches Bill, and this movie is saturated in the abject horror that comes from realizing just how malleable our morality can be. Bill seems to be a ordered and even virtuous person--at least after his incarceration--but this is just a psychological sanctuary that he has crafted for himself to cope. He tortured and humiliated prisoners at the behest of the military by way of John Gordo in the name of his country. The Card Counter is a direct commentary on the actual torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in the early days of the War on Terror, and asks the hard questions about what happens after the "bad guys" are imprisoned...and what happened to the real bad guys who made it happen (like Gordo) and got away with it. The Card Counter forces the audience to evaluate how we judge others and how we can justify a "lesser evil", and contemplates the all-too-high psychological and cultural cost that comes with such a war.
Recommended for: Fans of a deeply affecting meditation on forgiveness and accountability, where gambling becomes a metaphor for the pervading chaos of life and the varying degrees of success we all have in managing it. Although there are few episodes of graphic violence, The Card Counter deals with very mature subject matter and challenges many core beliefs about America's place in the world by revisiting a humiliating episode in our nation's history; it is therefore only appropriate for audiences willing to confront this harrowing content.
There is the idea of a "buddy" film in The Card Counter after Cirk enters Bill's life. Bill believes that he can discourage Cirk from ruining his own life by trying to kill Gordo, who Bill knows to be a professional soldier and more than capable of defending himself from some angry kid with a half-baked scheme. Bill discovers that Cirk has some school debt after dropping out of college, and that his widowed mother also has taken on a lot of debt after fleeing her abusive relationship with Cirk's father. So Bill's plan is to win enough money to essentially buy Cirk happiness, and hope that it will be enough to make him forget about his mission. Subsequently, Bill changes his mind about La Linda, and Bill enters the World Series of Poker for a set period of time--one year. There are instances when Bill tries to be a father figure to Cirk and even bond with him, like when he tries to take Cirk to visit the disciplinary barracks at Fort Leavenworth so that he can understand the high cost of destroying a life firsthand. But something has shut down in Bill...something maybe lost from when he succumbed to Gordo's vile training. Gordo preyed on Bill's need for recognition as a young soldier, and enticed him to debase himself and brutalize prisoners because Gordo could see that deep down, Bill needed acceptance as a pupil or as a surrogate son. Bill's failure to connect with Cirk has to do with the unspoken doubt that he has in himself, so the tenderness he tries to show always seems a bit hollow. By all accounts, Bill cannot forgive himself. Each day of his life is the same as before, and even brightly lit casinos are transformed into purgatory rather than a place full of excitement. Winning or losing means nothing to Bill. He passes from one place to another like a ghost, and his past casts a constant pallor over his life after prison. In some ways, The Card Counter resembles Paul Thomas Anderson's first feature, Hard Eight, although that film balanced humor and comedy against the seediness of vice and crime. Any small bit of humor that creeps in has more to do with absurdity, as is the case with the outlandish, American-flag clad gambler called "Mr. U.S.A." (Alexander Babara) and his entourage, who Bill has to play against in his poker tournaments. The Card Counter is more of an examination of the trauma that follows a life of brutality, in war and at home. Cirk has already suffered tremendously before he approaches Bill, and this movie is saturated in the abject horror that comes from realizing just how malleable our morality can be. Bill seems to be a ordered and even virtuous person--at least after his incarceration--but this is just a psychological sanctuary that he has crafted for himself to cope. He tortured and humiliated prisoners at the behest of the military by way of John Gordo in the name of his country. The Card Counter is a direct commentary on the actual torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib in the early days of the War on Terror, and asks the hard questions about what happens after the "bad guys" are imprisoned...and what happened to the real bad guys who made it happen (like Gordo) and got away with it. The Card Counter forces the audience to evaluate how we judge others and how we can justify a "lesser evil", and contemplates the all-too-high psychological and cultural cost that comes with such a war.
Recommended for: Fans of a deeply affecting meditation on forgiveness and accountability, where gambling becomes a metaphor for the pervading chaos of life and the varying degrees of success we all have in managing it. Although there are few episodes of graphic violence, The Card Counter deals with very mature subject matter and challenges many core beliefs about America's place in the world by revisiting a humiliating episode in our nation's history; it is therefore only appropriate for audiences willing to confront this harrowing content.