The Card Counter

The Card Counter

William Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk. But keeping Cirk on the straight-and-narrow proves impossible, dragging Tell back into the darkness of his past.

  • Released: 2021-09-03
  • Runtime: 111 minutes
  • Genre: Crime, Drama, Thrillers
  • Stars: Oscar Isaac, Tye Sheridan, Willem Dafoe, Tiffany Haddish, Billy Slaughter, Amye Gousset, Joel Michaely, Ekaterina Baker, Alexander Babara, Alireza Mirmontazeri, Britton Webb, Calvin Williams, Rachel Michiko Whitney, Adrienne Lau, Fran Robertson, Bobby C. King, Ekaterina Baker, Dylan Flashner, Joseph Singletary, Kirill Sheynerman, Shane LeCocq, Olivia Peck, Rob Eubanks, April Alsbury, Marlon Hayes, Alireza Mirmontazeri, Fran Robertson, Brittney Souther, Kate Lyn Whitaker, Amia Edwards
  • Director: Paul Schrader
 Comments
  • cuchulain-96418 - 10 May 2024
    Excruciating and worthless
    The film has been described as dreary. It would have to add a whole lot of gags from the best of Woody Allen's "earlier funnier films" to rise to dreary. It has been described as a 'redemption' film, but I must have missed that. And it all unfolds so slowly, painfully. The character stumbles onto a situation that motivates him, apparently. However, we can only guess as to why. Before that he appears to be aimless and purposeless, like the film itself, really 'gripping' stuff. His actions do not truly redeem him, no lessons are learned. And to top it off he doesn't "count cards", his casino action is virtually all poker!!
  • musclesz - 5 October 2023
    Martin Scorsese and Oscar Isaac are better than this
    I didn't hate the movie. I streamed it for free so I can't complain. I feel bad for anyone who paid for it, however.

    It's just a very flawed movie. The guy is known as a card counter, which is done in blackjack. But somehow becomes a pro poker player? Why not just call the movie "the poker pro"? Then he randomly meets someone at a convention in the Casino who happens to know all about his sordid past? OK, that made no sense. Then they start driving around together?

    It was just poor writing, the plot was weak. The ending was weird and didn't make sense. It's like asking me to write a story that would be produced by Martin Scorses and Oscar Isaac.

    Like I said, it had enough weirdness and content to not be totally boring. But it was just not quality work. And watching scenese where Oscar just sat there chomping on food made me lose respect for the guy. Not his best acting job.

    And a scene at the end where Oscar and DaFoe go at each other, the camera pans away and you just hear "ouch! Ohhhh! Ewwww!" as if the director was trying to imitate Reservoir Dogs but totally missed.

    The only thing I can guess is that Scorsese has connections to Casinos and this was some attempt to market Casinos via a movie.