The Card Counter

And what is the use of counting cards if in the end you play poker (and we better not talk about real life).

If you can catch the vibe it is a nice movie with great acting. I like the mood and the flow.

Like green felt on a casino table: risky, dangerous and smooth.

A traumatized veteran who's become a professional gambler finds himself being pushed outside of the walls he's carefully constructed around him.

Sadly, the female lead is as clunky as the romance they force into the film, but Oscar Isaac and the soundtrack are diamonds that club my heart in spades.

I'm not really certain what I just watched, but the acting is top-notch. The story is esoteric, and it doesn't flow particularly well. It seems as if the movie is made of constituent components that were retrofitted w/ one another. Oscar Isaac was tremendous, and Tiffany Haddish was notable in her role, as well. I thought that they had strong chemistry w/ one another, so the movie kept pace, even when it wasn't overtly clear what was going on.

Fairly straightforward plot but very well acted. The acting and the score carries the movie to an incredibly messy yet absolutely realistic ending. Oscar Isaac’s shot at the Oscars.

>Damn when I see the reviews of this movie I feel isolated lol

[spoiler]The film is an internal drama about the US military. The layers here are inserted quite silently, as the story itself asks. I noticed here some ideological confusions about the film. I personally don't believe this movie is about US imperialism. But about men believing they are doing good things when they are actually doing horrible things. It is important to emphasize that I do not agree with all the decisions of the film, but I have to emphasize that this film is not an expository film, but a reflective film and after the drama comes the suspense. This film uses irony to talk about things and its biggest opponent is an American poker idol. In this sense, I have the impression that the film was successful in the message it carries and I think it is courageous to show that everyone has a second chance and that in the raw of things, whether in war or westerns, everything is about carrying and making use of your emotions. own words.[/spoiler]

==Don't get confused this movie is about a bad guy trying to do something good with his life.==

Paul Schrader builds another of his characters that draw from Bresson's sources, the camera that doesn't film, but writes a relationship between image and sound. The routine in which William includes himself is almost monastic, religious like many of the author's characters. The cleanliness of the image is the representation of the impurity of his soul, because the memories of Abu Ghraib are anamorphic, distorted.

A great character study in redemption, if that's possible given the situation. Excellent portrayal by Isaac Oscar.

While it has many noticeable issues, it’s mainly the excellent leading performance and tone that are most importantly accounted for in making a generally very good film.

I’m torn on how to feel of the movie. It definitely does what it intends to do, but too often did it feel dull to me. As someone that went in not super familiar with Paul Schrader or his work, I was not sure what to expect. I caught myself saying “this feels oddly like Taxi Driver” and come to find out he wrote/co-wrote that movie many moons ago. These types of movies are very much a “does it work for you”, and I don’t think this one does even if I didn’t dislike it. Objectively, it’s good. And I’m sure it will work for many others.

Rating: 2.5/5 - 7/10 - Worth Watching