Review of The Card Counter (2021) by Leonvitali — 26 Oct 2021

A film that traces in the most absolute way the typical modus operandi of Schrader (which we remember him for having started his film career as a screenwriter, and having written masterpieces such as Taxi Driver, Raging Bull etc .

..): so what do we get? Voice-overs, characters in full existential crisis, who do labile jobs, in full sexual abstinence (topos that eviscerates a lot the director-screenwriter), and who roam at night in their car, whether they are drivers or passengers, it doesn't really matter, the important thing is that they are perpetually searching for balance, like a man back from Vietnam who kills time as a taxi driver, or like a drug dealer in search of safety, while in this case, a very skilled poker player with a terrible affair at the shoulders that pushes him to live in the shadow of his own life; it is therefore the story of William Tell, a mysterious man who earns his living by playing cards: his intertwining with Cirk, a boy who has a common enemy with the expert William Tell will finally lead him, perhaps, to redemption and redemption.

It will therefore be their journey into human madness, revenge and redemption, which will make the viewer aware of the real horror of loneliness, madness and violence, just like a genetic disease, which is handed down from generation to generation.

, as in the case of Cirk, whose father committed suicide for having committed terrible crimes, and the son, almost inheriting the gene of the criminal inheritance, dreams of revenge, and tells us, through his bloody words of lucid madness, what he would like to do to the common enemy, outlined by a magnificent and morbid Willem Dafoe, mostly crippled by the fish-eye lenses, which make everything even more hallucinated and visionary.

Direction that perfectly manages to recreate the reality that surrounds the protagonist with raw realism: all the lights, although at first glance warm, are felt terribly cold by the viewer; we also find impeccable coherence in the music: as if they were antithetical to the story, they gently caress us, and while in the background the voice of Robert Levon Been whispers a love story between the protagonist and a woman, the wide-angle lenses slam us into face unprecedented violence like a slap, with physical but also psychological nuances.

The actors are perfect: Oscar Isaac's inexpressiveness gives grace and depth to a man who has lost the sense of lucidity, and who lives on a razor's edge; an equally remarkable Tye Sheridan goes after him, but Willem Dafoe as always steals the show: in a few minutes he makes us fear what we see, painting with a few glances and a few jokes, a man irreversibly torn apart by the most unjustified violence, animal, primordial and brutal .

Very good photography, clean and at times sensational. Excellent reflection on good and evil, and on how even the best person, with excellent intentions, can turn out to be the real evil in the end.