Storyline
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.
Directors
Cast
Willem Dafoe, Oscar Isaac, Bobby C. King, Tye Sheridan, Billy Slaughter, Tiffany Haddish, Joel Michaely, Alexander Babara, Britton Webb, Rob Eubanks, Ekaterina Baker, Dylan Flashner, Joseph Singletary, Adrienne Lau, Rachel Michiko Whitney, Amye Gousset, Kirill Sheynerman, Shane LeCocq, Olivia Peck, April Alsbury, Marlon Hayes, Alireza Mirmontazeri, Fran Robertson, Brittney Souther, Kate Lyn Whitaker, Amia Edwards
Trailer
Reviews
91
It’s truly a wild, blazing ride if you get on the movie’s bruising, mesmeric wavelength, a tragic but deeply moral film about a righteous, transactional man who has truly weighed and considered the cost of the wicked transgressions committed against his country, his fellow man, and his own soul.
83
That The Card Counter shakes your faith in the writer-director’s ability to beat the odds is part of its scabrous charm.
80
The central relationships can be a little schematic, while the plot slaloms in and out of plausibility. Still, the cast keeps it honest and there is much to relish in the film’s moody, meditative intensity.
80
A companion piece of sorts to First Reformed, this is another bruising character study of a solitary, burdened man who processes his most intimate thoughts in a journal, living with his guilt until he’s handed an unexpected opportunity for redemption.
80
Its icy conviction and unblinking Bressonian rigour generate their own particular, intoxicating strain of doom-laced excitement.
