Oscar Isaac headlines a new crime drama titled The Card Counter, and its Rotten Tomatoes debut just yielded a 100% score.
Directed by Paul Schrader (First Reformed) and co-starring Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe, this chilly tale of a serviceman-turned-convict-turned-gambler just premiered at the Venice Film Festival.
Fresh from the screening, critics have begun to share their first-look reviews online: –
The Guardianwrote:
“Schrader directs with the unhurried air of a man who has told some variation of this story many times before. 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.
“At its best, The Card Counter is wonderfully retro, like an old-fashioned noir.”
Screen Daily concluded:
“The film is all about what is happening below the surface – in William [Tell, Isaac’s character], and in America. Its odd meld of drab suburban casinos, wrapped motel rooms, nightmarish Iraqi torture sequences and military correctional facilities where the furniture is bolted to the floor, all build to a video-artist vision that comes bursting surprisingly out of an old-school box – and results in one more male-slanted Paul Schrader script about a haunted man at a crossroads.”
The Card Counter premiered at Venice Film Festival, and will hit US cinemas on Friday, September 10th.
