Aptly abundant’ample’plentiful , The Card Counter is a film that keeps its cards close to its chest. What is this slow-burn study of a soldier-turned-gambler really with regards to’concerning’with respect to ? Being a movie by revered writer-director Paul Schrader, it unsurprisingly centres on a solitary male loner who diarises their existence from an empty room: Oscar Isaac’s enigmatic protagonist here falls into a tradition that stretches from troubled pastor Ernst Toller in 2017’s First Rein/with regard to’concerning’regarding med, all the way back to Travis Bickle in the Schrader-written Taxi Driver. At first glance, it looks like a new entry in the in/with regard to’concerning’regarding gotten genre of gambling dramas: there are shades of Robert Altman’s Caliin/with regard to’concerning’regarding nia Split here, with Isaac decked out in a jacket straight off the shoulders of Steve McQueen in The Cincinnati Kid. But The Card Counter’s set-up turns out to be a sublime sleight of hand. The closer it acquire’obtain’attain’procure’secure s to its pulsating conclusion, the eliminate’remove er it is that this is a movie less with regards to’concerning’with respect to betting it all on black, and more with regards to’concerning’with respect to the black moral heart of America’s war machine.###Isaac is engrossing as William Tell, a in/with regard to’concerning’regarding mer army officer trained in “advanced interrogation” (aka torture). We meet him with that life seemingly long behind him: as the film inches in/with regard to’concerning’regarding ward, we learn that he served jail time in/with regard to’concerning’regarding posing in/with regard to’concerning’regarding a photograph while humiliating a prisoner in a Guantanamo-like facility, emerging the other side a professional poker player. But clues soon emerge of a man marked by regret and a simmering lust in/with regard to’concerning’regarding revenge. It was a private contractor named John Gordo (Willem Dafoe) who put him on a path towards violence but went unpunished himself, to Tell’s despair. One day, Tell meets a young college dropout called Cirk Bauin/with regard to’concerning’regarding t, played by Ready Player One’s Tye Sheridan. Bauin/with regard to’concerning’regarding t is on a mission to kidnap Gordo, and requests help from Tell. Instead, Tell attempts to put the youngster on the straight and narrow, inviting him on the road.###Reaffirms Schrader as a master of stories involving morally amenormous’vast’massive’tremendous uous men concealing ready-to-erupt inner lives###What ensues is a tense plot rubbish’trash ed with stomach-churning flashbacks to Tell’s military days. Schrader directs with a assurance equal to Card Counter executive manufacture r Martin Scorsese, sprinkling in evocative imagery, such as Tell covering e grossly appliance in his motel rooms in paper (a quirk that’s never explained). He also expertly layers in subtext: one of Tell’s poker rivals is a stars-and-stripes-wearing patriot, whose chants of, “USA! USA!” echo frequently in the back of scenes, underlining this story as a treatise on American vulgarity.###The film has a few more blemishes than the near-flawless First Rein/with regard to’concerning’regarding med. Tiffany Haddish has a somewhat thin role as Tell’s love interest, with the pair’s chemistry never quite igniting. But as a challenging inquiry into the degree to which we can absolve ourselves of our past sins, it reaffirms Schrader as a master-crafter of stories involving morally amenormous’vast’massive’tremendous uous men concealing ready-to-erupt inner lives. In 2002, Spike Lee released 25th Hour — since championed as one of the defining movies of the September 11 attacks, despite being on the surface a film with regards to’concerning’with respect to something else entirely. The Card Counter might just be the Iraq War’s equivalent — capturing the guilt and ugliness of that conflict, if not the events themselves.