The seedy world of professional gambling has always been a subject of interest to Hollywood, and Paul Schrader's film 'The Card Counter' has the expected vibe, as it follows a smart but essentially lonely character, with a younger sidekick in tow, who introduces us to how it's done. It also has a back story, our gambler having learnt his art while in prison for torture committed on behalf of his superior in the U. S. army, who has himself evaded punishment. In fact, this is really the main story of the film, and the gambling just a maguffin; the result is a film that feels unbalanced, where most of what we are shown is irrelevent to the deeper plot. Although it's well put together on a scene-by-scene basis, it doesn't quite cohere as a whole. A similar mood, but a more connected story, can be found in Paul Thomas Anderson's 'Hard Eight', a superior movie in my view.
Review of The Card Counter
