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The Card Counter recalls 21, a Kevin Spacey casino heist film based on the true story of the MIT Blackjack team who used their mathematics and card counting skills to rig the system in their favour, winning millions in Las Vegas. While the title, method and casino backdrop draw obvious similarities, the films are worlds apart in terms of accessibility and execution. The Card Counter speaks to William’s attempts to start over, using his learnings from prison to rack up some cash. The ex-military interrogator wants to make peace with his past, having done his time and ready to move on. However, when a revenge-fueled Cirk (“Kirk with a C”) arrives on the scene with a headful of nightmares William takes him under his wing in the hopes of curtailing a murder he’d have willingly carried out himself.

Oscar Isaac is a brooding actor, able to summon a rich intensity to his performances, not unlike Al Pacino. While a Scarface remake has been in the pipeline for some time with Diego Luna attached, you can imagine Isaac’s Cuban heritage and unique abilities as an actor would also make him a forerunner to play the besieged kingpin, Tony Montana. In The Card Counter, he honours a pitch perfect casting decision with one of his most powerful and well-balanced lead performances to mimic the cinematic intensity of Schrader’s experimental film about a gambler haunted by the ghosts of his past.

Isaac isn’t alone, supported by Tiffany Haddish, Tye Sheridan and Willem Dafoe. American comedian turned actor, Tiffany Haddish is an inspired casting call, having established herself first and foremost in the comedy genre. Much like Robin Williams many stand ups actually do what they do to hide, leverage or exorcise their dark side, which often makes them surprisingly adept at drama too. Haddish can act and has presence but unfortunately is miscast opposite Oscar Isaac. It’s a curious on-screen pairing, which comes to serve as an expression of writer-director Paul Schrader’s intriguing yet incompatible vision.

Tye Sheridan is a rising star who first made a name for himself as a child actor in films like Mud. Now well into his 20s, Sheridan has successfully made the transition into acting in his adulthood much like Jamie Bell and is distinguishing himself with a string of solid performances. He’s no slouch in The Card Counter able to keep up with Isaac. Willem Dafoe is a fearless actor, best remembered for Platoon yet conjuring up magic as a villain in Shadow of the Vampire and more recently The Lighthouse. In spite of limited screen time, his Hollywood history anchors him in a typically adept performance from the screen veteran.

“My game is usually Blackjack…”

Schrader is best known for writing Taxi Driver, but he’s had something of a renaissance as a writer and director with morality dramas like First Reformed. The Card Counter forms a part of this strain, which continues to wrestle with the quagmire of morality that lies in the balance for its characters, who are pushed and pulled to breaking point. This is a challenging film experience, which examines a man’s tormented past, path to redemption and the invisible forces that threaten to derail him. Using the perpetual night of the casino world, its lights, promises, flash and temptation, this becomes the playground for an ex-con on the comeback trail.

The Card Counter is tonally ambitious, experimental in its undertaking and while it falters, manages to pull the proverbial rabbit out of the hat on several occasions. Echoing Sound of Metal for its pure cinema, intensity and even soundtrack it attempts to pair haunting coming-of-age gambler drama and prisoner rehabilitation with a hitman temperament. It’s an intoxicating balancing act, dreaming up some dizzying moments from unsettling fish eye lens Guantánamo Bay torture to one-on-one dialogue that recall First Reformed and Funny Games style violence.

Together with its seesawing tone, stop-start pacing and attention-grabbing directorial decisions, we get a twisted chronicle of a man’s quest to stave off revenge in order to reinvent himself. Oscar Isaac’s considerable performance is the main reason to see The Card Counter, which is definitely not an all-play. Paul Schrader keeps you guessing at every interval, which fosters an unsettling level of uncertainty that will attract or repel audiences. The Card Counter is as strangely compelling as it is flawed and while there are echoes of the much more refined First Reformed, it only offers glimpses of its true potential.

The bottom line: Intense

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Stephen ‘Spling’ Aspeling is 2Oceansvibe’s Resident Film Critic, a “thought leader” (AFDA) and “our generation’s Barry Ronge” (Brothers Streep), who continues to review, write, present, promote and adjudicate film for a host of websites, radio stations, magazines, newspapers, TV shows, festivals and events.

*Watch great cinema online with Labia Home Screen! The Labia Theatre is an iconic independent theatre at 68 Orange Street, Gardens, Cape Town. They recently celebrated their 70th year and have successfully transitioned to digital projectors. In addition to their 4 cinemas, they’ve now added a “5th” screen by launching their Home Screen pay-per-view video-on-demand streaming service.

Labia Home Screen enables viewers to watch the theatre’s carefully curated content from the comfort of their home from anywhere in South Africa. As they open their box office in what will be a new normal, this convenient streaming service is helping the much-loved cinema continue to provide high quality, award-winning films to their loyal patrons.