The Card Counter

"This isn’t just provocation for its own sake, it’s provocation with intent."

"Schrader has carpentered a strong and vehement film, hypnotically watchable and squalid..."

"It's a supremely compelling tale leavened by its wry humour..."

"Even with (a) hint of midsection story slackness, this is still a highly controlled piece of filmmaking with an unerring command of tone."

"Schrader seems altogether at ease in The Card Counter, and has found an ideal conduit in the protean, velvet-voiced Isaac..."

"So this is a movie that, of course, is about much more than poker. More to the point, it’s not really about poker at all."

"The Card Counter is... frustrating, personal, and intensely moving for its stubbornness... Schrader is still an admirably risky and furious artist."

"An inconsistent character study..."

"The one-note familiarity of The Card Counter ends up undermining rather than reinforcing everything we love about (Schrader's) work..."

"Schrader is in one of those late-career grooves that you always like to see from a veteran filmmaker who has something to say."

"Transcendent..."

"As in life, the grotesque and the beautiful exist concurrently and are each given fair weight."

"Yes, life is a prison, life is a casino. It is not, however, a movie, or at least not The Card Counter."

"Isaac gives a finely judged performance."

"The Card Counter's pacing won't be for everyone, but Schrader fans will be all-in on this gripping portrait of lament."

"Paul Schrader pulls a bait-and-switch, delivering a navel-gazing drag that treats a real-life atrocity as provocative production design."