This review of “The Card Counter” was first published on Sept. 2, 2021 after the film’s premiere at the Venice Film Festival.
Green covers the screen as the opening credits for Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter” surface. The color and texture come from the felt distinctive to casino tables. But this isn’t a study on greed for cash, in spite of what the palaces of gambling where it mostly occurs might suggest. What’s bet on with every played hand is absolution, the potential cleansing of a specter’s soul.
Men with moral vendettas are the veteran writer-director’s objects of fascination.