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#297 (no ads): Bet Your Life Pt. 2: The Card Counter (Patreon)

Published:
2021-10-05 03:01:00
Imported:
2021-10

Content

Like HARD EIGHT, the new Paul Schrader film THE CARD COUNTER puts a professional gambler on the road to redemption via his relationship with a confused and volatile young man, in the latest iteration of Schrader’s “God’s Lonely Man” character. We unpack that character, along with CARD COUNTER’s view of him and his sins, with the help once again of critic and Schrader expert Vikram Murthi, before putting these two films side by side to discuss their respective approach to father-son relationships, casinos and gambling, and lives lived in limbo. Plus Your Next Picture Show, where we share recent filmgoing experiences in hopes of putting something new on your radar.

Please share your comments, thoughts, and questions about HARD EIGHT, THE CARD COUNTER, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email to comments@nextpictureshow.net, or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Show Notes

Works Cited:

• “Every Paul Schrader Movie, Ranked” by Vikram Murthi (vulture.com)

• “Cogs in the Machine: American Despair in Paul Schrader’s ‘Blue Collar’” by Vikram Murthi (musings.oscilloscope.net)

• “’The Card Counter’ Is a Tense Second Act to Paul Schrader’s Doomsday Period” by Charles Bramesco (insidehook.com)

Your Next Picture Show:

Vikram: James Foley’s AFTER DARK, MY SWEETScott: Michael Mohan’s THE VOYEURSKeith: Jean-Pierre Melville’s BOB LE FLAMBEURTasha: James Wan’s MALIGNANT

Outro music: “Rambling Gambling Willie” by Bob Dylan

Files

Comments

jamsheed siyar

Great episode and discussion, helped me understand the film better. I started pretty close to Tasha’s position (I thought it was a brilliantly executed film built on offensively revolting premise—war criminal gets redeemed by love, etc.) And while I’m not totally convinced that what Schrader is doing fully works, I do at least understand the structural dimension of the critique. Many thanks for that. I will say I still find it problematic to parse Tell’s actions (or the social rot they manifest) in terms of “sin” rather than as straight up war crimes—as both the film does and as a lot of the discussion here did—and that’s why I can’t quite get fully in board the Schrader train, but this definitely deepened my appreciation of the film. (Also, for the record, I adore Pickpocket, but I think it’s very much not an accident that Pickpocket is about an ordinary—if unusually existentially troubled—pickpocket.)