These days, William Tell (Oscar Isaac) is a slick gambler, one that usually goes home with some winnings in his pocket as he's trained in the art of card-counting. He's also clever enough to never win too big so casinos don't put him on their black lists. That hasn't always been his life though, back when he was with the Army, he was one of the prison guards in Abu Ghraib but got convicted for atrociously torturing prisoners. And in his eight and a half years in prison he has learned the art of card coutning down to a t. But he has buried his past and started a new life since, even if that life is just an endless succession of rounds of Poker and Black Jack in casinos that all look the same, sleeping in impersonal motel rooms, just being on the road from one place to another, careful to never make any real friends - and then he meets Cirk (Tye Sheridan), a young man whose father served with him in the army, also got convicted and ultimately killed himself. But while William has vowed to leave his past behind, Cirk thinks he has found the real culprit for what has happened in Abu Ghraib, "major" Gordo (Willem Dafoe), a private contractor who taught the guards their interrogation techniques - as in, trained them in brutal torture - but who got away from the thing scot-free, because as a private citizen rather than a marine, he can't be convicted in the US for crimes he has committed outside of the country's borders. And Gordo's career sure has soared since. Now Cirk wants to avenge his father's death by torturing and killing Gordo, and thinks he has found an ally in William, but William only knows too well what he has done back when, and thus he turns Cirk down ... and then shows a flash of humanity and figures instead of helping him have his revenge, he'll take him under his wing and ultimately make enough money at poker tournaments to pay for Cirk to get an education - pretty much as part of redemption for his own sins. But to enter poker tournaments, William needs money, and thus asks La Linda (Tiffany Haddish), a wealthy backer who has always wanted him for her stable of players, to finance his tournament run - which she enthusiastically agrees to. And over the next few weeks, the trio travel through the country as a sort of surrogate family. And William is making good money for all of them. But it troubles him that he can't bring Cirk to give up his plans to kill Gordo, so much so that he eventually threatens to torture him if he doesn't take William's winnings (no less than $150,000), pay back his student's debt, get an education, and make up with his mother - an offer Cirk really can't but accept. So with that settled, William goes into the big finale of another tournament with a clear head and a good consience on top of that - but then he receives a text from Cirk that he's actually outside Gordo's house with very clear intentions ...

Basically, this is just another movie that proves what a great writer-director Paul Schrader actually is. Now objectively, there isn't all that much happening in the movie in terms of action and spectacle, especially when the world of casinos and black jack and poker mean little to you, and yet the film remains narratively tense from beginning to end, and does its best to make palpable William's inner conflict, the volcano that threatens to erupt under his slick surface. And the somewhat fake and impersonal world of casinos, which is captured with a sense of eeriness rather than glamour, only helps with that. And of course, a great cast doesn't hurt one bit either to make this into a movie as good as you'd expect from Schrader.

review © by Mike Haberfelner

 

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