Quartile rating: 6.5/10 · 1 rating
William Tell just wants to play cards. His spartan existence on the casino trail is shattered when he is approached by Cirk, a vulnerable and angry young man seeking help to execute his plan for revenge on a military colonel. Tell sees a chance at redemption through his relationship with Cirk.
Paul Schrader's meditative character study has strong visual distinction — the distorted wide-angle interiors of motel rooms and the haunting Abu Ghraib flashback sequences give the cinematography a genuinely singular quality. Oscar Isaac delivers a controlled, internalized performance, though the supporting cast is thinner. The plot has Schrader's trademark spiritual-redemption architecture but feels somewhat underdeveloped in its secondary characters (Cirk especially), and the revenge narrative never fully coheres. Novelty is solid given Schrader's unmistakable authorial voice and the unusual pairing of gambling milieu with war-crimes guilt, but it doesn't fully transcend his prior work in the same mode. The ending — abrupt and deliberately bleak — will frustrate many; it feels like a withholding rather than a culmination, undercutting the emotional stakes built throughout.