He doesn’t necessarily have anything to hide he simply chooses to remain inconspicuous. Why? As he explains, he doesn’t want the casinos to know anything about him. Ironically, his post-military career mirrors that of his time in prison He never stays in a casino Instead, Tell holes up in single-floor low-rent roadside inns nearby – the kind of joints we often refer to as pay-by-the-hour motels. It was in prison where Tell first took up reading. He liked the rigid and predictable schedule, and the tidiness of his living quarters. But we do ascertain his appreciation for military structure. Before taking up the gambling trade, William Tell (Oscar Isaac’s best performance since “A Most Violent Year”) spent more eight years in federal prison for his role in torturing Iraqi POWs at the infamous Abu Ghraib prison camp near Baghdad.įrom the voice-over narration (a common technique of Schrader’s), we learn almost nothing about Tell’s pre-army life. Now Schrader is back, albeit treading some of the same territory, in “The Card Counter,” another psychological drama – this time about a low-stakes gambler struggling with his own perception of the world around him. It was a hard-hitting and underappreciated film, which still stands as one of the best of 2017. While ministering to those in his dying congregation, Hawke’s character struggled with his own belief in God as he saw the greater church heading in what he believed was the wrong direction. When last we checked in with veteran writer/director Paul Schrader, he gave us one of his best films ever with 2017’s “First Reformed” – a tour-de-force for Ethan Hawke, who played a First Reformed pastor leading a dwindling congregation in upstate New York.
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