Film
Solitary Man
Oscar Isaac earns and a police station burns By Br yan VanC ampe n
T
wo of the year’s best movies couldn’t be more different in content, point of view and style, but I’m treading lightly about their plots. What makes them great should not be spoiled. Paul Schrader’s “The Card Counter” (Focus Features-Martin Scorsese, 2021, 109 min.) opens with Oscar Isaac taking a motel room for the night, paying with cash. Now he’s taking the paintings off the wall and piling up furniture. Now he’s wrapping everything in sheets with twine. Now he’s seated at his desk writing in his journal, sipping from a small bottle of hooch and leaving not one fingerprint. Now we’re in. We want to know who this guy is. More or less, Isaac is “Will Tell,” a career gambler. He rarely speaks unless he has something to say, and even then he doesn’t waste a syllable. He’s all about being disciplined and cautious. He knows just how long he can work the blackjack and poker tables before getting caught. Schrader’s film feels like a loose remake of Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Hard Eight,” with Isaac the veteran gambler taking on a raw young kid (Tye Sheridan) as a traveling companion; he has wisdom to pass on to the kid. Sheridan’s character ties into a part of the film that is best not revealed, and Tiffany Haddish co-stars as Isaac’s agent, setting him up with financiers for a piece of the action. “The Card Counter” represents a real comeback for Schrader, and it’s poetically apt that Martin Scorsese “presents” this film; the two men defined ‘70s cinema with movies like “Taxi Driver” (1976) and “Raging Bull” (1980), and Schrader went on to make strong films like “Hardcore” (1979), “American Gigolo” (1980), “Light Sleeper” (1992) and “Affliction” (1998). (If you want more background on Schrader, read Peter Biskind’s “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls,” even though I disagree with Biskind’s thesis that Schrader was all washed up by the late ’90s. “Affliction” is not the work of a washed-up filmmaker.) Since the 2002 Bob Crane bio-pic “Auto Focus,” Schrader’s had a bad run of luck, losing final cut on some movies, and having films taken away from him and finished by others. It’s nice to see him
back doing his tough portraits of fringe characters and solitary men, uncut and unvarnished. ● ● ●
I love contained thrillers. I call ‘em “Spam in a Can” movies. Joe Carnahan’s “Copshop” (Open Road-Sculptor MediaZero Gravity Management-G Base FilmRaven Capital Management-War Party Films, 2021, 107 min.), co-written with Kurt McLeod from a story by McLeod and Mark Williams, earns its bloody funny place alongside “Spam” classics like “Rio Bravo,” “Assault on Precinct 13,” “VFW” and “Die Hard,” the greatest such film in the genre. (And yes, “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie. Now shut up and eat your brussels sprouts.) We’re in a Nevada police station. A hit man (Gerard Butler) and a con man (Frank Grillo) are in opposite jail cells. The entire crime syndicate seems to be after the con man, and various killer types plot to take over the station and take out Grillo. Except for the tough and capable rookie cop played by Alexis Louder in a take-no-prisoners turn, the rest of the cops are dirty or fools. As with “Die Hard,” once Carnahan introduces the characters and the lay of the land, “Copshop” lets loose and doesn’t let up until the end credits roll. This is strong stuff, gory and blackly entertaining. In a movie designed to showcase lots of strong eccentric actors, Toby Huss steals the picture as a psycho Southern cracker hit man. Huss gives a truly odd and hilarious performance, singing and cackling, and it all feels impromptu. Carnahan quit or was fired from “Mission Impossible III,” so there’s one joke that slams “The Last Samurai” — one of Cruise’s lesser efforts, if you’re at my house. When Grillo takes down his topknot, Huss tells him he looks like Cruise “in that samurai movie nobody went to see.” Recommended: “The Eyes of Tammy Faye” at Cinemapolis; “The Conjuring” on Netflix RIP: Melvin Van Peebles (“Sweet Sweetback’s Baadasssss Song,” “Boomerang”) RIP: Willie Garson (“There’s Something About Mary,” “Soapdish,” “Groundhog Day,” “Being John Malkovich”)
Regal Cinemas “The Card Counter” is currently showing at Cinemapolis and “Copshop” is showing at Regal Cinemas at the Ithaca Mall.
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