Isaac gives a finely judged performance. His Tell is a tightly controlled but outwardly affable character who behaves as if he's given up all ambition beyond the desire to stay out of trouble.

The Card Counter is an uncomfortable, meditative movie about guilt, risk, retribution, and the way America operates. It's also an extraordinary example of Oscar Isaac's power.

The film has a broodingly commanding central performance. It's a pity, then, that much of its promise is squandered by sloppiness, both in the writing and elsewhere.

Schrader gives Isaacs room to inhabit his internally tortured, violent, and demented character as he attempts to do an imitation of a normal person repressing a rage and self-loathing that reveals itself when confronted with revulsion.