A lonely gambler travels from motel to motel, competing in small-stakes casino card games. While on the road, the past comes back to haunt him when an ex-army colleague approaches him to seek revenge on a military colonel. A haunting tale of redemption led by Oscar Isaac’s intense performance and directed by filmmaker Paul Schrader (screenwriter of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull).

Reviews

‘Schrader has carpentered a strong and vehement film, hypnotically watchable and squalid with nightmarish flashbacks and a typically apocalyptic ending…There’s a horrible, queasy urgency to this high-stakes game.’
★★★★
Peter Bradshaw, The Guardian

‘It’s a supremely compelling tale leavened by its wry humour and a subtle commentary on the essential emptiness of American life.’
★★★★
David Jenkins, Little White Lies