Card Counter and Together

 Paul Schrader is best known for writing the screenplay for Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver"(1976) and co-writing the screenplay for Scorsese's "Raging Bull" (1980). This writer-director deserves more recognition for his own films, among them "Blue Collar" (1978), "The Comfort of Strangers" (1990) and "First Reformed" (2018). In this podcast episode, HCC film professors Marie Westhaver and Mike Giuliano have a mixed response to Schrader's new film, "The Card Counter," but they are intrigued by the title character played by Oscar Isaac and the claustrophobic casino world he inhabits. Also in this episode, Marie and Mike talk about an even more claustrophobic film, "Together," about an English couple largely confined at home by the current pandemic. Although Mike thinks this film is contrived and difficult to sit through, Marie likes how it captures the details of life during a pandemic and she also likes the performance by James McAvoy.