54: The Card Counter (with Will Menaker)

Chapo Trap House’s Will Menaker joins us from Brooklyn to discuss the career of veteran writer-director Paul Schrader, whose latest work The Card Counter is the latest iteration of a story Schrader has told many times over his long career, in true Auteurist tradition: an immersion into a dark subculture from the anguished perspective of God’s Lonely Man.

To set the table, Will and I also discuss two important concepts of understanding modern cinema, both of which strongly apply to this podcast and The Card Counter: Movie Mindset™ and Dudes Rock Cinema. Along the way we discuss previous Schrader films that specifically relate to this latest work including Rolling Thunder, Blue Collar, Light Sleeper, Auto Focus, The Walker and First Reformed.

Plus we review Schrader’s use of Facebook to communicate takes so hot that he is often told by his distributor to log off!

Consider supporting the podcast directly by becoming a Junk Filter Patron and receive access to additional premium episodes every month: sign up at Patreon.com/junkfilter

Follow Will Menaker on Twitter and Letterboxd.

Movie Mindset™ used with permission (copyright 2020 Will Menaker, all rights reserved).

Paul Schrader’s Facebook posts are documented on Twitter at @paul_posts

Music Video for Tight Connection To My Heart - Bob Dylan (Schrader, 1985)

Trailer for The Card Counter (Schrader, 2021)