From the outset, director Gaspar Noé prepares his audience for a meditation on the agonies of art-making

Creeping underneath the surface eccentricities are anxious, philosophically loaded questions about compassion, individuality, and the nasty, brutish shortness of life

The story, while based on an actual 8th-century prophet, functions metaphorically as a picture of God’s grace toward a sinful, wayward people

In a bit of Coen-esque mischief, there is nary a Scottish actor among the principals

As a filmmaker, Sorrentino isn’t a mystic like Terrence Malick, nor is he a blasphemer or a crank

The elegantly suspenseful scenario is put together with the care and beauty of a spider’s web

Family dramas have consistently proved to be reliable crowd-pleasers, especially when set against the backdrop of some kind of national conflict

Movies about the creative process are notoriously difficult to pull off

The real star is the island, with its blasted heaths and blinding beaches

The spiritually arid universe that cinema currently inhabits is likely to receive ‘The Card Counter’ as something fresh: an intellectually serious work by a seriously intellectual filmmaker