How Paul Schrader deals with a national stain in 'The Card Counter'

In a sense, Paul Schrader is alone in his room, making movies about a man alone in his room, both immersed in their professions and drawn alongside larger issues.

"I've gone back to it four or five times, indirectly other times," says the writer of "Taxi Driver" and writer-director of "American Gigolo," "Light Sleeper," "First Reformed" and last year's "The Card Counter" — all specimens of this cinematic category he embraces as his own.

"I stumbled on it with 'Taxi Driver.' It was transplanted from