Paul Schrader's "First Reformed," in which Ethan Hawke brilliantly plays an alcoholic Protestant minister undergoing a profound spiritual and psychological crisis, is a stunning, enrapturing film, a crowning work by one of the American cinema's most essential artists. First Reformed is a bleak, punishing movie and the furthest thing imaginable from an easy crowdpleaser. But Hawke juices it with an austere To watch First Reformed is to stare unsparingly into the most basic, unanswerable philosophical questions we have.

First Reformed is carefully considered and cleanly executed. Its final scene makes an interesting argument for what might cure the sickness that seems to infect so many with violent thoughts. Paul Schrader's First Reformed Is an Austere Examination of Faith and Morality.

First Reformed

First Reformed is rigorously austere (as befits the author of Transcendental Style in Film), but every frame suggests a longing for a world elsewhere. So yes, for me watching First Reformed — first last autumn at the Toronto Film Festival, and then again a few weeks ago — was one of those experiences Critics have rightly declared First Reformed to be one of the year's best American films. Featuring a stunning performance from Ethan Hawke, it. "First Reformed" wrestles with contemporary reality, but it isn't a work of realism in the way that term is conventionally understood. There is something radical about that, and about Mr. It stars Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, and Cedric the Entertainer (credited as Cedric Kyles). The church stands white in a world of gray, a cross and steeple rising above a field of barren trees.

Trailer First Reformed

Countless congregants have worshipped in its. Paul Schrader pours all his obsessions, from Robert Bresson to pulp violence, into a grindhouse art film you can't stop Taken literally, the film is borderline absurd, yet "First Reformed" feels like a testament. It's like some purple but restrained drive-in-movie version of.

What You Need To Know: FIRST REFORMED is an arthouse drama about a middle-aged, divorced. EDIT major easter egg possibly found: DOUBLE SPOILER First Reformed and for a Taxi Driver reference as well After rewatching Taxi Driver, the blood bath scene at the end has the camera follow a birds eye perspective. Brett McCracken reviews 'First Reformed,' a difficult and disturbing film about the toxic temptations One of the key elements of a movie with "transcendental style," according to Schrader, is what he Disparity is certainly present in First Reformed. Toller is plagued by the "spiritual schizophrenia" he. "First Reformed" is about a country priest, and he keeps a diary.