First Reformed

'First Reformed' is an extremely challenging film. Maybe the most challenging that I've seen. I expected nothing less from Paul Schrader, though, as he's written and directed a lot of challenging stuff over the years. It's slow, methodical and exacting. It asks important questions but does not give any easy answers (or answers in general for that matter)...

Ethan Hawke's performance at the epicenter of this film really is a towering achievement. It's the kind of performance that will do down as not only one of the best of the year, but this will be remembered (most likely) as his career best. Ernst Toller is a man struggling internally with immense pain and turmoil. The loss of his only child has caused his marriage to fall apart so he has since turned to the Lord for whatever form of relief he can find. Nothing will ever take away that pain, but he's at least been able to somewhat cope with it over the years...though he has never really found true peace or happiness and has since turned to the bottle (like most men seem to) for solace. He writes in a journal every day as a form of self prayer or maybe just a way to put his ruinous thoughts down on paper instead of keeping them bottled up where they could potentially do more harm. A meeting with a local man one day where a multitude of different end-of-the-world topics are discussed ends up leading the Reverend down a rabbit-hole of immense consequences. All of which cause Toller to question his commitment to God and the Church. He's the pastor of a small local church that are all but extinct now and every city is being overrun with these massive churches. Faith has become a spectacle run by mostly phonies who only care about the bottom-line instead of the people and the close-knit community - another thing that frustrates him. Ethan Hawke is able to quietly walk this emotional tightrope the entire film and never allows him to fall into any histrionics. Amanda Seyfried takes on the important role of Mary (one of only 2 main female roles) and she delivers her best performance as well. Mary becomes a integral part of the Reverend's life as they're able to help each other through these difficult times...although it can be kinda hard to see what ways she really helps him. Cedric "The Entertainer" Kyles also shows up along the way as the pastor of the big conglomerate church who, despite good intentions, is probably doing more harm than good.

I feel like it really demands to be seen whether you're a person of faith or not. This is definitely not your typical Christian film and that's probably gonna upset a lot of people, but this one (and Schrader) have more lofty ideas and weighty themes on their mind. This is a very dense screenplay which leads to a heavy film that expects a lot from the audience. Paul Schrader isn't letting anyone off the hook easily here...he's being patient and letting the film open up at its own pace. This is also the kind of film that doesn't divulge all of its secrets in one sitting...it expects you to come back to it and soak it all in over multiple viewings - which with a film of this ilk you should probably do anyway.

Paul Schrader and company have created something wholly unique and special with 'First Reformed' and I think it's definitely something to be valued. So if you're in the mood for something a little different and don't mind your movies making you think, then please give it a chance!

My Rating : 7/10

If you like the great filmmakers of the black and white era such as Bresson and Bergman you will enjoy 'First Reformed' as you can see direct influences from Diary of a Country Priest and Winter Light here.

Made for the 2018 audience, it's a dark character study similar to what Schrader's done in Taxi Driver before. I enjoyed it for what it is and the overall slow-burning narrative.

It's as stark as a Scandinavian winterscape. Ethan Hawke stars as a troubled pastor in a small Upstate New York town. He's assigned to an ancient church (founded in 1767) that's basically a tourist spot and part of a megachurch that seats 5,000 and televises regularly for donations. You know the type.

Anyway, Hawke has a troubled past. His marriage fell apart after his son was killed in Iraq (for nothing) and he may have cancer. He wanders the empty parsonage like a ghost. He's called by a local woman (Amanda Seyfried) to counsel her radicalized husband. He's a warrior against those who are killing the planet for personal gain. He's totally obsessed with industrial pollution and climate change, etc. The wife panics when she discovers a suicide vest loaded with explosives.

The other main plot has Hawke dealing with the slick megachurch bureaucracy and its major donor, who has a history of polluting the environment. Hey, I said this was stark.

After several plot turns, the film almost reaches it conclusion but the screen suddenly goes black and silent just as we're about to reach the climax. I thought my streaming service went out. A very off way to end a film, but probably effective. I think there's more than a passing nod to Flannery O'Connor's brilliant novel, Wise Blood, and Hawkes' Toller shares a close kinship with O'Connor's protagonist Hazel Motes and his "Church without Christ." This is a somber and fascinating film by Paul Schrader and certainly not to all tastes. It's worth sticking with because of Ethan Hawkes' excellent performance.

Most reviews I've seen of First Reformed have praised it as Paul Schrader's best work since either Taxi Driver (1976) or Raging Bull (1980). And whilst I think that's an oversimplification, unjustly ignoring such strong screenplays as The Last Temptation of Christ (1988) and Bringing Out the Dead (1999), and very unjustly ignoring such superb directorial work as Affliction (1997) and Auto Focus (2002), there can be little doubt that First Reformed is easily his best film of the last fifteen years or so (which wouldn't be hard when you consider films like The Canyons (2013), Dying of the Light (2014), and Dog Eat Dog (2016)).

The film tells a deceptively simple story - Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is the parish priest of a small congregation in the Snowbridge suburb of New York. A former military chaplain, Toller is struggling with the death of his son, Joseph, who he encouraged to enlist, and who was killed several months into his first tour in Iraq. As a result, Toller's marriage fell apart, which his wife blaming him for Joseph's death. As the film begins, Toller's spiritual crisis is already well under way. He's drinking too much, doesn't show much interest in his official duties, doesn't seem bothered that his congregation has dwindled to about ten people, and has taken to recording his thoughts in a journal which he plans to keep for one year, and then destroy. After Sunday mass, Toller is approached by Mary (Amanda Seyfried), one of his parishioners, who is worried about her husband, Michael (Philip Ettinger). A radical environmentalist who has just been released from prison in Canada, Michael has developed extreme nihilistic views, and wants Mary to abort their unborn child because he doesn't think anyone has the right to bring a child into a dying world. Although initially reluctant to get involved, Mary persuades Toller to counsel Michael. Meanwhile, the 250th anniversary of the First Reformed church from which Toller works is fast approaching, with a huge service to be attended by both the governor and mayor.

The above plot summary takes up roughly the first twenty minutes or so of the film, almost up to the end of the first act. At that point, it looks as if the narrative is heading in the direction of following Toller as he sets about changing Michael's extreme worldview. But that's not where it goes at all, instead focusing almost exclusively on the disintegration of Toller's faith, and the development of his own nihilistic outlook. Along the way, it introduces us to three main supporting characters - Reverend Joel Jeffers (Cedric The Entertainer) of Abundant Life, the megachurch that owns First Reformed, and who gave Toller his job; Esther (Victoria Hill), choirmaster at First Reformed, who had a brief sexual relationship with Toller after his marriage ended; and Edward Balq (Michael Gaston), an industrialist whose company is regarded as one of the worst polluters on the planet. As Toller wrestles with his conscience, he comes into conflict with all three in various ways. At the same time, Mary remains virtually the only remnant of hope in his life, as they continue to grow close.

The most striking thing to me about First Reformed is that it is brilliantly shot in Academy ratio (1.37:1), and as a result, everything is boxed in, suggesting little room for movement, with very little empty space in the frame. Coupled with this, Schrader is remarkably consistent in composing perfectly symmetrical shots (the opening scene is a good example). Together, the small frame and the symmetrical compositions give one the impression of looking at a confessional, with the priest on one side and the confessor on the other. As Toller's journal entries occur throughout the film in the form of voiceover, this aesthetic replication of a confessional is enhanced even further - although Toller is not the priest hearing the confession, he is the one confessing.

In line with this, First Reformed is not an easy film to watch. It's central themes are suffering, loss of faith, nihilism, and environmental catastrophe, and the way the film is shot, with the added intimacy of the journal, make it seems as if the audience is suffering right alongside Toller; we're drawn completely into his world, and even his mind, in a way very few films achieve. Schrader allows the content to brilliantly dictate the form, with the two becoming so intertwined as to be virtually indistinguishable from one another - a concept most filmmakers don't seem to even understand, let alone have the ability to accomplish. Interestingly this is the second film in the last twelve months to use Academy ratio for explicit narrative reasons, the other being David Lowery's superb A Ghost Story (2017).

Of course, Schrader is as cine-literate as they come, and doesn't make films in isolation (for example, there are at least three explicit visual references to Taxi Driver), and looking at First Reformed in relation to his career would require a full article-length study to itself. However, the film in his oeuvre of which I was most reminded was, strangely enough, Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist (2005), which is not especially good, but which does share many of the same narrative beats and thematic concerns - a lost priest whose experiences of the darker side of humanity has led to him questioning his faith; a crisis of conscience; a righteous cause to which he totally gives himself over; an indifferent God watching everything unfold; an unimaginable sacrifice; hope offered in the form of an innocent. First Reformed is a lot better, and a lot more morally complex, but there's certainly a thematic consistency.

However, that is not to say First Reformed is perfect. There are parts where it is extraordinarily clunky. For example, there's the wake where a group of environmentalists start singing an awful cappella version of Neil Young's activist song, "Who's Gonna Stand up?", or the scene where Mary and Toller take (figurative) flight through the power of holding hands (in a scene that reminded me of The Big Lebowski (1998) far more than I would imagine was intended, and got quite a few laughs at the screening I attended).

Additionally, although I've seen many reviews talking about how thought-provoking the environmentalist side of the story is, for me it never really coalesced into anything inherently coherent. Obviously, Toller is a man ready to fall apart when the movie begins, and Michael's concerns about the future of the planet serve as the catalyst for that. However, rather than the film presenting this as nothing more than the backdrop against which Toller's crisis takes place, and thus purposely rendering it unimportant in and of itself, Schrader seems to be trying to genuinely shoehorn in a call-to-action. Which is fairly out of place. And, to be honest, the photograph of the emaciated polar bear is far more disturbing and resonant than any of the facts and figures the film occasionally tosses out.

I'm also not 100% convinced the black comedy worked. There aren't that many instances of it, but when they come, they are so black as to be easily missed. Probably the best example is when Toller is showing a group of children around First Reformed, and telling them how it was a stop on the Underground Railroad, showing them a secret basement in which the runaway slaves would hide. However, instead of simply giving them a quick history lesson, he ends up staring into the basement and giving a graphic description of what it must have been like hiding in the dark, scared and tired, with no room to move. There's a few moments like this, but I didn't think they really sat well with the ultra-realism on display elsewhere.

But they're minor faults, and all things considered, this is a high-quality film. Will it be in contention come awards season? Possibly. Schrader has always had a fraught relationship with the Academy (hard to believe he's never even been nominated for an Oscar), but this is the kind of serious subject matter that voters usually lap up. I certainly wouldn't be surprised to see Hawke get some acting nods, possibly Seyfried too. Irrespective of that (and we all know the amount of Oscar nominations a film gets has very little to do with its quality), this is a strong film made by a skilled artist about a subject matter for which he clearly feels deeply.

Apparently, I am the oldest person commenting on this extraordinary film to recognize that the plot, characters, and pacing can all be traced back to Ingmar Bergman's Winterlight, Yes, Paul Schrader has created a great new original film but we must recognize its sources and failure to do so leaves us withering. You will not have to see Ingmar Bergman's original to appreciate this film, but the fact that so much comes from that film makes it weird to me that no one has recognized it so far. Beautifully executed, gorgeously shot and accomplished acting all contribute to the effectiveness of this film. It may seem a little shallow to some, but it is very worthwhile.