First Reformed (2018)

Directed by Paul Schrader. Starring Ethan Hawke, Cedric Antonio Kyles, Amanda Seyfried, Victoria Hill, Phillip Ettinger, Michael Gaston, Bill Hoag. [R]

Tricky, contradictory, yet wholly engrossing film set on the eve of the 250th anniversary of a small New York town’s historic First Reformed Church. Pastor Toller (Hawke) is going through a number of personal Bergman-esque crises related to isolation, powerlessness, illness, environmental despair, spiritual uncertainty, and more. His church is struggling with low attendance, and he turns to help from a nearby megachurch, but their chief financier (Gaston) is an industrialist contributing to the erosion of planet Earth; meanwhile, he’s dealing with the suicide of a man he was trying to counsel, developing confused feelings for the man’s pregnant wife, and learning he has stomach cancer. A social issue parable, psychological drama, and existential thriller rolled into one, it feels unremittingly pessimistic, yet it curves around the themes of ideological extremism with equal parts vengeance and hope. Writer/director Paul Schrader seeks to confront and unsettle, and he does so with some audacious choices in the back end that shouldn’t work, but do, notably a “cosmic” out-of-body-experience during a peculiar form of physical intimacy, and the entire ending sequence, which doesn’t quite sit right whether interpreted literally, metaphorically, or as pure dream/fantasy. This unease, however, is one of the film’s strengths, not weaknesses, as it’s one of those increasingly rare examples of a film narrative frequently going to unexpected places and making you feel fidgety in the best way imaginable. The static camera shots and symmetrical framing and inserts and unconventional 1.33:1 aspect ratio create a rigid, cramped canvas, so it’s even easier to see through the paint to the impotence and anxiety beneath its central figure. Hawke’s internal strife, world-weariness, and shaky croak make for perhaps his most stunning film performance to date, and there are deft turns in the supporting cast, too, such as delicate Amanda Seyfried as the widow and Cedric “the Entertainer” Kyles as a megachurch pastor with buddy-buddy charisma and compromised motives. Finally earned veteran screenwriter/filmmaker Schrader the first Oscar nomination of his career (for Best Original Screenplay). Debuted at the Venice International Film Festival in 2017.

92/100