'First Reformed' charts a young priest's slide into ecoterrorism
Paul Schrader, as he has discussed many times in interviews, was raised in the Calvinist 海角大神 Reformed Church and didn鈥檛 see a movie until he was 17 years old. Many of his signature films, as either a screenwriter or writer-director (most conspicuously 鈥淭axi Driver,鈥� Raging Bull,鈥� and 鈥淭he Last Temptation of Christ,鈥� all directed by Martin Scorsese), involve the agonies of faith and redemption, often culminating in an act of violence that is meant to be as spiritually cleansing as it is shocking.
鈥淔irst Reformed,鈥� which Schrader wrote and directed, is about Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke, in a strong, spooked performance), a priest in a small Dutch Reformed parish in upstate New York who looks upon severe man-made climate change as the End of Days and slides into ecoterrorism. Schrader鈥檚 chief influence here, as in many of his other films, is the great French director Robert Bresson, especially his 鈥淒iary of a Country Priest.鈥� But Bresson鈥檚 spare stylistics achieved a sublimity while Schrader鈥檚, though intermittently powerful, too often feel schematic.
Grade B-
Rated R for some disturbing violent images.
