First Reformed

New movie! Anyone seen it yet? Paul Schrader. First Reformed kicks off with this priest deciding to go full reformist. Can you even imagine?Ethan HawkeSo he spends a year pouring his soul into a diary only to decide to burn the whole thing down? After losing his son in that brutal war overseas, he retreats to some tiny, isolated town where this girl starts showing up at his local church... what a heavy setup.Amanda SeyfriedShe's basically begging him to talk to her husband, this hardcore environmentalist who pressured her to abort their baby just because he's terrified his daughter will grow up in a world that's totally trashed by climate change. Can you even imagine?

On top of everything, this woman finds a suicide bomber's vest stashed in their basement and hands it straight to the priest. But when he shows up to meet her at their rendezvous, he finds him dead from a gunshot to the head. Following the young guy's dying wish, the priest scatters his ashes right over the local factory that’s been polluting the area while donating huge sums to the church. As the priest and the activist's widow start to grow closer, he actually embraces those environmentalist ideals through a Jesuit self-sacrifice ritual. It's pure Schrader—that Calvinist spirit really comes flooding out, doesn't it?

The criticism boils down to the movie itself and Hawke's performance:

Check out the scores for First Reformed on Metacritic. Is it actually worth the hype?

We'll see how it goes then.

Mixing spiritual angst with ecology is a fresh angle—definitely a step in the right direction—but it’s wrapped in this outdated, heavy-handed Christian metaphysics that honestly feels like five steps backward.
Schrader was never actually a great director, so he trips over his own feet here too—scenes like the biking bit, the soup kitchen food sharing, or that weird Tumblr-style levitation are just painfully bad. 😁

Too bad the whole thing isn't just a total joke. 'Love Exposure' still holds the crown as the best example of modern Christian cinema.

Dennis Martin6 said:Merging spiritual anxiety with ecology feels original—a step in the right direction—but it’s unfortunately delivered through the outdated symbolic language of Christian metaphysics.

But isn't that exactly the point? Isn't that outdated form just a mask for a spiritual void? There's no actual metaphysics here, no Dreyer, no Bresson...

Dennis Martin6 said:Merging spiritual angst with ecology is an original move and a step in the right direction, but unfortunately, it's delivered through that outdated symbolic lens of Christian metaphysics... which feels like at least five steps backward.
Schrader was never actually any good...Yeah, there are a few laughably bad calls here too, like that cycling scene, the soup kitchen bit, or that whole Tumblr-style levitation thing... 😁

It’s a shame things aren't even more chaotic. *Love Exposure* still stands as the ultimate example of modern Christian cinema...

A... MishimaI wouldn't go so far as to say the movie is absolutely flawless, but some of those creative choices were pure genius. Also... People are cats...Even if the whole thing feels a bit flimsy, there's an energy there that makes it a cult classic. Maybe it’s all thanks to Nastassja, but she should have been the one calling the shots... or at least being used better... Bowie... For the cover story. Even Tarantino recognized that vibe... Merciless bastards....

electriccanyon26 said:Isn't that exactly the point, though? Isn't there just a spiritual void hiding behind that outdated style? There's zero metaphysics here—no Dreyer, no Bresson...

Aha, so you think Schrader is being ironic when he directly mimics the styles of Dreyer and Bergman? I don't buy it. From that very first shot with its heavy vertical composition, he’s dead serious from the jump.

@Henry Campbell5/">@@Henry Campbell5

Yeah, 'Mishima' is great—definitely breaks the mold.

Dennis Martin6 said:So, you think Schrader is being ironic when he directly mimics the styles of Dreyer and Bergman? I don't see it that way. From that very first shot with the heavy vertical composition, he seems completely earnest from the start.

Exactly. It's like comparing Bresson's priest in the diary to this. Toller's journey is almost a perversion of Christian principles; they aren't even remotely similar, yet both find salvation in the end. How does that work? To me, it feels like Schrader is dealing with existentialist thought, which carries a certain level of cynicism.

So, is this actually the point of the movie? 😁

electriccanyon26 said:Yeah, that's my point. Compared to Bresson's priest in Diary of a Country Priest, Toller's path is just a total distortion of Christian principles—they aren't even remotely similar, yet both end up saved. How does that work? It seems to me Schrader is messing with existentialist thought and he's pretty cynical about it.

Look, I haven't seen 'Diary of a Country Priest' and honestly don't care, but it bugs me when people try to lecture me on the "content" of Christian principles—as if that's some big, relevant debate—instead of just agreeing that those principles were warped from the jump. Schrader forces this whole discussion on us through his formalist framing—all that verticality, flatness, extreme close-ups, etc. That’s why I’m saying his approach is actually pretty serious.

I only brought up 'Love Exposure' to be provocative. I truly believe the only way to make Christian metaphysics feel relevant today is through an aesthetic of perversion. 😁

@Ashley Grant66/">@@Ashley Grant66

Did you take all of that as sarcasm and irony too?

Dennis Martin6 said:I haven't seen Diary of a Country Priest, nor am I particularly interested in it. However, it bothers me that people feel the need to debate "Christian principles" right now, as if that were even a productive conversation. It would be more logical to simply agree that those principles have been distorted from the very beginning. Schrader forces this entire discussion through his rigid formalism—the verticality, the flatness, those heavy close-ups—which is why I say his approach is truly serious.

It’s a serious perspective. I agree with the points made. By opting for an open ending, Schrader essentially forces the debate wide open. Then again, there is the other side to consider—the idea of a Travis Bickle figure who tries to carve out his own sense of purpose within a broken society.

I only brought up Love Exposure to stir the pot. I truly believe that the only way to make Christian metaphysics feel relevant today is through an aesthetic of perversion. 😁

I haven't seen that one yet, but maybe Schrader—not the Calvinist version mentioned in the opening post—might be worth checking out. Put together. It takes time. 😁

Ashley Grant66 said:All right then. This is it. What's the core message here? 😁

Let's assume that's the case. 😁

I don't think it's all just irony—the way he doesn't mock his priest and actually takes his struggle seriously is key. But I also don't see him as some wannabe preacher or a "provocateur" trying to shock people by turning his priest into an eco-terrorist overnight. I actually viewed Toller through the lens of Schrader's older characters—you know, those tortured souls facing an identity crisis who feel useless, so they start "baptizing lambs" and making things up, basically becoming defenders for someone else's radical beliefs. It’s a brilliant premise, but by the end, even Schrader seemed to be spinning his wheels, which left me feeling a bit lost.

The movie really reminded me of my favorite author, Flannery O'Connor. She was a hardcore Catholic, sure, but also totally out of her mind 😁, and her work is always so ambiguous. From my non-religious perspective, the endings of her novels and short stories can feel like a complete subversion of the idea that Christian salvation is this lofty, beautiful, blessed thing. With her, everything sits right on the edge between irony and a radical understanding of Christian doctrine that goes way beyond "small-town tradition." John Huston captured her tone perfectly in his adaptation of her novel Wise Blood, and McDonagh makes a direct nod to her in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

Ashley Grant66 said:The movie really reminded me of my favorite author, Flannery O'Connor. She was a hardcore Catholic, but also completely 😁 merciless. Her work is always so ambiguous; from my non-religious perspective, the endings of her novels and short stories feel like a complete subversion of those cheap, easy interpretations of Christian salvation being something purely sublime or blessed. With her, everything sits right on the edge between irony and a radical grasp of Christian doctrine that goes way beyond "small-town tradition." John Huston captured her tone perfectly in his adaptation of Wise Blood, and McDonagh makes direct nods to her in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.

I’ve been listening to her letters on NPR. Absolutely fascinating. It’s a shame about her illness, though I think it shaped her quite a bit, if I recall correctly...

Ashley Grant66 said:So, what's the deal then? ovo So, what's even the point of the movie? 😁

I honestly feel like the ending wasn't even shot to land a final takeaway, you know? Like, what was the point? It’s just left hanging there without any real punchline or lesson. Is love really all you need? Honestly, that sounds like some Hallmark card nonsense designed to sell overpriced chocolates and greeting cards to people who haven't had a real conversation in years. You think just feeling some fuzzy warmth in your chest is going to pay the rent or fix the absolute mess that is modern life? Please. If love was actually the magic bullet everyone claims it is, we wouldn't be living in such a chaotic disaster of a world, right? It’s a nice sentiment for a song or a bad rom-com, but in the real world? It’s definitely not enough.Or maybe the director left that sense of incompleteness and emptiness on purpose, you know? Like he's just waiting for us to fully self-destruct before he finally closes the loop. 🤣 So, basically, he just wanted to hold up a mirror to the world we’re living in right now—to show us exactly how things actually stand today. Is that too much to ask?

One of the absolute best lines in the whole movie has to be that moment when Esther asks him if he thinks what they did was a sin... and he just hits her with that line about how she can rest easy because he's seen enough sin in his life to know exactly where the line is. Honestly, the casting here is perfection; when Schrader delivers that line, there’s just this specific, heavy vibe to it that you just can't fake. 😈

Everyone seems to be losing their minds over how incredible this movie is, but honestly? It was just a depressing bore for me. I actually turned it off after 45 minutes because nothing happened besides some tedious dialogue.☕

Cool interview with Paul Schrader:

Paul Schrader : Quote : There ’ S an enormous sense of satisfaction i derive fra First Reformed, because it pulls together threads of what I’ve been thinking and doing for almost 50 years. The First serious writing i did on film was about spiritual Cinema, Transcendental style. That was in 1972. From that point on, I became a screenwriter and director, and I never thought that I would make that type of film. I like those films, but those films are not for me. I was much more interested in action, empathy, sexuality, violence, and these really aren’t in the transcendental tool kit. So I went on and left that world behind. i wrote was Taxi Driver (1976). Now, 45 years later, i have made a film that combines The thinking in that book with The narrative Drive of Taxi Driver. So I have my first philosophical book and my first screenplay combined in this current film. That has been very intimidating because it’s a little difficult to think of what to do next. Hopa that First Reformed is not my last film, but if it is, it’s a very good last film.
(...)
I looked at the models. You have the main character from Journal d’un curé de campagne (1951). Then you have The setting of Winter light (1963). Then i decided on The ending fra Ordet (1955). I added a levitation scene from Andrei Tarkovsky, and then i tied IT All together with The glue of Taxi Driver. look AT The model of Winter light: small empty church. A man going through the motions meets a young couple. Max von Sydow is in despair because of nuclear weapons. Well, shift that over. Take that young couple and ask yourself, “What is the current despair?” The current despair is environmental collapse. It’s more real in a way, because nuclear weapons are kind of theoretical. It may happen. Environmental collapse is not theoretical. It is happening and will happen. So that becomes the shift.
http://cinema-scope.com/cinema-scope...rch-of-cinema/

Also check out this solid essay by American critic Lucas Hedges on late-career Paul Schrader and the fate of his film Dying of the Light.