Drama about a chaplain who tries to help a young couple who are expecting their first child.
You might have to remind yourself to breathe when First Reformed cuts to black after a climactic 20 minutes that grips like a vice, but when you have recovered your senses, your first thought will probably be the realisation that you’ve just experienced a masterpiece.
Paul Schrader’s best for 20 years. A stunning study of one man’s flaws and an apocalyptic vision of mankind’s fate.
Is it too early to call this Schrader’s masterpiece?
Schrader’s best in yonks, a powerful meditation on faith’s place in the modern world. Hawke, as a kind of Travis Bickle in a dog collar, gives one of the performances of the year.
First Reformed is a passionately focused film but not a masterpiece, being flawed as it is by a certain inability to decide on an ending.
Ethan Hawke is masterful as a priest having a crisis of faith.
It’s a rare example of a film that serves up provocative ideas and also gives us the space to contemplate them.
Ethan Hawke on First Reformed
General release. Check local listings for show times.
RSS feed of Cinema reviews