First Reformed
(USA, 113 min.)
Written and directed by Paul Schrader
Starring: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Philip Ettinger,
Cedric Kyles, Victoria Hill
Preach, Paul Schrader, preach! Schrader returns with his
best film yet as a director. First
Reformed is a dark, brooding, and suspenseful masterwork of tone,
character, and real world urgency. After the disaster of The Canyons, which I actually sorta liked despite its flaws and
awful lead performance by James Deen, Schrader seemed relegated to B-level
obscurity. He’s back, stronger than ever, and ready to make those who doubted
him say a few rosaries.
This young man has the devil in him, a rotten kind of
hopelessness that can’t fathom bringing a child into a world tainted by
pollution and corruption. Toller struggles to reconcile the redundancy of his
own existence in light of Michael’s dire forecast. Working as the priest of a
sparsely attended colonial church that’s more of a tourist destination than a
parish, guidance isn’t really Toller’s forte, even when it comes to tours. Michael’s
troubles lead the reverend to question the hope for God’s world that he instills
in his congregation week by week. Upcoming preparations for the church’s
milestone birthday underscore the futility of it all as he meets with fellow
priests and attends rehearsals of off-key youth choirs that are hardly worth
salvation.
Schrader paces Reverend Toller’s descent with
measured mercilessness. The film adopts a rhythm of malaise as Toller’s chores
become an empty ritual of praying, drinking, and pissing. There’s something
rotten in him as well, as evidence by the blood in his toilet bowl, but it’s really
his soul that is infected with something dark and cancerous. His sermons are nothing but empty, misleading gestures.
He himself doesn’t believe that the man upstairs can pull through for humanity.
Hawke gives a performance of excellent self-discipline as
the troubled Toller. The actor has been on a hot streak lately offering some of
his best work with Born to Be Blue
and Maudie, and First Reformed ranks among the finest performances of Hawke’s
career as he plays a man of faith shackled by his reluctance to save himself.
Toller might be an unrepentant, cruel, and troubled asshole, but one can see a
good and sincere man struggling to stay alight within the priest’s failing
soul. Lubricating his demons with cocktails of whiskey and Pepto-Bismol, Toller
descends into a downward spiral that only few filmmakers like Schrader can
execute. One is enrapt by the violence and darkness of First Reformed’s final act, but one cannot at one moment abandon
hope for Toller.
Toller’s crisis in faith plays out in claustrophobic Academy
ratio as the priest feels suffocated by the realization that he is
leading sheep to slaughter. False hope is wicked when the world is beyond repair.
Schrader’s aesthetic is one of taut and pensive control. He fills First Reformed with an atmosphere of
brooding dread and hopelessness, which can be no easy task while shooting in stirring and seemingly innocent churches that have
withstood centuries of doubt. The dramatic lighting often bathes the action in compositions with crisp tones to give First Reformed a
pure, down to earth feel, but Schrader disrupts the natural order of Toller’s world
during the hard-drinking priest’s nocturnal episodes of doubt. The light
catches Hawke’s beady eyes to reflect eerily off his pupils from the shadows.
It’s like watching flickers of the devil’s black magic at work. First Reformed might not invite one to
believe in God, but one leaves assured this world is Satan’s business.
It’s crazy to think that none of Schrader’s screenplays—Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Affliction—have
been nominated for Academy Awards despite their fearlessness and ongoing
influence on the filmmakers of today. It’s barely halfway through the year, but
if there’s any justice, people will be talking about First Reformed come December. It’s a return to form for one of the
mavericks of American cinema. Can I get an "Amen"?
First Reformed opens in select cities from ABMO Films beginning June 1. It screens
in Toronto at the Varsity and in Ottawa at The ByTowne on June 29.
