Paul Schrader has been working towards a comeback for a while, now. In 2013, he released The Canyons, a crowd-funded micro-budget experiment written by Bret Easton Ellis that had a more fascinating- and highly troubled- production backstory than it did a screen story. In 2014, there was Dying of the Light, his Nicolas Cage-starring thriller that was taken from him in post-production by the producers and released as a bland, soul-less film that all the primaries involved disowned. Then came 2016’s Dog Eat Dog (again starring Cage alongside frequent Schrader collaborator Willem Dafoe), a down-and-dirty crime movie that was full of gusto and featured a (somewhat forced) youthful style, but ultimately had little meat to it.
It’s tough times for any filmmaker determined to make uncompromising and hard-hitting works for adults. Paul Schrader is no exception. The veteran screenwriter behind Scorsese’s Taxi Driver and Raging Bull and the seasoned writer/director behind such forceful dramas as Blue Collar, Hardcore, American Gigolo, Light Sleeper, Affliction, and Auto Focus has had to beg, raise his own money, compromise, be held captive by the whims of Lindsay Lohan, and battle clueless producers like he was any other rising filmmaker without a track record on the independent scene.
The last five years of struggle apparently paved the way for First Reformed, which goes beyond being Schrader’s comeback, as it’s the best film of his four-decade directorial run. It’s the kind of film that takes a lifetime to build up to, and exactly the film Schrader should be making at this point in his career. It utilizes the experience and discipline he’s acquired over the years while still, most shockingly of all, retaining the hope and outlook of a young man making his first film.
Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a heavy-drinking, self-hating pastor at the First Reformed Church- the kind of character only Paul Schrader could create. He has cut himself off from the hope of human connection after a failed marriage that resulted from the death of his son. He is likely suffering from stomach cancer, the symptoms to which he refuses to have treated. He’s simply waiting for his life to end when a young, pregnant woman named Mary (Amanda Seyfried) asks for his assistance with her husband, Michael (Philip Ettinger).
Michael is obsessed with the irreversible damage climate change will bring to the world within his lifetime, and is unable to come to grips with bringing a new life into such hopelessness. Ernst, already lost in his own despair, attempts to comfort the young man, but instead falls victim to dwelling upon the same issues.
From there, the film provides one blunt shock after another, taking us to the places that such mental anguish can only lead. There’s a point or two after the film’s midsection where it’s easy to doubt its stamina, as it threatens to reach the state of banal depression its characters seem to be designed to wallow in. In a completely nuanced fashion, however, the film comes together as a whole only in its final moments, leading us to the most satisfying and fulfilling resolution Schrader has ever created.
First Reformed is a thoughtful and subtle masterwork. The grand theme of ecological disaster and the intimacy of the character relationships work concurrently. It’s a twenty-first century movie about the ecological crisis as much as it is a simple character study about disconnection.
It’s never overt, politically speaking, because the big ideas being communicated function within the narrative on a human, character-driven level. Ernst’s carelessness with his body is symbolic of mankind’s carelessness with the planet, but it’s never obnoxiously highlighted to the point that it trivializes the character’s struggle as an individual.
The performances are equally flawless. Seyfried has never been better, lending a quiet, almost invisible grace to her portrayal of an innocent caught amongst the chaos within those she holds dear.
Hawke delivers his best work to date, owning every flawed bit of humanity within Ernst as his own. Hawke is wholly committed, giving one of the most rusted and jagged portrayals of emotional pain ever captured on film. It’s a transcendent performance within a transcendent film, one that should be ranked with the likes of De Niro and Day-Lewis, and will likely be remembered in years to come.
The maturity and assurance that grace First Reformed through Schrader’s writing and direction is its true and outstanding virtue. His direction is strategically restrained, and his writing is the most effortless and organic it has ever been. Every decision made for the film simply feels correct, like it all fell into place with a once-in-a-lifetime result.
While there is no such thing as a perfect film, First Reformed, for what it is intended to be, is about as close to perfection as one can get.
GRADE: A
