Review of First Reformed (2018) by Legitsalt — 02 May 2019

First Reformed is thematically the best movie of the decade as it deals with concepts such as suicide, terrorism, extremism, climate change, capitalism, corporatism, and Christianity. The ground that First Reformed can cover during its runtime is quite remarkable.

Paul Schrader is very hit or miss with his work. He has written masterpieces like Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and The Last Temptation of Christ but he has also made subpar mush like Dog Eat Dog and Dying of the Light.

Thankfully, First Reformed is an instance wherein he has struck a vein of gold. It is hard to look back upon First Reformed without simultaneously desiring to revisit it and shuddering at the thought of such implications.

Although First Reformed is tame when it comes to showing violence, opting for a Greek Tragedy approach (most of the time), what it presents is so plausibly real that one can’t help but feel secondhand guilt.

First Reformed is about the side effects of late-stage capitalism, i.e. disillusionment, distrust spiraling into extremism, and global warming. Ethan Hawke gives his best performance as Reverend Toller, and while characters like Mary and Michael help develop him, his pains are so solitary that the film requires Toller to take up so much of its presence.

This was the only movie that I found myself returning to in theatres simply because there is so much to take out of it and to read into it. I have my theories about what various characters and scenes represent concerning the world and the film’s world, but I won’t belabor them here so that instead you can make your interpretations.

Overall, First Reformed illustrates how corporally visceral a small piece can be.