First Reformed

First Reformed (2018) is about the pastor of a small church. Toller looks after a historic building with no congregation and starts keeping a journal. A pregnant woman asks for his help: her husband does not want the child because of climate collapse. Toller talks to the man, and it is Toller who changes afterwards. Paul Schrader wrote a book in 1972 called Transcendental Style in Film, a study of Ozu, Bresson and Dreyer. This is the first of his own films to match that description: a static camera, tight framing, unadorned light, and emotion withheld. Ethan Hawke plays Toller and Amanda Seyfried the woman. Schrader had written many screenplays across his career, including Taxi Driver and Raging Bull, and had never been nominated for an Oscar. This film brought him his first nomination, for Original Screenplay, at seventy one. It is framed at 1.37:1, close to square, which writes the character's confinement directly into the image. It runs 113 minutes. Good for: crises of faith, formal austerity, and Ethan Hawke. Less good for: the pace is very slow and the film moves through long silences. The ending breaks from realism and stays unexplained for many viewers. The self harm scenes are hard.