First Reformed
Paul Schrader · 2017
Paul Schrader’s First Reformed follows Reverend Ernst Toller, a pastor of a dwindling Dutch Reformed church in upstate New York, as he confronts alcoholism, grief over his son’s death in Iraq, and escalating despair over climate catastrophe. When a pregnant parishioner seeks counsel for her radical-environmentalist husband, Toller is drawn into a crisis of faith, vocation, and bodily integrity. Shot in strict 1.33:1 aspect ratio with austere compositions and near-silent sound design, the film unfolds with liturgical slowness, building toward a climax that rejects catharsis in favour of raw, unresolved human contact.
