First Reformed

A24 | Release Date: May 18, 2018

7.4	USER SCORE Generally favorable reviews based on 233 Ratings

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User Reviews

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tropicAcesJun 9, 2018

I really enjoyed parts of it, and Hawke is subtly great. But the film is so randomly on-the-nose with its call for climate change advocacy (literally stopping the movie twice just to rattle off stats) that it kills momentum. And the endingI really enjoyed parts of it, and Hawke is subtly great. But the film is so randomly on-the-nose with its call for climate change advocacy (literally stopping the movie twice just to rattle off stats) that it kills momentum. And the ending was too abstract for me. Maybe this just wasn’t my kind of film, I don’t know...… Expand

3 of 5 users found this helpful32

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TVJerryJun 14, 2018

This film seems to be a real critics' darling for its intellectual arguments and Ethan Hawke's intense performance, but I didn't enjoy it (call me a superficial hack). First, it's paced with many pauses, long scenes of somber dialogue andThis film seems to be a real critics' darling for its intellectual arguments and Ethan Hawke's intense performance, but I didn't enjoy it (call me a superficial hack). First, it's paced with many pauses, long scenes of somber dialogue and mostly static camera. Second, the blending of religion and environmental discussion left me flat. Hawke is in almost every scene as the pastor of a small Dutch Reform church. He starts out writing a journal and spends much of the film's narrative reading from it. The inevitable climax was telegraphed pretty early on, but watching its development was only mildly interesting. This is hailed as a return to form for writer/director Paul Schrader and it does take an unusual premise and develop it with intelligence. I just found it tedious and pretentious (and the ending full of flaws in logic).… Expand

1 of 6 users found this helpful15

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92rossSep 9, 2018

Ethan Hawke is really good but it just never really got going for me. I expected something more. Something. Anything.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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The4thBillboardJun 23, 2018

I am giving the a score of 5 and based on the comments I heard from other people leaving the theater most of them would have rated it lower. The only thing I can think is that people who liked its message about the environment felt obligatedI am giving the a score of 5 and based on the comments I heard from other people leaving the theater most of them would have rated it lower. The only thing I can think is that people who liked its message about the environment felt obligated to give it high scores. It did have its good points but not enough.… Expand

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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KenRApr 25, 2019

This was another movie I knew nothing about before watching, had I known it was a Paul Schrader story I may have even given it a miss. Schrader’s direction is slow but stylish or maybe he left a lot of the creative, visual decisions, to hisThis was another movie I knew nothing about before watching, had I known it was a Paul Schrader story I may have even given it a miss. Schrader’s direction is slow but stylish or maybe he left a lot of the creative, visual decisions, to his director of photography: Alexander Dynan (Dog Eat Dog). But, good looking images and performances do not atone for a clumsily developed script. The first half seemed as if it could be moving into interesting territory - before it trailed off into the now predictable ground that’s getting high ‘praise’ of late. Those who regard themselves as better than the majority of movie viewers might think this is rather arty, and see themselves among the few smart enough to ‘interpret’ what is really going on. To these I say, it’s very easy to read into any story what you want to see.

Overall, this comes across as little more than ‘topical’ propaganda with a heavy-handed climate change cliché being substituted for any real character study or true depth. Take the character representing the energy companies executive - as expected; he’s portrayed as the typical insensitive, aggressive bully - buying votes and support from everyone including the church officials that our local pastor (Ethan Hawk) works for. Hawk is very good in his role but his character's actions become quickly unhinged and downright foolish - right up to the somewhat laughable ending (some viewers asked, “What happened, did the film break”? This somewhat uninspired work uses scripture based interpretations to manipulate the un-informed, and hook the lazy viewer towards its skewed viewpoints. Could it be that Mr Schrader may need to consider an overdue retirement? – his current writings seem all about recycling character elements of his earlier stories – this one is simply ‘Taxi Driver’ in a church setting, and somewhat poorly transposed at that.

The Academy and the likes of the Scorsese’s of this ‘darkness obsessed’ movie world - may see greatness in these often shambolic works but from the looks of the ticket-buying public, they, are not buying these ideas – so, according to box office returns many of these movies are actually more likely to end up lingering on the shelves. After jotting out these remarks, I curiously checked for other viewer reviews and found some of interest on IMDb, I could agree with many including the following: Sandman, PotassiumMan, and Davegipson, etc, on the first and second pages of viewer reviews ... those, and many more are all worth a read to learn more.

One of the better bits, the marvellous singing voice of Julie Murney performing the old Hoffman/Showalter: ‘Leaning On The Everlasting Arms’ – though, it’s almost wasted here. On the technical side, why would any modern moviemaker want to go backwards? We progressed to the marvellous Wide Screen visual ratio of 16: 9 over a decade ago but Schrader chose to make this movie in 4: 3 (the old standard screen) For this films content, that decision comes across as being as foolish as elements of the story, disappointing indeed (I note some others have said they half expected to see Al Gore’s name on the producer's credits, I understand what they mean!)… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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DogeGamer2015Feb 28, 2021

Se nos muestra la vida de un reverendo; la trama tiene un ritmo lento, pero esto se compensa con buenas actuaciones y escenas bastante memorables.

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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