First Reformed

Join us at the Underground Cinema by WVIFF for August's feature film: First Reformed

About the film:

Reverend Ernst Toller (Ethan Hawke) is a solitary, middle-aged parish pastor at a small Dutch Reform church in upstate New York on the cusp of celebrating its 250th anniversary. Once a stop on the Underground Railroad, the church is now a tourist attraction catering to a dwindling congregation, eclipsed by its nearby parent church, Abundant Life, with its state-of-the-art facilities and 5,000-strong flock. When a pregnant parishioner (Amanda Seyfried) asks Reverend Toller to counsel her husband, a radical environmentalist, the clergyman finds himself plunged into his own tormented past, and equally despairing future, until he finds redemption in an act of grandiose violence. From writer-director Paul Schrader (Taxi Driver; American Gigolo; Affliction) comes a gripping thriller about a crisis of faith that is at once personal, political, and planetary.

David Edelstein
Vulture

 

First Reformed asks us to take another look at what we think we know about politics, religion and other things we like to argue about and asks nothing more than our quiet attention. Full review

A. O. Scott
The NYTimes

 

This mesmerizing drama of a pastor's crisis of faith feels like the movie Paul Schrader was put on this planet to make. Full review

Ann Hornaday
Washington Post