A pastor of a small church in upstate New York starts to spiral out of control after a soul-shaking encounter with an unstable environmental activist and his pregnant wife.
I don't believe I've ever seen a film shot so deliberately. Almost every single angle is framed with precision and intent. Like a Wes Anderson film sapped of any and all whimsy. Many shots linger in a style not often found outside of horror films, in the scenes they intend to deliver the audience a scare that its characters do not see.
Final rating: - I liked it. Would personally recommend you give it a go.
Brilliantly shot, excellently written
Alissa Wilkinson: Do you think of First Reformed as an apocalyptic film?
Paul Schrader: It depends on what you call "the apocalypse". I think we are seeing the last century of homo sapiens. I don't see a scenario in which homo sapiens emerge from this century in our present form. Now, that's not the end of the world. That's just the end of a species, which evolution has taken to its dead end. All of its intelligence is not enabling it to survive. So, there will be some modification in the world. We may be on the cusp of a new evolutionary step. But if you're optimistic about the world as it now is, you're just simply not paying attention.
[...]
_When you ...
