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First Reformed
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.
PRESS
"‘First Reformed,' a mesmerizingly austere drama of one man’s apocalyptic crisis of faith, feels like the movie Paul Schrader was put on this planet to make" - Washington Post
"There hasn't been an American film this compellingly acted in years." - Minneapolis Star Tribune
"Schrader flashes a different sort of slyness in dropping narrative hints, operating conspicuously but in the service of a galvanizing climax that’s simply too out-there to anticipate. Your likely reaction: 'Crazy.' Ours: 'Amen.'" - Boston Globe
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