| First Reformed | |
|---|---|
 Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Paul Schrader |
| Written by | Paul Schrader |
| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Alexander Dynan |
| Edited by | Benjamin Rodriguez Jr. |
| Music by | Lustmord |
Production companies |
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| Distributed by |
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Release dates |
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Running time | 114 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $3.5 million[2] |
| Box office | $4 million[3] |
First Reformed is a 2017 Americanpsychological thriller film written and directed byPaul Schrader. It starsEthan Hawke as a minister of a smallcongregation inupstate New York who grapples with mounting despair brought on by tragedy, worldly concerns, and a tormented past.Amanda Seyfried,Cedric Kyles,Victoria Hill, andPhilip Ettinger appear in supporting roles.
The film had its world premiere at the74th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2017, and was theatrically released in the United States on May 18, 2018, byA24. It grossed $4 million worldwide and received positive reviews from critics, who mostly praised Hawke's performance and Schrader's direction and writing. Both theNational Board of Review and theAmerican Film Institute selectedFirst Reformed as one of the top ten films of 2018, and Schrader was nominated forBest Original Screenplay at the91st Academy Awards for his work on the film. At the24th Critics' Choice Awards, Hawke was nominated forBest Actor and Schrader wonBest Original Screenplay, and, at the34th Independent Spirit Awards, the film garnered nominations forBest Feature,Best Director, andBest Screenplay, while Hawke wonBest Male Lead.
As an experiment, Reverend Ernst Toller has decided to write down his daily activities and unfiltered thoughts in a journal for one year, planning to destroy the resulting record when he is done. His church, First Reformed of Snowbridge,Albany County, New York, is an oldDutch Reformed church that was once a stop on theUnderground Railroad, but now it is mostly a tourist attraction. The congregation is tiny, and it was bought some years ago by Pastor Joel Jeffers' Abundant Life church, anevangelicalmegachurch inAlbany, which pays the bills.
After the service one Sunday, Toller is approached by Mary Mensana, a pregnant parishioner who is seeking counseling for Michael, herradical-environmentalist husband. Toller visits Michael at his home, and the two have a spirited discussion. Michael relates how he wants Mary to get an abortion because he does not want to bring a child into a world that will soon be rendered almost uninhabitable byclimate change. Toller counters by telling Michael how, before he came to First Reformed, he was amilitary chaplain, but left the service after his son, Joseph, whom he encouraged to enlist in the military, died in theIraq War and his wife left him. Not wanting Michael to feel responsible for taking a child from the world, as he does, Toller offers to help the young man search for the courage to overcome his despair, and they arrange to meet again.
Mary finds an under-construction explosivesuicide vest in her garage and alerts Toller. He comes over and takes it away, saying he will discuss it with Michael at their meeting, and agrees not to tell the police, as he feels that would only worsen Michael's state.
Michael sends a text message asking Toller to meet him in a local park. Toller arrives to find Michael dead of a self-inflicted shotgun wound. In accordance with Michael'swill, a service is held at a local toxic-waste dump, where his ashes are scattered while an environmental protest song is sung.
Meanwhile, plans are underway to celebrate the 250th anniversary of First Reformed with a reconsecration service that will be attended by the mayor and governor. Edward Balq, one of Abundant Life's key financial backers and the CEO of BALQ Industries, has taken on the ceremony as his personal project. During a meeting with Toller and Jeffers in a diner, Balq takes issue with Michael's memorial service, which he says was a political statement that involved Abundant Life via Toller's participation. They end up arguing over climate change, Balq dismissing it as "complicated" and Toller saying it is a straightforward matter of Christianstewardship, and Balq ends the discussion by shaming Toller for his failure to help Michael.
Reluctantly, to diagnose the cause of his worsening physical pain, which may be caused by and/or the cause of hisalcoholism, Toller finally sees a doctor, who suspects stomach cancer and schedules some tests. The doctor prescribes a nutrition drink which Tollers mixes with his alcohol; The concoction reminds him of the toxic wetlands created by BALQ industries.
Pastor Jeffers expresses worry about Toller's health and drinking issues. He also cites that Toller is spending too much time outside, on the church's cemetery grounds instead of with visitors of the church and building maintenance. Toller, cleaning up the grounds, finds a dead squirrel wrapped in barbed wire which only adds to his ecological concerns and depression.
Toller begins to go through Michael's laptop computer, which he took after Michael's suicide to prevent the police from discovering anything on it that might make trouble for Mary, and finds information about the large environmental impact of Balq's company. Isolated and facing his mortality, Toller gradually becomes radicalized and ressearchs and completes Michael's suicide vest, which he did not destroy like he told Mary he would.
One night, a panicked Mary visits Toller in theparsonage of the church, and he offers to play Michael's role in a nonsexual rite of physical intimacy that she mentions the couple used to perform when she would get anxious. The experience leads Toller to have visions that shifts from views of natural beauty to images of ecological devastation.
Toller firmly tells Mary not to attend the reconsecration, and she agrees. Just before the ceremony, he puts on the suicide vest and arms it, but then he sees Mary entering the church. Frantically screaming, he removes the vest and deactivates it. He then wraps himself in the saved barbed wire he previously found in the church's cemetery, and dons hisalb. Appearing as if he will have one last drink of scotch before he attends the ceremony, He abruptly pours it out and fills a glass with thedrain cleaner he uses to unplug the toilets and is about to drink it, when Mary interrupts him. They kiss passionately before an abrupt cut to black.
The restrained style ofFirst Reformed recalls the films ofYasujiro Ozu,Robert Bresson, andCarl Theodor Dreyer that Schrader wrote about in his 1972 bookTranscendental Style in Film.[4] Elements of the script allude to Bresson'sDiary of a Country Priest (1951),Ingmar Bergman'sWinter Light (1963), and the work of Dreyer,[5] as well as Schrader's own script forTaxi Driver (1976).[6] Schrader said thatPaweł Pawlikowski's filmIda (2013) inspired him to shoot in a 1.33:1aspect ratio, saying it "drives the vertical lines, so you get more of the human body in the frame."[4] Before approaching Seyfried, Schrader discussed castingMichelle Williams in the role of Mary.[7]
Principal photography lasted 20 days, with a budget of $3.5 million.[2][8][9][10] The film was shot aroundBrooklyn andQueens, New York, including the building and grounds of theZion Episcopal Church inDouglaston.[11]
First Reformed premiered in the main competition section of the74th Venice International Film Festival on August 31, 2017.[12][13] It was also screened at the44th Telluride Film Festival on September 2, and at the42nd Toronto International Film Festival on September 12.[14][15]
In September 2017,A24 acquired the film's North American distribution rights.[16][17][18] It was given alimited theatrical release in the United States on May 18, 2018,[19] and was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on July 13, 2018.[20] The screenplay was published byArchway Editions on January 31, 2023, with an introduction byMasha Tupitsyn.[21]
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Its opening weekend, the film made $100,270 from four theaters, averaging $25,067 per screen—one of the best per-screen averages of Schrader's career.[22][23] By the end of its theatrical run, it had grossed $3,448,256 in the United States and Canada and $540,356 in other territories, for a worldwide total of $3,988,612.[3][24]
On thereview aggregator websiteRotten Tomatoes, 94% of 254 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The website's consensus reads: "Brought to life by delicate work from writer-director Paul Schrader and elevated by a standout performance by Ethan Hawke,First Reformed takes a sensitive and suspenseful look at weighty themes."[25]Metacritic, which uses aweighted average, assigned the film a score of 86 out of 100, based on 48 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[26]
A. O. Scott ofThe New York Times wrote: "First Reformed wrestles with contemporary reality, but it isn't a work of realism in the way that term is conventionally understood. The dialogue is delivered with formal, almost stiff cadences, and the images are crisp, graceful and plain."[27]Justin Chang of theLos Angeles Times described the film as "a cinephile's delight and a believer's conundrum, an austere Americanart film with a bracingB-movie soul, and a story in which the cruelest of cosmic punchlines may finally be no different from the most beautiful accession of grace."[28]David Sims ofThe Atlantic called the film "a tale ofexistential woe [...] an embittered look at our world through the eyes of someone who’s increasingly horrified to be a part of it, and a film that’s one of the most searing cinema experiences of the year."[29]Peter Bradshaw ofThe Guardian said that "the sheerBunyanesque severity of this film is as refreshing as a glass of ice-cold water", and called it "a passionately focused film but not a masterpiece", noting that the name of the lead character is an allusion to the German playwrightErnst Toller.[30]Michael Phillips ofThe Chicago Tribune stated that "for such a deliberate exercise in a specific, methodical style,First Reformed is oddly bracing, full of unresolved, contradictory, vital ideas."[31]
In July 2025, it was one of the films voted for the "Readers' Choice" edition ofThe New York Times' list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century," finishing at number 122.[32] That same month, it ranked number 39 onRolling Stone's list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century."[33]
The film received nominations at the34th Independent Spirit Awards forBest Film,Best Director, andBest Screenplay, and Hawke won the award forBest Male Lead.[34][35] At the24th Critics' Choice Awards, the film was nominated forBest Actor andBest Original Screenplay, winning the latter.[36] Schrader and Hawke were awardedBest Screenplay andBest Actor, respectively, at the28th Gotham Independent Film Awards.[37] Both theNational Board of Review andAmerican Film Institute listedFirst Reformed as one of the Top 10 Films of 2018, and the National Board of Review also gave Schrader their award forBest Original Screenplay.[38][39] Schrader's screenplay was also nominated forBest Original Screenplay at the91st Academy Awards,[40] marking the first Oscar nomination of his long filmmaking career.[41]
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