First Reformed (2017)

Jack and I appreciated this disturbing, powerful story of a pastor whose historic church has been subsumed by a multinational corporation. Star Ethan Hawke (last blogged for Juliet, Naked) is among the filmmakers lauded for this, and he is joined by Amanda Seyfried (most recently in these pages for The Last Word, she was pregnant in real life during shooting and her character is pregnant as well) as Mary and Cedric the Entertainer (last blogged for Top Five), billed under his real name Cedric Antonio Kyles, as Jeffers.

Director/writer Paul Schrader has a long career with many seminal projects. Among those I've seen are, as writer Taxi Driver (1976), as co-writer Blue Collar (1978), as co-writer Old Boyfriends (1979), as director/co-writer American Gigolo (1980), as co-writer Raging Bull (1980), as director/co-writer Cat People  (1982), as co-writer Mosquito Coast (1986, as director Patty Hearst (1988),  as co-writer The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), and as director Auto Focus (2002). Viewers familiar with Schrader's work will certainly see references to his other pictures in Pastor Toller's crisis.

This movie came to my attention for its nominations and wins so far (here's my running list) for Hawke, Schrader, and cinematographer Alexander Dynan (new to me, but he shot Schrader's Dog Eat Dog (2016)) for the magnificent photography.

There's not a lot of soundtrack, credited to Brian Williams AKA Lustmord (also new to me). Two tracks are available on his website. A few lovely church vocals are featured, with singer Julia Murney (debuted the song Defying Gravity from Wicked at the composer's request) dubbing in the voice of Esther, played by Victoria Hill (again, new to me).

This movie is a bit long, and slow to get going, but worth it in the end. Rotten Tomatoes' critics love this, averaging 93%, but I'm guessing that its audiences' average of 68 reflects the slow pace. I think we paid iTunes to watch this ten days ago but it's now available with an Amazon Prime subscription.