Amplified by a career performance in Ethan Hawke, it’s a fascinating film about a man who struggles to maintain his faith as he sees the world around him crumble to pieces.

| Aug 7, 2024

Deep, thought-provoking and resolute, First Reformed grapples interestingly with the questions of faith and morality, and, by the end, becomes both a subdued and quiet meditation on life and internal despair, and an explosively powerful statement on hope.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 30, 2024

First Reformed is the distillation of the scream inside us all—or at least those of us paying attention.

| Original Score: 10/10 | Jun 24, 2024

Schrader was making a battle cry, with a sermon of a script, and he picked the perfect vessel to deliver that sermon in Ethan Hawke, who gives the best performance of his career and of the year.

| Apr 3, 2024

The power of First Reformed is rooted in Schrader's ability to take a number of clear forbearers — Bresson, Dreyer, Pialat — and twist them into a style that feels wholly unique and rooted in a personal set of values and obsessions.

| Dec 14, 2023

...a purposeful tackiness that somehow befits the issue of the earth’s disintegration...

| Dec 6, 2023

The overall arc of the film shows how despair can drive a person to embrace radical extremism.

| Jul 20, 2023

A wild ride, full of bluntly didactic and absolutely justifiable climate change panic...

| Jan 11, 2023

[Ethan] Hawke’s controlled performance keeps Toller’s turmoil under an almost expressionless mask and physical stillness, locking his loss away and suppressing a growing crisis of faith.

| Dec 17, 2022

First Reformed is a journal that behaves like a cosmic manifest and grows into some sort of environmentalist declaration without the need for a slogan or sign. [Full review in Spanish]

| Aug 4, 2022

Schrader offers a text through which the viewer can explore their own beliefs about politics and religion, how they have abandoned the environment, and ask their own questions about the world today.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Mar 11, 2022

The escalating tension is phenomenal, guiding heavy lessons and postures, all led by quite possibly the best performance to date from Ethan Hawke.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Oct 20, 2021

The Taxi Driver and Raging Bull scribe isn't just here to settle scores. Instead, his view of faith - and what exactly faith calls for - qualifies as rigorous religious cinema, not just as a critique of the institution.

| Sep 9, 2021

Swept me like high tide, in the end, much as a windfall of good luck can disorient us when we are deep in mourning. This painful, beautiful, essential meditation on isolation.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 29, 2021

With challenging, rather than entertaining topics, the movie stands out...

| Jul 22, 2021

There are no easy answers or conclusions in First Reformed, but it's the acknowledgment of the struggle and the beauty that can still be found amongst a spreading taint that makes the film resonant.

| Apr 16, 2021

Uncluttered and edited with laser like attention to detail, this is a thought-provoking movie that bears repeated viewing.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 28, 2021

Ethan Hawke, with his craggy forehead, finally aging appropriately, gives the best performance of his career as a conflicted, religious man in the time of uncertainty. The ending goes haywire in the most beautiful way and I really loved it.

| Feb 13, 2021

I've rarely seen it presented with as much brilliant, questioning depth as in Paul Schrader's First Reformed.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Feb 3, 2021

First Reformed's three outstanding central performances (Hawke, Seyfried, Kyles) are complimented by three incisive and crucial supporting turns...

| Dec 10, 2020