First Reformed (15)

Paul Schrader has been off his game since his doomed prequel to The

Exorcist, but the rightly revered screenwriter-turned-director is back to his best with First Reform , an austere, brilliantly acted film about despair and possible redemption that echoes the lonely-man-in-a-toxic-world theme explored in the likes of Taxi Driver and Hardcore . An emotionally ravaged Ethan Hawke takes the lead as Pastor Toller, a bereaved divorcee drawn into the world of eco-activism by a pregnant woman (Amanda Seyfried) whose husband fears for the future of their impending child. To say much more risks ruining the meticulously constructed story that follows, but as Toller’s long-brewing spiritual crisis is set on a collision course with the corporate corruption of his church, Schrader’s brilliance emerges in his formalistic rigour – denying us the salacious cinematic pleasures he’s embraced in the past without skimping on the hypnotic quality found in those scuzzy avenging angel movies with which he made his name.